A discussion of how the community is analogous to the business "enterprise," how it relates to other enterprises, and adds value for its citizens and related organizations. Using new technologies can make decisions transparent, empower individuals, and increase the accountability of public representatives and business leaders towards a common agenda.

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

Much work and attention is currently being paid to the issue called "Community Sustainability." There is the work of all the authors of this publication and others from all over the world. It would appear that one of our challenges is to find a way to agree:

1. What is sustainability?
2. What is a community?
3. What is our vision for sustainable communities?
4. What goals and objectives can we establish to measure our progress?
5. Why are we concerned?

Much of the information that follows is based upon my personal experience in designing, coordinating and implementing real Enterprise Geographic Information System (EGIS) projects involving different governmental entities; e.g.

City of Oakland

North Texas GIS Consortium

MarinMap (21 agency consortium).

The approach used is an enterprise information systems architecture approach using the Zachman Framework of Enterprise Architecture, which I will describe later.

These projects established a base of common information which was identified by community members as being very useful to many other organizations involved in community activities. The premise is that all participants in a community, identified by a common geography, benefit when the information is standardized about the common geography and its related information and it is accessible to all members of the community.

"Sustainability" is defined here as the reshaping of our modern industrial society’s political and economic priorities in accordance with the dictates of the needs of the world’s populations and the natural ecological systems of support upon which we and our social economic systems must depend.¹

"Define sustainability by example, rather than by building new "model community". Look at a part of the world, ask what is changing, then link the changes with a policy approach. Over time, a more sustainable community/region will develop" ²

A simple definition of sustainability is "To carry things forward beneficially for all into the future." A more complex definition is, "The systemic re-balancing of modern society’s economics within the dictates of its natural and human ecological bases of support."³

For this chapter, I prefer to use the term "Generational Sustainability," as defined in the chapter by Prasad Kaipa and his description of the Napa Tetrahedron. I am in agreement that Generational Sustainability is something that we could look forward to developing and something that is not yet a part of our current thinking.

I also believe that a major component of re-shaping our thinking is to approach the community as an "enterprise," and to develop information solutions that support all aspects of "A Framework for a Sustainable Future," described in the final chapter.

• Generational Sustainability
• Individual Opportunity
• Common Good
• Transformation

• Quality of Life
• Freedom
• Wisdom
• Path With Heart

• Responsibility between Generational Sustainability and Individual Opportunity
• Governance between Individual Opportunity and Common Good
• Investment between Generational Sustainability and Common Good
• Learning between Transformation and Generational Sustainability
• Integrity between Individual Opportunity and Transformation
• Collaboration between Transformation and Common Good

What specifically is community? "For most of us it concerns relationships to people first, then to a place, or places, that we care about. At different times we may focus on our neighborhood, on our electoral jurisdictions, or the metro area, or on the larger region. One’s community can include the rural spaces between metro areas of farm lands, water bodies or rugged out-backs, depending on what matters to us." ⁴

"Community is an enterprise consisting of individuals and enterprises (public and private) operating in a manner to meet the defined goals and objectives of, and to the benefit of the entire community. One of the definite properties of community is a common geography." ⁵

The latter definition is the one that will be used for this chapter.

The strategic vision for "A Framework for Sustainable Future" has been previously defined as the four cornerstones of the Tetrahedron. Those cornerstones were;

• Generational Sustainability
• Individual Opportunity
• Common Good
• Transformation

The future requires we understand and preserve our options, and hence the options of the areas we live in, for ourselves and for future generations. For sustainability, our focus on community depends on what we know now and learn in the future.

My particular vision for improving the knowledge about our communities for the community stakeholders is:

"To make available and utilize information to improve the knowledge about and the quality of life in global, regional and local communities, through the use of Enterprise Information Systems Architecture and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)."⁶

"Today's business environment is like a kaleidoscope. Everything changes and evolves all the time: from customer needs to competition, technologies to skills, public policies to international borders.

For companies to succeed in this environment, they must be dynamic. This means adjusting their business architecture to accommodate change; leveraging new technologies, ideas and skills to drive innovation; and modifying business processes and activities across functional groups to improve efficiency and cohesion. In short, businesses must constantly reinvent themselves as conditions warrant, to keep providing added value to their customers."⁷

If we consider a community to be a collection of business environments (public, private, profit and not for profit) serving a geography of diverse customers, then we can readily see the complexity in sustaining our level of community service.

