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Abstract
"The Pluggable Client," an Approach for Integrating Data from Disparate Information Systems to Support the Wildlife Management Business in the Forest Service
Track: System Implementation for GIS
Author(s): Chris Frye, David Paige
As managers and users of geospatial information, we have long recognized that people throughout the organization must be able to easily integrate data obtained and managed by different business areas of the organization. However, it has only been recently that we have had all the necessary technologies, such as GIS technology, coupled with a client/server computing environment and relational database management technologies, to realize our corporate goal--having data entered once and used by many. But how should we approach the integration of new decision support tools into an established information technology environment? This paper presents an approach to this important question. In this paper, we discuss ways that the USDA Forest Service has begun to design and implement decision-support tools using a "pluggable client" approach. This approach ensures that users can integrate work, and resultant data, performed in separate parts of the information environment whether connected or disconnected from the local area network. Integration is achieved using various technical strategies and tools ranging from a consistent corporate software environment to standardized data structures and shared table schemas accessed through a pluggable client application and synchronized using a server back-office solution.
Chris Frye
USDA Forest Service
1755 Cleveland Highway
Gainesville, GA 30501
USA
Phone: 770-297-3013
Fax: 770-297-3001
E-mail: cfrye@fs.fed.us