National Location Data Standard Approved – Does The Private Sector Care?

After five years of interagency collaboration and thousands of points of public communication, a new standard data format for adresses, thoroughfares and landmarks has been approved by the final agency acronym it needs to be in order for the project to reach its culmination. This seems like it could be huge news in a world where mobile location apps are set to define the future of the computing user experience – but for some reason the standard seems mired in government circles with little comment or enthusiasm from the private sector.

The Steering Committee of the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) has endorsed the United States Thoroughfare, Landmark and Postal Address Data Standard, a product of the Committee’s Address Standard Working Group. What does that mean? It means it’s now possible to start referring to adresses, streets and landmarks with the knowledge that everyone will refer to them in the same way. The standard was developed with the use of drafts posted online in wiki format and received thousands of edits and comments from stakeholders.

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Each data point in the standard format includes address data content, classification, transfer history and a measure of its quality. It will be maintained by the US Census.

“The United States Thoroughfare, Landmark, and Postal Address Data Standard will have a significant impact at all levels of government and is an essential component of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure,” said Ivan DeLoatch, Executive Director of the FGDC in the group’s announcement of the standard’s completion. “We encourage government agencies, as well as others, to implement the standard for it provides a foundation for understanding and developing solutions for the many challenges in our communities.”

We’ll see if that happens. Hopefully it won’t just be government agencies and it won’t take another five years.

None of the hundreds of geotechnology blogs we follow have mentioned the standard beyond a few reposts of the press release. None of the hundreds of geotech specialists that follow our dedicated Geo Twitter account responded to our request for comment on today’s news. None of the geo developers we communicate with regularly had any response to our request for comment. It’s a little depressing.

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