CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
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WORKSHOP ON SPATIAL DATA USABILITY
November 19-20, 2001
Center for Geo-Information
Wageningen UR, The Netherlands
Organized by:
Prof. Dr. A.K. Bregt, Dr M. Wachowicz and Dr G.J. Hunter
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BACKGROUND
Almost 150 years ago a London doctor combined maps of cholera deaths
and water pumps to discover the source of a deadly epidemic, and the
case has since become an acclaimed use of spatial analysis taught to
generations of geography students worldwide. Moving forward to the
present day, data mining techniques are now radically changing the way
supermarkets think about product placement within their stores, and
telephone customers are moving away from their traditional
"YellowPages" directories and turning instead to enhanced "YellowMap"
products. While these are all very positive examples, on the other hand
a recent UK government hearing into the establishment of an underground
radioactive waste repository determined not to proceed with this major
project after the results of groundwater hydrology modeling were
rejected because they could not be validated. While each of these cases
involves the application of spatial data, more importantly they
demonstrate either extremely high or low degrees of data "usability",
which in turn results in very positive or negative economic, social,
environmental or scientific impacts.
Our interest here lies in understanding exactly what distinguishes
these cases from others. Is it the correct choice of data, models and
algorithms for a given application, is it simply a matter of data
quality, is it the "interestingness" or "unexpectedness" of the data
(as knowledge discovers would say), or is it the integration of data
and adding of value that produces these extreme examples? Clearly,
with a better understanding of data usability we might be able to
increase the number of "successes" and reduce the "failures" in the
application of spatial data. Accordingly, we invite participants to
attend this workshop on usability and to consider the following core
questions:
1. What do we mean by "usability"?
2. Why is usability important?
3. What are the characteristics of spatial data usability?
4. What are the research problems to be solved in spatial data
usability?
5. What should the research priorities be?
FIRST CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
All interested participants are invited to submit an abstract (1-page
maximum) by email to the contact address below. Abstracts should
include a title and the author's name, address and contact details.
Abstracts will form the basis for a short presentation by each
participant at the workshop. Presenters are not required to submit a
full paper. There is no charge for attending the workshop and
participants are responsible for organizing their own travel and
accommodation, however the availability of lower-cost university
accommodation in Wageningen is currently being investigated.
Deadline for Abstracts: October 15, 2001
Invited Speaker: Dr Gary Hunter, Associate Professor and Reader
` Department of Geomatics, University of
Melbourne, Australia
Further Information:
Monica Wachowicz
Wageningen UR
Centre for Geo-Information
Droevendaalsesteeg 3
PO BOX 47
6700 AA Wageningen
The Netherlands
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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