Blog
2020 In Review: Building a Stronger Public Safety GIS Community
Seeking Opportunities Amid the Challenges 2020 has been a year without precedent, punctuated by incredible successes and near-impossible challenges, none...
READNG9-1-1 Address Points and Boundaries: More than Just Points and Polygons
This month, we continue our discussion about the role GIS plays in Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1). In our October article,...
READNG9-1-1 GIS STRATEGIC PLANNING
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. When we ask communities what it means for them to be...
READNext Generation 9-1-1 Road Centerlines Are More than Just Lines
On Tuesday, October 20 DATAMARK’s Sandy Dyre and Jeff Ledbetter will host a live webinar on NG9-1-1 Road Centerlines. To...
READSolving Common Public Safety GIS Issues with DATAMARK VEP
VEP is DATAMARK’s cloud-native Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution for the creation, aggregation, provisioning, and maintenance of public safety GIS data. VEP...
READOvercoming Obstacles: Building a Better You
In 2013, ENP Brian MacMurdo was tipping the scales at 430 pounds. Early in his career he was guzzling tankards of sugary, caffeinated beverages during his night...
READHonoring Our DATAMARK GIS Staff and Those Currently Serving in the PSAP Part II
In Part I of this blog, we shared the tales of DATAMARK teammates who served on the front lines of...
READHonoring Our DATAMARK Staff and Those Currently Serving in the PSAP
At DATAMARK, we are proud to have a team of seasoned experts who have had long careers in the PSAP...
READDATAMARK Free Virtual Public Safety Conference
If any industry understands the critical nature of keeping business as usual during a crisis, it’s the Public Safety industry....
READSuccessful Grant Writing for Public Safety
Successful Grant Writing for Public Safety By Sharon Lotonuu Writing and applying for Public Safety government grants is often a...
READ10 Steps to NG911 GIS Readiness in 2020
DATAMARK's New Years' resolution is to assist our community in maintaining the most accurate Public Safety GIS data possible. To...
READOver 25 Project Wins, Multiple Onboarded NG9-1-1 Customers, New Experts, Major Public Safety GIS Product Enhancements and 57 Conferences Attended – 2019 Year in Review (Part 2)
In part one of this three-part year in review blog series, we looked at how some of our new customers...
READOver 25 Project Wins, Multiple Onboarded NG9-1-1 Customers, New Experts, Major Public Safety GIS Product Enhancements and 57 Conferences Attended – 2019 Year in Review (Part 3)
In part one , we looked at how some of our new customers leveraged DATAMARK public safety GIS products and services in...
READOver 25 Project Wins, Multiple Onboarded NG9-1-1 Customers, New Experts, Major Public Safety GIS Product Enhancements and 57 Conferences Attended – 2019 Year in Review (Part 1)
2019 was quite a busy year for DATAMARK. We won over 25 projects and onboarded multiple NG9-1-1 customers, each with...
READGIS Boundaries in an NG9-1-1 Environment – Just Tell Me Where to Move the Line
Several GIS boundary datasets are required to support 911 call routing in a NG9-1-1 environment. These include: PSAP (Public Safety...
READThe Benefits of SaaS based solutions in 9-1-1 Centers
What does SaaS mean to the modern 9-1-1 center? By definition, it means that 9-1-1 centers can take advantage of...
READWorking with Grants Consultants for Public Safety and NG9-1-1: Some Important Tips
Our DATAMARK team members have extensive expertise working in public safety and the grant process with state and local jurisdictions...
READEsri User Conference 2019
The Esri User Conference 2019, themed “GIS—The Intelligent Nervous System,” opens on July 8 at the San Diego Convention Center....
READHow to Choose an NG9-1-1 GIS Data Partner
For most organizations, building and maintaining geographic information systems (GIS) datasets for Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) likely will involve the...
READNENA 2019 Activities
NENA 2019 kicks off in Orlando later this week and DATAMARK is participating in and hosting a variety of activities...
READWhy NG9-1-1 GIS Data Can Never Be Truly Complete
Municipalities, counties and states seeking 100 percent accuracy in their geographic information systems (GIS) data may just be looking for...
READThe Ultimate NG9-1-1 Glossary
Do public safety professionals speak their own language? With an abundance of acronyms, it can certainly seem that way. Whether...
READIs there still a lack of belief in GIS among emergency management leaders?
Adopting the use of GIS for disaster response In a StateScoop podcast earlier this year, Richard Butgereit, director of catastrophe...
READThe Benefits of Public Safety and GIS Collaboration
Accurate addressing data is of paramount importance to all Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) stakeholders, yet confusion lingers as to who...
READUncovering Hidden NG9-1-1 GIS Data Problems with DATAMARK VEP
GIS Professionals spend years collecting and curating high-quality data, including site/structure location data using GPS or road centerlines from satellite...
READHonoring Public Safety Telecommunicators for Dedication, Service in the 9-1-1 Community
It’s that time of year again: National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week (NPSTW) when we honor telecommunications personnel in the public...
READNew Team Members Bring Public Safety Service and NG9-1-1 Expertise to DATAMARK
DATAMARK is committed to the public safety community and this is reflected in our efforts to recruit team members with...
READPublic Safety GIS and Lean Six Sigma’s Shared Mission for Quality
Lean Six Sigma and public safety geographic information systems (GIS) are two completely disparate fields, each with volumes of research...
READ“Left at the Golden Apple”: How Addressing Evolved and Affects the NG9-1-1 Transition Today
Believe it or not, there was a time before addresses existed. Centuries ago, people would identify structures with symbols, rather...
READDATAMARK Team Expands Technical Public Safety GIS Team to Support NG9-1-1 Deployments
The DATAMARK team at Michael Baker International has expanded to include new technical experts in GIS data analysis, product management,...
READDATAMARK Team Lead to Instruct URISA Workshop at the Esri User Conference
Michael Baker International’s Associate Vice President, Public Safety GIS and DATAMARK lead, Sandi Stroud, will be instructing the URISA workshop...
READWhat Your NG9-1-1 RFP Should Include (And a Couple Things It Shouldn’t)
As a technology vendor and a division of an engineering consulting firm, the DATAMARK team at Michael Baker International has...
READ9-1-1 vs. NG9-1-1: A Quick Guide for Public Safety Stakeholders
The transition from E9-1-1 to Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) is an overhaul to the legacy systems that currently support first...
READTop 5 Considerations on the Journey to NG9-1-1
We’ve all heard the phrase, “It’s not about the destination. It’s about the journey.” (more…)
READA Matter of Life and Data – The GIS Data Gap and Life-Critical Situations
There’s no doubt that having the correct location information can mean the difference between life and death when someone makes...
READDATAMARK Team Adds Public Safety and GIS Experts to Ease Transitions to NG 9-1-1
The DATAMARK team at Michael Baker International is expanding to include new experts in mapping, 9-1-1, public safety and geographic...
READDATAMARK Team Shares Insights on NG9-1-1 with NENA 2018 Attendees
Members of the Michael Baker International DATAMARK team are hosting three educational sessions at the NENA 2018 Conference and Expo...
READDATAMARK VEP will help ease transition to NG9-1-1
Today (June 12, 2018) marks an important milestone as we’re officially launching DATAMARK VEP, our software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that validates,...
READWhy NG9-1-1 Requires Addressing Beyond the 98
Addressing data is not static. Unlike, say, a trusted recipe that is passed down from generation to generation, maps on...
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