Geospatial One-Stop portal increases data access for government and the public.

Designed by ESRI, The Geospatial One-Stop (GOS) portal is a gateway to the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) and the GIS superhighway, according to Jack Dangermond, ESRI president. "Not only does GOS simplify the search for data," Mr. Dangermond said, "but it also centralizes access to services and lets users visualize map services across multiple servers, publish metadata and services, and learn about geospatial activities, standards, and other related information. This implementation was carefully designed to support publishing and access to geospatial knowledge of any type and from any vendor, regardless of format or standard."

The portal is open to and interoperable with virtually any GIS data set or service. In crafting GOS, ESRI paid particular attention to both Web services standards and emerging GIS standards from the Open GIS Consortium, Inc., the International Organization for Standardization, and the Federal Geographic Data Committee. More than 15 viewers from a variety of software companies are supported by the site.

Built with commercial off-the-shelf software and based on open standards, the site is secure and supported 24/7 with fail-over capabilities. GOS data are shareable by anyone, anywhere.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) oversees the portal, and the project is the result of an e-government initiative to make access to geospatial information from multiple sources faster and less expensive for all levels of government as well as the public.

Improving communication among federal agencies helps them do more with less by coordinating efforts more closely. According to Mark Forman, associate director of information technology and e-government at OMB, "Geospatial data is crucial for government efforts in homeland security, environmental protection, economic development, and other important policy areas. Geodata.gov provides the tools necessary for greater intergovernmental collaboration and partnership on these key issues while reducing duplicative spending and wasted resources."

The GOS portal can be found at www.geodata.gov.