One approach being used to address this complex problem is to establish a of consortium of community agencies to share information and the delivery of products and services to common customers. There are a number of examples of this approach that have been implemented. The challenge will be the sustainability of these environments.

The Inter-Agency Standards Committee in Alameda County is an example of this type of integration. There are twenty-one agencies in Marin County, i.e. MarinMap which have formed a consortium via a Joint Powers Agreement to function as a community enterprise. Another example is the North Texas GIS Consortium.

This type of public private partnership will become more of a standard model because working independently just is not cost effective or cost efficient as the amount and complexity of information grows.

We live in a very dynamic and rapidly changing world. "The Information Age is unfolding just as predicted by many of the sociological prognosticators of this Century. Government agencies are affected because of new legislative mandates, constantly changing organization structures, as well as expectations to improve operations with less resources and money. The only way to anticipate and understand change is to capture the major components of the enterprise architecture."⁸

There is no way to change a hundred story building quickly or safely without starting with the building plan. The same is true for understanding how change will impact an organization's ability to transform. A set of related models which reflect the business/community components is needed to represent community organizational structures, strategic intent, value-chain and process, budget information, and performance metrics.

The Enterprise Architecture Framework is a tool which allows us to integrate the various models of the business/community in a way to continually manage change and enhance performance objectives of the enterprise/community.

I first came across the Enterprise Architecture Framework approximately eight or nine years ago. It basically changed the way I approached developing or designing and implementing enterprise systems. I had already been using a data driven design method to design information systems. This methodology was based on the six interrogatives; who, what, when, where, how, and why, and went through a decomposition from business function all the way down to an implemented system.

I ran across the Zachman EA Framework, which was also based on the six interrogatives, as well as six different views of the organization and created a 36 cell matrix about the required components for an enterprise architecture for information systems.

I was amazed at how easily the data driven design methodology I had developed mapped to the Zachman EA Framework. In fact, I discovered that any other method and technique that I wanted to use mapped to the Zachman EA Framework. Now I wasn't bound by one particular method or technique approach. I could basically choose the method that was more convenient for the enterprise itself. I could then utilize the Zachman EA Framework to categorize, identify, index, manage, and basically keep track of (what I call ) enterprise artifacts and/or components of enterprise architecture.

An important factor is the Zachman EA Framework provides a way to think about, and keep track of the many component parts of a complex structure. The Enterprise certainly is complex.

I have used the Enterprise Architecture Framework on a number of enterprise projects since that period of time. The first one was the City of Oakland Emergency Management System. The requirement was for a mission critical enterprise application that could enhance communication between City departments and other emergency service agencies located in the City of Oakland, e.g. Oakland Unified School District, Port of Oakland, East Bay Municipal Utilities District (EBMUD), etc. By using the EAF, it allowed me to understand all the enterprise components, how they fit together and how to design and implement the overall system.

As more and more organizations begin to adopt the principles of information management as the primary method for making decisions in the enterprise, the Data Warehouse has become the most valuable tool in this concept.

The Data Warehouse is a database that is designed to store all of the information for an enterprise in a standard format and a common definition of what the information means. A Data Warehouse is created to synthesize the information of the enterprise and make it available to enterprise employees for facilitating more effective decision making within their area of responsibility. Data Warehousing, Data Marts and Operational Data Stores have become a very integral part of the sophisticated information management oriented enterprise.

GIS began approximately thirty years ago. They were created because of the need to use computers for defining, representing and managing information with a location reference that could be visually depicted, as on a map. The representation of this information came in the form of arcs that ultimately could be presented as points, lines, and polygons. As this industry was evolving, primarily in the scientific arena, the same type of data management problems that were addressed during the evolution of the management of attribute, i.e. text data, were being encountered. Pioneers in the GIS industry, like Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), began to develop their own data management techniques that were in some ways, peculiar to these abstract or spatial data types.

These systems began to find their way into any area that had a scientific bent and in particular government applications. When GIS was introduced into the municipal governments, the systems were usually developed by individuals in department’s that had neither the training to understand, nor the tools to implement data management principles properly.

Implementations of GIS technology were very much like what occurred in the early days of software application development. "Stovepipe" or topic specific applications, e.g. Finance, Manufacturing, Land Management etc. were developed without being integrated with other applications in the same enterprise. The result was incompatible systems and an inability to readily exchange information between these applications.

