Introduction from Waitakere, New Zealand

[Andrew Bashfield <BASHFIA@waitakere.govt.nz>]

Hi All, Andrew Bashfield, writing on behalf of the GIS Group, Information   
Technology Services, Waitakere City Council, New Zealand. For those of   
you unfamiliar with New Zealand, Waitakere City takes in the western part   
of Greater Auckland.

I have just subscribed to this forum in an effort to get in touch with   
people who share a desire to document their data holdings in a consistant   
way. (Some of you may recall me from my past days as a GIS Consultant for   
Intergraph, based in Melbourne.)

It's time to adopt a metadata standard and document our data sets. We   
have a particular emphasis on "fitness for use" and have the issue of   
combining many data sets created by different agencies for different   
purposes. Apart from documentation being good housekeeping, our need for   
metadata stems from the requirement to be able to defend our land   
development boundaries in appeal proceedings.

Do any other subscribers represent Local Authorities? Have you had   
significant progress in implementation of metadata standards?
cheers Andrew Bashfield: GIS Project Manager, Waitakere City Council,
Private Bag 93109, Henderson, WAITAKERE CITY, NEW ZEALAND
Phone:  +64-9-836-8000 ext 8344, Fax:  +64-9-836-8001
Email:  bashfia@waitakere.govt.nz
http://www.waitakere.govt.nz