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Vice President's National Partnership for Reinventing Government Presents Seven Awards at Esri ConferenceCoveted Hammer Award Given to Esri and Six NSDI Community Demonstration ProjectsPamela Johnson, deputy director of Vice President Al Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR), presented Hammer Awards to "With these awards I carry the best wishes and gratitude from the Vice President for how much your work means to him," Johnson said. The NSDI Community Demonstration Project program was initiated in 1998 with support from many partners including Esri and several federal departments and agencies. Each site in the NSDI Demonstration Project serves as an example of the benefits that can be realized through expanded cross sharing of geographic information between federal and local agencies, and Esri's technology is the common thread that runs through all of these projects. Esri was honored for its role in developing the software that has enabled the six different pilot projects to implement procedures and techniques that demonstrate efficiency. The six teams—Gallatin County, Montana; the Tijuana River watershed of California and Mexico; Dane County, Wisconsin; Tillamook County, Oregon; the Upper Susquehanna-Lackawanna watershed in Pennsylvania; and the City of Baltimore—drew from federal, state, and local geographic data to solve complex problems. "Innovative communities—like those recognized today—are showing how this kind of mapping can help solve their toughest problems. Today's maps can represent every dimension of a community—its area, its resources, its infrastructure, the quality of the air and water—all the things that make a community livable. Maps can capture information that helps communities plan and helps them protect the safety of each citizen," said Vice President Gore. "Each hammer is as unique as the team that receives it," explained Johnson. NPR was established in 1993 to find ways to make government work better, cost less, and get results. The Hammer Awards are named after hammers that once cost the government $400. Cumbersome purchasing procedures have been eliminated as part of the reinvention. |
Esri and six teams from the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Community Demonstration Project at the opening session of Esri's User Conference in June.