The Michigan Center for Shared Solutions and Technology Partnerships (CSSTP) has a mission to transform government with IT being the catalyst, fostering collaboration across government lines. CSSTP will do this by sharing resources to both eliminate duplication of effort and reduce costs.

A substantial amount of valuable GIS data is developed by local government.  Our recognition that a robust and sustainable NSDI is built upon both state and local data should be a guiding principle in approaching, discussing, sharing ideas, creating incentives, and truly partnering with stakeholders in the state's geospatial community. The new business plan will be used to ensure that Michigan's future NSDI is as current, complete and accurate as possible.  Items to consider include the procedures, technology, and guidelines that provide for vertical integration, sharing, and use of the data, and the institutional relationships and business practices that encourage maintenance of these data themes.

In January of 2009, CSSTP (and its local partners) applied for several NSDI CAP Grants.  CSSTP and its partners were notified several weeks later that they had won grant awards in two categories.  Those two categories covered two main NSDI/USGS issues, the 50 States Initiative and the National Map.  The grant periods for these two grants run from March 30, 2009 until March 29, 2010.

Both of these grants contain a first phase of holding independently facilitated listening sessions around the State to gather information outlined in this document's Scope of Work section. A brief example of the activities that were outlined in the grant applications is as follows:

NSDI CAP Grant Category 3: 50 States Initiative

• Engage the support of key state-wide professional associations
• Hold a series of independently facilitated stakeholder listening sessions across Michigan
• Integrate results to develop collaborative win-win solutions that support ‘local-scale' completion of the orthoimagery, elevation, transportation, hydrography, and cadastral themes state-wide (priorities to be determined)

NSDI CAP Grant Category 5: The National Map (TNM)

• Survey the Michigan Geographic Framework (MGF) user community
• Categorize the user community into capability groups
• Identify requirements for interfacing between the MGF and each group
• Create design plans, processes and procedures to standardize distribution of MGF changes