You may have noticed that [acronym] is running a contest for government employees – the [acronym] CAD Awards. In fact, the awards are the first of their kind specifically aimed at the public sector - and I find our timing with this contest a little curious. Through sheer coincidence, Federal Computer Week last week reported the conclusions of a new study by the Partnership for Public Service, which claims that “Agencies don’t reward innovation, fed’s say”. According to the report, “nine out of 10 federal employees are seeking ways to better perform their jobs, only about four out of 10 believe innovation and creativity are rewarded”.

Arlington County is at the forefront of an environmental trend that puts energy labels on county buildings. The Department of Environmental Services plans to label each building with energy efficiency information. The labels will be part of the county’s Community Energy Plan which hopes to make Arlington one of the leading counties in the reduction of greenhouse gasses. Arlington may have gotten the idea from the 2009 American Clean Energy and Security Act which included suggestions for building labeling, but died in the Senate. The plan will likely be implemented sometime this year but the details about what the label will look like and the information to be displayed are still undetermined. The goal of this program is to raise awareness about energy use and how to implement conservation. They also hope it will inspire private owners to apply energy labels on their own buildings. The labels may be similar to what the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, or the "Building EQ" label the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers produces. Arlington may also be taking cue from the practices Europe has put into place.

“In 1989, one of our first clients came to us with a big problem. A disgruntled employee had waltzed out the door with electronic copies of top secret designs and went to work for a competitor.” Another horror story here: “During the late 80s, a client who used AutoCAD for machine design called us in a panic. The company had just built a $250K prototype of a paper machine from the wrong revision of a drawing.” Since then, the folks at Synergis Software have been in the business of preventing these disasters from happening. Over the years they have developed a solution that not only makes managing your engineering document library easier, but safer as well.

Despite ongoing news reports of a down economy, at least two states pledged last month to spend big in FY’ 2012 to upgrade their infrastructure including roads, highways and mass-transit systems. California Transportation Commission (CTC) recently announced it has allocated $825 million in new funding for upcoming infrastructure projects. The expense is being touted as a way to create jobs and improve transportation for Californians. Part of the funding is allocated specifically for projects using a design-build project management system that offers a change from the traditional construction projects to create a single point of responsibility and reduce risk and cost. This process is currently being utilized in 32 other states, and many other countries.

The ongoing flooding in North Dakota has presented a monumental challenge to all parties affected by the natural disaster. From residents living in the affected areas to the state and local government agencies in charge of coordinating sandbagging efforts and other preventative measures. Not to mention the relief and recovery efforts that will likely continue long after the water has receded. However technological developments are making it easier for public works departments and emergency services to better anticipate and plan for, and hopefully prevent such devastating consequences as we are seeing in North Dakota.

It’s very rare that the public sector gets the attention it deserves for its innovations and achievements in the field of digital design. Whether it’s saving tax dollars by using computer aided design (CAD) software to introduce efficiencies in waste water management or helping the war fighter with precision weapons design and simulation - the examples, across federal, state and local government are endless. Well, with the newly announced [acronym] Magazine Public Sector CAD Awards, finally these agencies have the opportunity to share the creative ways they have used digital design/CAD software to improve the performance of their agency and enhance the delivery of citizen-centric services.

Attention CAD designers, managers and drafters! Has digital design changed the business of government in your city, county or agency? Have you put new ideas into practice that you want to share with your government peers? Now’s your chance. The [acronym] Magazine Public Sector CAD Awards is a new innovation contest that challenges the public sector, and the contractors that support it, to share the creative ways they have used digital design/CAD software to improve the performance of their agency and enhance the delivery of citizen-centric services.

In a recent guest article, Bryan Cowles, an Applications Specialist at IMAGINiT Technologies, observed that while more and more government agencies are moving ahead and incorporating Building Information Modeling (BIM) into their workflows, “…some are yet to be convinced of the benefits that an intelligent model can provide.” In his article - Teardown or Retrofit: A BIM Evaluation Gives the Answer - Bryan goes on to provide an excellent example of the time and cost savings achieved by retrofitting two existing structures into one larger structure, as opposed to going the demolition route – thanks to a BIM-based feasibility study. A study which also won over a team of doubtful engineers who thought demolition was the best option.

This blog was written by guest blogger, Eliot Danner, Principal of Reperio Concepts The steady pace of innovation in geospatial visualization has given rise to a new problem: the need to geocode increasing quantities of data and the corresponding need to manage and search this data. In this article, I am going to discuss a new way to bring data into geospatial environments and a new way to search and manage this data. A popular maxim in the geospatial community is “80% of all data contains geospatial information” (or something to that effect). True or not it is certainly the case that a great deal of information can be geocoded and, more importantly, that having this information geocoded, that is to say, visible on a map, can be of value to decision makers.

With a population that is expected to reach 7 billion in 2011, it is fascinating to contemplate that there are still reaches of the earth where humans have never set foot. However, thanks to the proliferation of satellites and ever-improving satellite imagery, there may come a time when we will have virtually set foot on every part of the earth’s surface. The planet’s poles are prime candidates for exploration via satellite. The harsh climates make physical exploration difficult, dangerous, and expensive. But thanks to advances in GIS technology, scientists of every discipline will have the opportunity to research previously unknown facts on an unimagined scale.