An additional problem was the Information Systems/Information Technology (IS/IT) data management methods, which by now had evolved to the Data Warehouse concept, were not being utilized in GIS development and applications because the GIS community was not a part of the IS/IT community.

The introduction of the desktop computer, and the development of local area networked (LAN) GIS systems and software further complicated the situation. This technology allowed end users to develop systems on their desktop which had enterprise implications, but they were not integrated into the enterprise information knowledge-base. The World Wide Web (WWW) has expanded the complexity for managing information and leveraging its value for the good of the whole because information can be stored on the WWW even though it is not yet standardized.

During the last eight years, the GIS and the IS/IT environments have been on a collision course. The Data Warehouse is the environment where this collision of spatial data management and traditional data management merge into one product that greatly enhances the value added information management capabilities of an enterprise.

The technology that is responsible for facilitating this collision is the creation of the Object /Extended Relational Database Management System O/ERDBMS. The O/ERDBMS stores and manages attributer, i.e. text, and abstract, i.e. video, voice, raster, vector, data together. The O/ERDBMS extends the concepts of the Data Warehouse to include Spatial data, e.g. a Spatial Data Warehouse.

Although we speak in terms of an Enterprise Spatial Data Warehouse, in reality what is usually implemented is an Enterprise Spatial Data Mart.

The Spatial Data Warehouse (SDW) is a type of decision support system that has the ability to answer traditional and spatial type queries. The traditional data warehouse usually spans multiple subject areas such as public safety, manufacturing and other topic specific applications.

The Spatial Data Mart (SDM) is a type of decision support system that also has the ability to answer traditional and spatial type of queries but is usually concentrated on one subject or topic of interest, e.g. Finance. The traditional Data Mart usually deals with only one subject area. Adding the spatial capability makes this a Spatial Data Mart.

The Spatial Operational Data Store (SODS) is a spatial data mart that has evolved to the transaction driven data store for an enterprise operation with spatial functionality, e.g. Parcel maintenance etc.

If we consider the geography to be one subject area, then the initial implementation of the enterprise Spatial Data Warehouse is in reality a Spatial Data Mart with location being a specific subject area. It becomes a warehouse when we add multiple subject areas through the geo-coding function, i.e. adding an "x,y" coordinate to other legacy attribute information.

GIS can be used to establish and maintain a base set of geographic information about the community. It can link all pertinent information from the "community data marts" into a Spatial Data Warehouse. This location reference allows for the decomposition of communities from e.g. a region to a neighborhood, based upon geography. The GIS provides the ability to add the "Where" of the information system and have information related to a given location identified on a map.

Citizens can then locate elements of the community which are important to them and ask questions like the following: Where are the community’s environmental hazards located? Where are the senior citizens located who must be evacuated first during an emergency? Are there any stores or recreation facilities in the geography that defines this community?

Almost any information, e.g. demographic, environmental, infrastructure, financial, etc., may be linked to the geography for a community and displayed on a map when using the Community GIS. This information in turn can be used to influence the decision-making process of the community. Using this tool will educate and empower community shareholders.

The creation of the City of Oakland EGIS has spawned a number of additional applications which have empowered and benefited the community. The Oakland Unified School District has developed and published on the Internet an education and location application for the public.

A K1-K12 GIS curriculum⁹ has been developed using the City EGIS information. The curriculum has been implemented in the Gardner elementary school. The curriculum teaches 4^th graders how to identify and analyze systems of information, e.g. eco-system, demographic system, etc. This information is geo-coded and added as layers to the GIS.

Teachers are being trained at the Chabot Observatory to facilitate the implementation of this program into the entire OUSD School system.

Students who are taught how to analyze information about their community and develop potential solutions to problems within the community that affect them use the system information as a basis for empowering themselves.

Another example is MarinMap, a public/private consortium, which has developed and published a GIS application that identifies properties within the County of Marin. This application has been published on the Internet and is available to the public. Future plans include adding additional information, which will empower the constituency in Marin and promote better participation in the governance effort as a whole.

In addition to the GIS, which is the most powerful current electronic tool for communicating information, there are other goals and objectives, including:

Create knowledge-based communities – make information available about the community to all stakeholders of that community in a common language for all to understand. Stakeholders are defined as those individuals, groups and enterprises (public and private) with a vested interest in the well being of that community as a whole.

