ICIS Newsletter - September 2008

Please allow me the liberty to use part of Ford's mission statement. Creating the single parcel fabric for the province of British Columbia "is Job One". Job One that is for ICIS.

During the May ICIS Strategic Planning session it was agreed that we had substantially overcome key challenges that required the society's attention. Having established a broader membership and deepened our data sharing capabilities the timing is now perfect to be able to return our attention to ICIS primary mandate.

The fascinating part is that most of the ICIS initiatives now underway absolutely support the Single Parcel Fabric project. The linkages and interdependencies that connect the various initiatives all support the Strategic Objectives of ICIS that were addressed in my January '08 newsletter article. Basically, every single initiative is justified as adding to the value proposition and benefits that should be received by ICIS members. However, one new initiative has evolved.

This new initiative centers on the establishment of specific business requirements for each ICIS member segment. This exercise involves the interview of ICIS Board members and their expert delegates on specific business requirements that must be addressed or resolved with the creation of the single parcel fabric. The process uses a standard document template to ensure that there is consistency in the establishment and ranking of each need. The business requirements are being assessed for each member segment (Local Government, Utilities BC Assessment and Provincial ministries).

These business requirements will be considered as fundamental to the foundation of the single parcel fabric project. They will be used to establish and ratify many things inclusive of but not limited to the data standard, meta-data requirements, currency and accuracy needs as well as parcel related attributes that could add significant value to the cadastre. This initiative is well underway. It is expected that the business requirements will be shared amongst all members before the end of 2008. The other objective is that the requirements will never be considered as static but will be assessed, reviewed and updated as dynamic requirements going forward.

The single parcel fabric clearly supports the ICIS vision of collaborative sharing and integration of spatial data for the economic and social benefit of British Columbia.