1: Awareness and Understanding

Increase the awareness and understanding of the vision, concepts, and benefits of the NSDI through outreach and education.

Other Information:

The benefits of identifying and coordinating development of geographic data to address community problems may not be obvious to all. Most geographic information systems are built for a critical operational need by a school district to route buses, by a fast food chain to locate new stores, by a scientist to model a watershed. In many cases these application-specific needs limit the potential for data-sharing by enforcing particular ways of representing phenomena. Data sharing involves activities that may initially be seen as extra work, for example documenting data sets with metadata, or canvassing other organizations for data. Enhanced participation in the NSDI will result from clearly communicating rationales for data sharing in languages appropriate to differing communities. The goal recognizes that understanding can be a lifelong process and seeks to foster the spread of NSDI concepts through communication and education. This goal encourages all communities who work with geographic data to communicate widely with others and to actively seek opportunities to work in concert.

Objective(s):

1.1: Participation

1.2: Principles and Practices

1.3: Attitudes and Actions

Content