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Press Information
For Immediate Release -- August 28, 2007
Dennis Klein
Phone: 415-381-1750
Email: info@boundarysolutions.com
Boundary Solutions, Inc.

BSI To Facilitate Digital Parcel Map Database Standards Panel at IAAO 2007 Atlanta

Mill Valley, CA: Boundary Solutions, Inc. is to facilitate a panel entitled “Digital Parcel Map Data Sharing Standards Issues and Most Common Practice Remedies.” The event will take place in Atlanta, GA, Monday, September 10: 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM at the IAAO (International Association of Assessing Officers) conference. To view the preliminary proceedings, download it here ( PDF).

Almost 1,000 US jurisdictions already share their completed digital parcel map databases with industry. However, many newly created parcel GIS databases, and some old ones, use procedures so diverse they pose serious obstacles to easy creation of seamless multi-jurisdictional cadastres. Current constraints to assembly and updating of multi-jurisdictional digital parcel map databases are:

• Erroneous or missing projection instruction files.
• Inability to join the GIS parcel map to the property tax roll records.
• No layer/theme/field and other naming conventions
• No standard data configuration (view, street annotation, linked attribute lists, etc.)
• Situs addresses not US Postal Service standard compliant. (Opportunity to improve with 2010 Census address data.)
• No common air parcel (condo) graphic-nongraphic configuration.

There is a low likelihood of any explicit digital parcel map data standards being provided directly by state or federal government due to the prohibitive cost of funding 3,140 counties to implement them. Due to this lack in top-down assistance, standards are slowly evolving through a consensus-building process with some direction from/by (federal) FGDC content guidelines.

The panel will examine emerging bottom-up most-common practice derived digital parcel map data standard protocols from a public sector data sponsor and private sector data aggregator perspective. Participants will include:

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Boundary Solutions Inc. assembled the most extensive database of parcel map data available from jurisdictions throughout the United States. As of August 2007, a total of 53 million parcels from 425 jurisdictions are normalized and ready for download. Terms and conditions for digital parcel map database acquisition and updates are in place for 450 more jurisdictions, a total of 86 million parcels representing coverage for up to 95% of the nation's land transaction activity. Regardless of source format, all content is subjected to over 25 modifications and metric recordings to assure universal internal consistency makes it possible for an application that works in Seattle also works in St. Pete. Boundary Solutions Inc. was awarded U.S. Patent 7,092,957, entitled “Computerized National Online Parcel-level Map Data Portal.” Claims include multi-jurisdictional search to locate an address by displaying its corresponding digital parcel map boundary. The patent relates back to the original provisional patent application filing date of January 18, 2002. Boundary Solutions, BSI, Boundary Solutions logo, National ParcelMap Data Portal, NPDP, and Rooftop Accuracy are trademarks of BSI. All other trademarks and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.