Shelby Johnson, State Geographic Information Officer

I wanted to say thanks to everyone.  As I wind down 2011 and look back on the year about to pass I sat here at my desk and thought of many of you and a few of the highlights.

I remembered the phrase “It takes a village” which was in vogue in the late 90’s.   At the time Hillary Clinton used those words to describe the importance of people outside the family who can positively influence kids.  The phrase went on to describe all sorts of other situations but to me its central theme is that working together yields dramatic results.

In 2011, 7 counties updated their road centerline file, 14 counties completed and published physical address points for the first time, and 22 counties updated or published their parcel polygons.  All of these were published and shared through GeoStor for our village to use.  These changes came through GIS Board and AGIO programs with extraordinary cooperation.  We’ll expect many more of these in 2012 and the good news is they are becoming routine!

Above and beyond those programs a few counties procured high resolution orthoimagery and then shared it with you.

Thanks for your help gathering the support needed to create the Parcel Mapping Grant Program.  That work will bring even more parcel data into the digital realm.

Our village saw massive changes in political maps driven by our technology.  Population shifts over the last decade brought on numerous changes at many levels.  Our new Congressional districts split counties for the first time in history.  Our state house and senate districts got larger in the delta and smaller almost everywhere else. County Justice of Peace (JP) and School Board districts are all just about to change big time.  In fact, at last look every county was completing major edits to JP districts.  Many of these have been updated and soon they will all be shared with the village.  Most of the base data forming the census blocks used to tabulate the counts came from your local data.

The Arkansas GIS Users Forum gathered in northwest Arkansas for another educational event and by past standards set a new attendance record.  This suggests our village is more than cool enough for new immigrants.  I remember listening to the gentleman who works for a giant in the logistics industry talk about the importance of tracking the location of everything.  It was extremely cool that giant is located in Arkansas.

Throughout 2011 we saw creative new applications on the social level so we can even track ourselves. The stunning growth of location aware smart phones and social networking gives even greater meaning to our cause.  Absent the accurate map underneath, a check-in at a new business, restaurant, or shop just isn’t as useful.

Another fascinating part is seeing you vested in this village.  So thanks for the other way you help us by finding errors, reporting service interruptions, and giving us constructive feedback to help make your system better.  As much as anyone else we want the data to be right and we want it available to you whenever you need.

It’s impressive when an update happens.  The data is coming in and going out from federal agencies, state agencies, counties, cities and others and used for hundreds of different applications.  I’ve always believed this technology to which we ascribe our walk in life can be used to change lives, and it is.

This village thing is working thanks to you.

Shelby Johnson, State Geographic Information Officer & Occasional Village Idiot