The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) recently won the Excellence.Gov Award for the Geospatial One-Stop (GOS) Web portal. In its sixth year and sponsored by the American Council for Technology (ACT), the award was presented to five winners selected for demonstrating best practices in information sharing for federally led information technology program implementations.

"We're honored to receive this prestigious award from the American Council for Technology," says Karen Siderelis, associate director for geospatial information, USGS and DOI. "We developed Geospatial One-Stop as a resource serving both government and private agencies, as well as the general public. Its purpose is to help individuals and organizations share and access information to make better, more-informed decisions. We're grateful for the acknowledgment and will continue to make Geospatial One-Stop the best possible Internet resource."

A panel of 23 judges from both the private and public sectors selected the top five winners from more than 80 applicants. In addition to the five winners, 20 programs were also honored as finalists. The announcement was made February 15, 2006, in Washington, D.C., at a ceremony luncheon with a keynote address by Congressman Tom Davis.

Geospatial One-Stop (www.geodata.gov) is a Web-based portal that provides a resource to discover and view maps, data, and other geospatial services from across the United States. The GOS portal is used by state, local, and tribal governments, as well as the private sector and academia, to access and share geospatial information, improve planning for future investments in geospatial data, expand partnerships, collaborate on the development and implementation of standards for data sharing, and support the decision-making needs of governments and organizations.

The portal was an invaluable resource during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: it made available critical information that aided federal, state, and local agencies in emergency response activities. Virtual Internet communities were also established. Thousands of sources were made available using an interactive Hurricane Map Viewer and Louisiana State basemap. Maps and images were available for print, download, or e-mail.

Scott Cameron, deputy assistant secretary for Policy, Management, and Budget (DOI) and managing partner of Geospatial One-Stop, attended the ceremony and accepted the award on behalf of the Department of the Interior. Geospatial One-Stop partners honored at the awards ceremony included Hank Garie, executive director of Geospatial One-Stop; Karen Siderelis and Leslie Wollack of USGS; Bert Jarreau of the National Association of Counties; Bill Burgess of the National States Geographic Information Council; and Pat Cummens of Esri.

Says Cummens: "Esri is privileged to serve these two government agencies and help them carry out their mission of providing geographic knowledge using the Internet."

For more information, visit the ACT/Industry Advisory Council Web site (www.iaconline.org) or contact Pat Cummens, Esri (e-mail: pcummens@esri.com).