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• Solicit input from users of raster data in the community through a letter asking 
for review of the raster form as it is currently written. Additional information 
is needed because the raster form has not received as extensive testing as the 
vector form. 
• Rework the standard in order to comply with requirements of NIST and to 
simplify the documentation by restructuring the format and renumbering. 
Completion of the above tasks and consideration of the remaining recommendations re 
ceived from phase 2 testing required significant revision of the standard. The Board 
recognized that in order to make these major modifications, submission of the standard to 
the NIST had to be delayed; however, the rework was deemed necessary and worthwhile in 
the long term. The changes simplify the documentation, decoding tasks, and encoding of 
attributes, and create a more understandable and usable document. Based on peer reviews, 
additional simplification measures were undertaken by the Technical Review Board. 
The Board met again in July 1989 to review progress of the working groups established in 
May and to discuss remaining issues. One outstanding issue considered was that of 
conformance. The Board established a working group to review this topic and determine 
conformance statements that should be included in SDTS. A representative from the NIST 
is assisting in this effort. 
A meeting of the Board in December 1989 resolved most of the outstanding issues of 
content. Editorial revisions prior to final reformatting and renumbering was the primary 
agenda item when the Board met again in March 1990; and identification and correction of 
ambiguities, discontinuities, and misstatements was undertaken at the final meeting of the 
Board in May 1990. The standard was finalized and submitted to the NIST in June 1990. 
The National Institute of Standards and Technology provided technical assistance to support 
the final phase of preparing the proposed standard for FIPS processing. Support was 
provided in evaluating the standard in terms of FIPS standards and guidelines for data 
administration, data base management, graphics, and related items; in preparing a strategy 
for successful finalization of the standard, including the identification of potential problems 
and issues and recommendations for resolving them; and in initiating the planning, develop 
ment, and implementation of a conformance testing program for the standard. This coordi 
nation was undertaken to ensure that potential problems were identified before the standard 
was finalized, in order to avoid extended delays and rework during the FIPS approval 
process. 
To make the standards development process an open process, NIST follows rulemaking 
procedures modeled after those established by the Administrative Procedures Act. When 
technical development of a standard is complete or stable enough to allow for commercial 
implementation, NIST prepares a Federal Register notice announcing the proposed FIPS for 
public review and comment. The Federal Register notice and proposed FIPS are reviewed 
by the Department of Commerce (DoC) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
prior to publication in the Federal Register. 
A 90-day period is provided for review and submission of comments on the proposed 
FIPS. At the same time that the proposed FIPS is announced in the Federal Register,