On Mar 11, 2009, at 1:37 PM, Eric Wolf wrote:
Fellow Wankers, I have reached the point in my PhD where I have to decide exactly what the "big question" my dissertation will address. This is a Geography PhD, so the "big question" has to be focused on Geography, not Computer Science. And since it's not a Masters Degree, it can't just be a novel application of existing concepts. Thus far, I have been focusing on problems of automated generalization of vector features. My planned question to answer has been something along the lines of "Can database ontologies be used to guide conceptual generalization for cartographic applications?" It's a very heady topic and attempts to blend a currently "hot" topic, ontologies, with a classically difficult problem: generalization. But it's also a very contrived project since I get much more excited about things a little more "hands-on" and grounded in application. So my advisor left the door open for me to try to come up with a "big question" based on some of my current efforts in my job at USGS. I have been playing with ways to enrich the capabilities of the FOSS4G web mapping stack for The National Map. Specifically, I've started exploring embedding geoprocessing methods inside OpenLayers whilst designing an architecture for rapid deployment of tile cached basemaps. This really excites me because I feel like I'm making real contributions rather than just reformulating some philosophical BS about difficult, vague questions. My question to you, dear GeoWankers, is: What kind of big question could or should I attempt to answer with FOSS4G-oriented efforts? Think big. Think vague... -Eric
"OGC Web Pipe Service" -- Sean Gillies [email protected] http://sgillies.net _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org
