IMIA held it’s 2nd annual DC Meetup at Esri R&D Center in Arlington, Virginia on Thursday, January 31st. The full-day event included 12 topical presentations by industry leaders and provided attendees an opportunity to network with association members. The morning keynote was given by Andrew Turner, Director and CTO of Esri R&D Center. His presentation “Open Data and Hub: Activating Community Initiatives and Engagement with Data” followed early efforts at processing “big data” through modern day examples of Esri’s advances on a Living Atlas which seeks to give data a purpose through real-time community data analysis. The afternoon keynote presentation by Lisa Johnson, PAD-US Coordinator from Boise State University, provided a look at the USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States v2.0. This initiative combines the geographic databases of eight federal agencies, the national conservation easement database, and data from non-profits such as Ducks Unlimited. Their goal of 100% data intake by 2020 will include urban parks for over 14,000 cities, providing a comprehensive and vetted data resource for many purposes including conservation and commercial map development. Additional tracks and presentations during the day included: Government • BLM Data Quality & the Enterprise (eGIS) System by Marshall Worthey of […]