More Geodetic Stuff and the CSRC

[TTaylor]

The Sustainable Future of the CSRC
More thoughts on geodetic issues. I’m putting these down in written form as nobody listens to me when I talk. :-)) I have been advocating certain ideas verbally for a few years now and will now put them on this forum for your consideration.

I will address the sustainability of the CSRC and my ideas on how to achieve it. I’ll split my ideas into two categories: Education/Marketing/Outreach and thoughts on a viable business plan.

Education/Marketing/Outreach
One of things the CSRC is good at is communicating with the Land Surveying Community and including Land Surveyors on their Executive Committee. As a matter of fact, I had the great pleasure to work with Bill Young (RIP) of the CSRC and Dorothy and Crissy of the CLSA Central Office to put on the 2008 CSRC/CLSA workshops on geodetic issues. These workshops were very well attended and well received. As a matter of fact at the end of this month and the beginning of next month there will be another CSRC/CLSA workshop on geodetic issues. I highly recommend that you think about attending one of them. Here is the url for the registration form: http://www.californiasurveyors.org/even ... p?cseid=85 These workshops will focus on the highly technical aspects of the geodetic issues in California, which is very good information for Land Surveyors.

I recommend that the CSRC ramp up their education, marketing, and outreach efforts to a much broader base of professionals that either knowingly or, more likely, unknowingly rely upon a consistent geodetic framework that is supported by the legally mandated CSRC. Those people probably comprise 95% or more of the actual beneficiaries of the CSRC. I think that these efforts can begin by producing pamphlets, trifolds, etc. that are of the nature of “Geodetic control for Dummiesâ€￾ or “The benefits of Geodetic Control for the Laypersonâ€￾.

Also, I think that the CSRC should take every opportunity to attend meetings, conferences, etc put on by GIS, Planning, Agriculture, Transportation, Asset Management, etc. professionals to communicate and educate those professionals on the benefits to their products and processes of a consistent geodetic framework in California. I.e. educate them on the facts that they are utilizing the efforts of the CSRC for their needs. These professionals should also be considered for inclusion on the CSRC Executive Committee. By education, marketing, and reaching out to these other professionals it will create a much broader base to tap into for fiscal support. This leads me to the second category:

Thoughts on a Viable Business Plan

At present, the CSRC is raising money via CRTN consortium membership fees and service contracts. After about 3 years there are 6 members of the consortium. Not a big number.

In 2008, I received a document from Great Britain describing their nationwide network for real time surveying. (See attached). Their paradigm has partnerships between professional societies, public agencies, and the private sector. This is a win – win situation and works very well for them. Since that point in time I have been advocating that a similar (modified) approach should be utilized here in California with the CSRC working hand in hand with the private sector.

Here are the conceptual details. Firstly, whatever has transpired in the past between the CSRC and other entities including the private sector RTN service providers should be put aside and a new cooperative relationship should be developed. Secondly, the distribution of responsibilities could be that the CSRC provides certification of the geodetic values used by the private sector RTN providers, provide data streams to the providers from CGNSS stations that the CSRC receives data from, and provide other technical and professional services. Thirdly, the service providers would charge their customers a fee to use the RTN service with the understanding that part of that fee would go to the CSRC for their part of the relationship. This could be accomplished with a service contract between UCSD and the service providers. So, if there are 500 RTN users and, say, $500/year of their subscription goes to the CSRC then the CSRC would have $250K/year as a sustainable income stream. These are just numbers for illustration purposes. This mutually beneficial relationship would go a long towards statewide coverage of a consistent RTN system.

Another idea: Dr. Bock has been communicating the benefits of CGNNS stations for early warning of episodic events. I think that utility companies, transportation entities, water districts, etc. would greatly benefit from early warning of disasters and could take actions to help save lives and infrastructure. It seems to me that they would be willing to enter into a service contract with the CSRC to see that system expanded and improved.

Last idea: This one will probably have a lot of people with many reasons as to why it can’t work. I like to operate from the perspective of haw can we make it work. The idea is that the geodetic framework in California is fundamentally the basis of all public works projects. I would like to see (however it can happen) that, say 0.1% of project dollars goes into a fund at public agencies that could then be funneled to the CSRC through service contracts.

All of these ideas are put forward to the group as information and for consideration.

BTW, the attached picture is one of the pics I took a few weeks ago at the America's Cup World Series races in SF.

[Steve Martin]

Tom,

There must be a misunderstanding here. I coordinated the 2008 CLSA/CSRC Real Time Networks seminar when I was CLSA's Liasion to CSRC and on the CSRC Executive Committee. I have attached the flyer for that seminar. I lined up the speakers and Crissy at the CLSA Central Office did her usual amazing job with all of the details.

Perhaps you worked with the late-great Bill Young on another seminar sometime before his passing in 2006?

[TTaylor]

It was the one with Bill Young before his passing. My dates are probably wrong. It must be the sometimers.

We had Gavin Shrock and the RTK guy from NGS among others..

Thanks for the clarification. I really enjoyed working with Bill.