Bruce Westcott

  3393 Main Street
 Cabot, Vermont 05647

  Phone: 802.563.3444
  Email: bspatial@together.net
  • professional background,
  • technical & managerial competencies, and
  • current activities

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    Current Resume

Photo Credit
Bruce Westcott served as Executive Director of the Vermont Center for Geographic Information, Inc. (VCGI) from July 1992 until stepping down in May 1998. He was first appointed Director of Vermont's Office of Geographic Information Services -- the state agency from which VCGI emerged -- in 1990.  Currently Mr. Westcott offers assistance to public agencies and corporations in the areas of strategic information systems planning and GIS project management;  he continues to act as Senior Consultant to VCGI.
 
Biography & Background
VCGI Achievements
Clients & Projects		 Papers & Presentations
Other Links of Interest

What's New!
    Consulting and planning for the Intergraph SMMS family of spatial metadata management products (2001-2002)
    Metadata Training as part of the 1999 Cooperative Agreement Program "Don't Duck Metadata" sponsored by the Federal Geographic Data Committee; an advanced Metadata Workshop at the Towson University GIS Conference (June 1999)
    Progress on the NSDI Framework Transportation Identification Standard (January 1999)
    Washington GIC Strategic Business Planning Process (February 1999)
    Observations on Spatial Data Warehousing (November 1998)
    Thoughts on the role of NSDI / Framework "Area Integrator" (September 1998)
 
Thanks very much for visiting; please drop me email to let me know how I can help your organization!  I've added information about Intergraph's SMMS family of metadata management software, and about my work as a trainer and consultant for the FGDC's "Don't Duck Metadata" program.    -- Bruce Westcott, August 2002

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Professional Background

Prior to his baptism in spatial data development and management, he was a financial and database consultant for Timeline, Inc. (Bellevue, WA), and principal in a systems integration and software firm. He had also served as an information management consultant to the State of Vermont, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and other public agencies.

Mr. Westcott has served as President, Treasurer, and a Board member of the National States' Geographic Information Council (NSGIC). He has presented workshops and served as a panelist at conferences of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) since 1990.  His academic background includes undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science, and a Master's in Business Administration (Public Management Program: Boston University, 1979) specializing in Organizational Behavior. He believes that much of our daily professional activity relies on a repertoire of manipulative behaviors learned in a sandbox years ago. His work in group decision making is directed at helping participants to recognize and embrace these behaviors when helpful, while learning to employ honesty, vulnerability, and empathy in work situations.

Much of Mr. Westcott's spare time is spent in bicycling away from the inevitability of the ageing process; he jogs and swims enough to suffer through recreational triathlon races in the glorious Vermont summertime. He enjoys reading primary source accounts of the men and women who lived through the Civil War, and bushwhacking his way through the sites on which they fought.

VCGI Achievements

During the early 1990s Mr. Westcott led Vermont's early commitment to a standards-based, public spatial data program, implementing policy legislated in 1988 and supplemented by an Executive Order in 1989.  Weathering two changes in Administration, state budget shortfalls, and widespread concerns about public access to Vermont's GIS data assets, VCGI was born in 1992.  Addressing desires for public-private partnerships, a diversified revenue base and an independent center for GIS expertise and data distribution, Mr. Westcott drafted and worked for passage of Vermont's GIS policy statute in 1994 (amended 1998).

Each year VCGI is required to submit an Annual Report to the Governor and Legislator; Mr. Westcott has acted as the editor of past annual reports, relying heavily on VCGI staff and cooperating agencies to provide a full picture of GIS in Vermont.  For the past three years the Annual Report has focused on VGIS 2000, VCGI's goals for creating a Vermont Spatial Data Infrastructure by decade-end.

Recent VCGI projects for which Mr. Westcott served as project manager or was instrumental in initiating include:

Clients & Projects

Papers and Presentations

Other Links of Interests

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Copyright © 1999, 2007 Bruce Westcott, All Rights Reserved.
Photo by Juliana Westcott, Miss Hall's School (Class of '99)