This is a presentation that a colleague of mine gave out at GIS in the Rockies earlier this year. I repurposed it for a GeoDC Events last night. Enjoy and please let me know if you have any questions.

1. GIS for the ‘have-nots’: A case study in a small Colorado ‘Mayberry’

2. GIS for small municipalities: A big problem 138 “Mayberrys” in the state of Colorado with populations of 1500 or less Characteristics of these towns: “One Bullet” GIS: too costly to start much less maintain: ESRI small government EULA most likely out of reach for these towns High cost of data collection and maintenance Staffing and O&M Cost of data/data collection “If we have one bullet…we spend it on public works”

3. The impacts Emergency response Public Works City Administration Reliance on hard copy data (parcels, lots, etc…) This stuff changes or worse -disappears! Hard to update No basis from which to plan and share information for disaster/event response The Hayman Fire: A view from Mayberry Significant Snow Events Mayberry has the same GIS needs as Denver – but right sized

4. Requirements So what would a GIS for Mayberry look like? Low/No O&M burden on the town Requires no staffing Minimal training curve Low/No Cost for data Provides ability to share information And…provides a core GIS capability to town staff for day to day business If I just had access to a good web based GIS, with no training or O&M – I could fish more… A simple, straight forward architecture that I can get to on a browser

5. Mayberry: Green Mountain Falls, CO Located West of Colorado Springs on Hwy 24 Surrounded by Pike National Forest Population 966 Government One full time Clerk One full time Public Works Coordinator 2.6 Police (Marshall) Volunteer Fire Dept IT infrastructure 4 PCs with cable internet Standard office install with IE Expertise…you guess. Trivia: Most Bigfoot sightings in Colorado have occurred within 5 mi of GMF

6. GIS for Green Mountain Falls: The Approach We identified the problem Mayberry needs a GIS We opted for a web-centric solution and common tools Common tools minimize the training curve We enlisted help (lots of help) We hosted it externally Removes local O&M and staffing needs Provides for failover External Host

7. Help! Boy Scouts of America Trail network mapping El Paso/Teller 911 Road Center Line and Address data Trimble Navigation GPS training and equipment GeoCommons The GeoIQ platform that provides a fully virtual means of storing spatial data, creating and serving maps and providing means to customize analysis, access and dissemination of spatial data Zekiah Technologies Software Development collaboration between FortiusOne and Zekiah

8. The approach Beg, borrow, (I would not Steal) data Make use of data from town plan E/T 911 CDOW CDOT GeoCommons SW ReGAP Collect Upload to GeoCommmons Apply appropriate role based access rules Build maps based on user rules Customize interface for GMF Share

9. Architecture

10. What we wound up with…(demo)

11. It worked for Green Mountain Falls but… The Mayberrys of the nation are underserved in the GIS market How to make it work for your Mayberry in the meantime: Keep it simple -use a web approach Build your coalition Academia, Business, Individuals NGOs Be willing to borrow, be willing to share data and technology Maximize use of free data Maximize relationships with NGOs and other not for profits to obtain and collect data Partnerships Scouts Trail Coalitions Academia Open street map and other mapping parties Not every town has an aggressive trustee