Facilitate effective and efficient cultural change – implement information systems that integrate data from all community operational systems to support and facilitate change management for all types of community changes. One of the more difficult community changes to manage is the change to the community street infrastructure.

Many agencies are required to dig up the streets when laying underground cables. Quite often their activities are not coordinated. The ability to coordinate these activities between agencies is an example of community change management. Using the GIS to integrate their respective information systems with street maintenance information and specific locations, would allow the coordination of their activities.

Enhance communication across all levels of the communities –. Provide the public community locations with access to the community GIS, i.e. make the information easy to access and train people to access the information they want, when they want it, for issues important to them. Provide the ability for the community stakeholders to have input into the policy establishment process for the community. Communication is a two way street, i.e. bi-directional, so citizens have access and input to important decisions before they are finalized.

Utilize the appropriate technologies - Use the Internet as a means to transport information to all members of the community. Establish community "spatial data marts" specifically for integrating communities’ operational (public and private sector) data, e.g. Financial, Public Safety, Environmental, Educational, etc.

Community data standards for integration must be established and enforced. The way this was accomplished in Oakland was through the Inter-Agency Standards committee. This was a group of agencies that formed to share information in case of emergencies. This effort was initiated due to the Oakland Hills Firestorm and difficulty in communicating information and coordinating resources during the response and recovery activities.

The establishment of the EGIS standards allowed these agencies to integrate and share their information. Information integration enhanced the ability for these organizations to communicate with each other. The need to duplicate other agencies information was eliminated, which provided a more timely access to the more accurate information.

"Imagine humanity as a village of 100 families. Then, 65 families in our village are illiterate, and 90 do not speak English, 70 have no drinking water at home, 80 have no members who have ever flown an airplane. Seven families own 60 percent of the land and consume 80 percent of all the available energy. They have all the luxuries. Sixty families are crowded onto 10 percent of the land. Only one family has a university education. And the air and water, the climate and the blistering sunlight, are all getting worse. What is our common responsibility?"¹⁰

Enterprise Architecture and GIS are the two most powerful technological tools for transformation available to us as we enter the 21^st Century. If we seek a sustainable future, we can apply these tools and create a society that is information based and knowledge enabled. We can use these tools to focus on applying that knowledge to solve community and global problems.

1. Harmony Books 1991 , Healing Gaia page 177 - James Lovelock
2. BASEA Newsletter "Sustainable Development in Western Massachusetts", Fall 1988 - Bruce Coldham
3. Community Sustainability, February 1997 - Andrew Euston HUD
4. Community Sustainability, February 1997 - Andrew Euston HUD
5. IT & Governance, April 1998, MIT Symposium - F. Michael Smith
6. IT & Governance, April 1998, MIT Symposium - F. Michael Smith
7. Ptech, Inc. @www.Ptechinc.com
8. Ibid.
9. The Geodesy Program developed by Susan Radke of Oakland
10. Parade Magazine, March 1992 - Carl Sagan

F. Michael Smith is President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of F. Michael Smith & Associates. Mr. Smith has over 28 years experience in designing, developing and implementing sustainable Information Systems. Mr. Smith’s approach is to ensure that F. Michael Smith & Associates creates a partnership with its clientele to:

• Identify and address the business problem to be resolved,
• Develop the appropriate business solution for the identified problem,
• Utilize the appropriate information technology in developing a cost effective and efficient enterprise business solution, and
• Act as a mentor to the client staff that will enable them to successfully sustain the solution over time.

Mr. Smith provides senior management consulting on all aspects of Information Resource Management, Business Process Re-engineering and Inter/Intra Enterprise GIS to both the public and private sectors.

Specializes in assisting public and private sector enterprises create cost effective business solutions through collaboration and sharing of information and information resources.

Provides consulting services to regional and national governmental agencies for the strategic planning and architecture of inter-enterprise geographic information systems. Served on the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Sub-Committee for the establishment of framework strategies for implementation.

Travel to U.S. convention and seminar sites by request to present unique and proven systems and organizational concepts/successes within the public and private sector as an example for other organizations to consider.

Developed a data-driven methodology to design business systems. Taught and used methodology to design both applications and information systems.