January 31, 1999
 
Athens County Commissioners
15 South Court Street, 2nd Floor
Athens, Ohio 45701
 
                                   RE: Monthly GIS Progress Report
Commissioners:
 
Geo One will complete our Trimble Township parcel conversion pilot project
early next month.  I will provide the data to ILGARD for a quality control
check, addition of further text attributes, and incorporation of the data
as part of our Countywide parcel data conversion project.
 
ILGARD has almost completed the parcel conversion work for Dover Township.
They stand ready to make the necessary connection with the Auditor's CAMA
data, but we continue to wait on Cole-Layer-Trumble.  Dave Lovett is trying
hard to get a meeting wi th them, but so far they have not been available.
Meanwhile, our digitizing work continues into other townships. The Auditors
staff, John Branner, and I met with ILGARD staff to review progress on the
conversion work and resolve operational needs.
 
I ordered and received a demo package for Avparcel software from Cedra
Corporation from Rochester, New York.  John Branner, Ken Highland, staff at
ILGARD, and I are evaluating the demo to see if we should consider
purchasing the Avparcel software for use as our tax parcel maintenance
software.
 
EmergiTech and Digital Information Systems are progressing with our E-911
project.  This project is on schedule and is now 37% complete.  Road
centerline digitizing has been completed and work is now progressing on
digitizing the streams and ponds.
 
Our GIS Steering Committee met.  ILGARD presented examples of the parcel
data conversion project they are doing for us.  Ron Lucus reported for the
City of Athens that he is continuing to input GIS data and that he will be
happy to provide EmergiTech with data that they may be able to use as they
develop the City portion of the E-911 and house numbering system.
 
Bob Eichenberg reported that he is learning ArcView and looks forward to
using the parcel data to overlay flood plain data and compile a list of
property owners who own flood plain property, and print out the addresses
for a mailing.  John Branner re ported that the AutoCAD Users Group would
be meeting later to discuss AutoCAD Map software.
 
Howard Fokes reported that O.U. Facilities Management is continuing to
refine their graphic data and have received a new large bed scanner.  We
also discussed the need to form an ArcView software users group at a later
date.  Our Steering Committee w ill meet next on March 18th at 10:00 a.m.
in the Ohio University Facilities Management Conference Room.
 
I have written to our County Prosecutor to request answers to the following
GIS legal questions:
 
  * Should we copyright our data, and if so, how can we widely distribute
    our information and still retain our copyright?  Also, how do we
    accomplish a copyright?
  * Are we allowed by law to charge money for this data, and if so,
    how much?
  * If we are charging for our information, should we license it or
    sell it outright?
  * Does the distribution of this data infringe on anyone's personal
    privacy as protected by law?
  * What are the ramifications of distributing this data internationally,
    due to the global nature of the Internet?
  * Should we have liability disclaimers displayed on our data, and if so,
    what should they say?
 
We will ultimately need to formulate County GIS policies that establish a
framework for legal wide-spread distribution of our data, and the answers
to these questions will form the basis for sound policies.  Bill
Biddlestone is presently researching these questions.  He and I will meet
later this Spring to discuss each item in depth.
 
I met with J.B. Hoy at ILGARD to research their data available to overlay
the Dover Township parcels.  I will eventually use this data to put
together an initial presentation of our GIS progress to interested parties.
 
Thank you for allowing me to coordinate this important aspect of Athens
County's future, and for your usual cooperation.
 
Archie Stanley
GIS Coordinator