Montana Spatial Data Infrastructure
Theme Stewardship
The Montana Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI) consist of digital geospatial data themes representing land information that is identified by the Montana Geographic Information Officer (GIO), with the advice of the Montana Land Information Advisory Council (MLIAC), as necessary to meet the spatial information needs of the state of Montana and its citizens. Effective stewardship of the MSDI will advance framework information as "data you can trust" - the best available data for Montana; standardized, maintained, and discoverable. For the purposes of this document, stewardship is defined as:
Stewardship is the assumption of responsibility for a MSDI data theme that, depending on the needs of the theme, includes direct or indirect coordination of the production, maintenance, integration, enhancement, distribution, coordination, promotion, and support-resources for that data theme.
The critical nature of MSDI theme stewardship assignments means that any entity accepting the obligation must incorporate these duties as an essential part of their everyday business processes or the base layer itself will suffer. This standard is very high. It does not mean they just "use" or "disseminate" the data; the steward must be the primary creator or statewide coordinator of the data collection and maintenance processes, and take major responsibility for the development of theme related web-based services as one of their principal (mission critical) business functions.
MSDI Theme Layers Available for Stewardship Review
Montana Spatial Data Infrastructure Theme Stewardship Governance and Appointment Process
