Minnesota Governor's Council on Geographic Information

The Council's last meeting was June 24, 2009.  The Council's mission has been taken up by the Statewide Geospatial Advisory Council to the new Minnesota Geospatial Information Office (MnGeo).  Most Council committees will continue their work.  The Council webpages are being migrated to the new MnGeo website.

Geographic information is critical to the understanding and management of complex economic, social, and natural resources in Minnesota. The Minnesota Governor's Council on Geographic Information coordinated the development of geographic information technologies statewide between 1991 and 2009.

Final Council Reports

• Governor's Council FY2009 annual report (PDF)
• Governor's Council FY2009 committee accomplishments, future plans, opportunities and issues (PDF)
   

Other Important Resources

• "Enterprise GIS" Drive to Excellence Initiative, the Governor's state-government initiative to improve state GIS coordination and accountability:
  • Final Reports:
    • Program Design and Implementation Plan
    • Appendix:  All Agency Interviews
    • MGIO Advisory Body Guidelines
    • Legislative language creating the Minnesota Geospatial Information Office (MnGeo)
      • David Arbeit appointed Minnesota's first Chief Geospatial Information Officer - see press release.
         
• 50 States Initiative Grant final report: Implementing an enterprise strategy for Minnesota's Spatial Data Infrastructure, November 2007 (17 p., 120K, PDF)
   
• Minnesota's Strategic Plan for GIS  A one page summary of the following two documents:
  • Minnesota State GIS Enterprise Conceptual Architecture Design, March 2005. This document defines a high-level architecture for information technology and web-mapping interoperability in support of the goals outlined in the state’s strategic plan for GIS: the Minnesota Spatial Data Infrastructure.
  • A Foundation for Coordinated GIS, Minnesota's Spatial Data Infrastructure, October 2004. Adopted by the council, this is a strategic plan for statewide GIS to help Minnesota organizations more effectively achieve their business goals.

• The Case for a Minnesota State GIS Enterprise: A non-technical introduction to the council's Conceptual Architecture Design document, including an example of the benefits that such an architecture would provide (8 p., 67K, PDF).