I am sorry, but a meeting on social cartography which is limited to '35-40' folks _is_ super elite, and to be honest, is probably a group that should be alienated.
On Jan 3, 2008 10:41 AM, P Kishor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Andrew, > > Perhaps you don't care too much about the relations between the open > source community and the "super elite and private VGI-dubbing" group > that met at Santa Barbara, but, if you do, please note that statements > like this are needlessly alienating. > > The meeting was well announced in various forums, including, I > believe, on Geowanking. The meeting was open to everyone who submitted > a position paper and application and got selected -- they had about > 35-40 folks from all over the spectrum -- private industry (ESRI, > Teleatlas, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo...), academia (too many to list), > open source (myself, Steve Coast...), government (well, at least US > govt. -- CIA, NGIA, CERL, Los Alamos National Labs), non-profit > (National Geographic...). I don't consider myself super elite nor > private, yet I was there. This was indeed the first, afaik, attempt by > academia to recognize this "phenomenon" that we, in the open source > community, have been living for the past many years. Nevertheless, it > just seems bad form to disabuse or denigrate this initiative in any > way whatsoever. Glib criticism is just that, nothing more. > > Here is my summary of the two days of meeting. I hope this helps > capture what happened in that "VGI-dubbing" session -- > > Workshop on Volunteered Geographic Information > Dec 13-14, 2007 > Upham Hotel, Santa Barbara, CA > > Approximately 30 participants. The participant list and contributed > issues papers are available at > http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/projects/vgi/participants.html > > Presentations ranged from smart sensors for solving global problems > (think cell phones that transmit geocoded ambient information, digital > traces that we leave everywhere we go such a while swiping a subway > card, crossing a traffic light, working at a wifi hotspot, or talking > on the cellphone [1] to GPS units that can be extended with low-cost > measurement devices: for example, GPS that not only records water > locations, but also measures water quality [2]) to VGI from the > grassroots where citizens contribute and fill in the gaps that the > government can't or won't [3]. OpenStreetMap was presented as a > specific case of organized VGI [4] to personalized driving routes [5] > VGI implies connectivity. > > Waldseemüller map was shown as one of the first documented examples of > VGI. In today's world, while a formal naming process for placenames > exists, technology makes it possible to have multiple names for a > single location. VGI itself is described by many different terms: > user-generated content/collective intellegence/crowdsourcing/asserted > information. Whatever it is called, it leads to empowerment of > millions who are untrained and have no authority otherwise. VGI leads > to non-uniform coverage as only "interesting" places tend to get > covered, and depends on web search engines to allow us to find it. > There are three types of sensors: inert or fixed; carried on moving > objects; and human beings. A key trait of VGI is that humans act as > sensors. This is really "citizen science" in action, and some of its > examples are the Christmas bird count and Project GLOBE. Some possible > research questions to consider are: Why do people do this? Is it > self-promotion (exhibitionism, retaining "ownership" of contributed > data); altruism; a desire to fill gaps in the available data; or > sharing with friends? Studying the range of authority and assertion, > the potential for subversion of information, and the review process > which may or may not be localized [6]. > > Almost 80% of all decisions are based on spatial information. Like in > any decision-making, information loops exist in geographic information > based decision-making as well. Characterizing VGI quality: > completeness, consistency. Notions of place, discovering VGI, > integrating VGI and GI, grounding semantics, modeling trust and > reputation, liability. Metaphors for web interaction, incentives, > social semiosis with VGI. Scaling the loops: from geeks to everybody, > from GPS tracks and images to rich data and services, from > disconnected loops to interfaced loops, from a few big social networks > to many small ones [7]. > > There is room for both VGI and authoritative GI, for different > purposes as well as to validate the former against the latter. One way > to think about it is that VGI is "action driven" while GI is "process > driven." VGI is basically observational assertions and metadata about > such assertions are very important [8]. I offered Amazon's "Real > Name" feature as an example of metadata about assertors. ESRI also > demonstrated their distributed GIS platform that allows loosely > coupled authors and users, mashups, and use of standard APIs with > ArcGIS as a system for authoring, serving and using VGI/AGI. ArcGIS > server has a crawl-able, KML-tagged "Services Explorer" [9] Jack > summarized with his observations on the entire workshop. He commented > on GIS and VGI relationship — how can GIS users use VGI data? How does > GIS support VGI? Does VGI have the promise of SDI? How can we mine VGI > data for experts use? VGI benefits greatly from GIS concepts — spatial > referencing system, visualization and query tools, web servers and > services, shared data bases. What would GIS professionals say about > VGI? Well, a good basemap is important, data models are important, > standard workflows to create, maintain, edit and manage data are > important, good geographic data requires a lot of work, spatial > analysis modeling requires consistent data models, VGI observation > data and assertions are valuable but how do we organize and integrate? > (Spatial data mining, ETL) Six types of geographic knowledge: geog > data, data models, geoprocessing models, geospatial workflows, > metadata, maps and visualization. Distinction between amateur and > professional systems: LA street lights, NESA street lights (Denmark, > allows neighbors to dim their street lights), DHS security, NYC 311, > BLM surveys, WWF Forest Watch. > > Google asserted that we are sitting on the long tail of geographic > data (breadth: how many places we know; depth: how much do we know > about each of those places). Google has counted seven million "My > Maps" instances, 300 million Google Earth activations, more than > 50,000 API sites, and estimates 1000 human lifetimes spent looking at > satellite photos. They call this the emergence of a geoweb, and are > working on creating a new geoweb search [10]. > National Geographic is geoenabling its content. They demonstrated Meta > Lens, a web based platform for managing geo-enabled content and talked > about LandScope America (to be launched in 11 months) in partnership > with NatureServe. NG believes that while we are in great shape as far > as imagery is concerned, the GIS data are spotty albeit very rich. It > needs to be better supported and aggregated. While GIS data are in a > pretty good shape at small scales and getting better at very large > scales, VGI might help fill in the "gap in the map" in between small > and very large scales [11]. > > Harvard is embarking on creating an "Africa Map," a one-stop shopping > for Africa continent base maps, online atlas and index, a gateway to > more specific data searches across multiple systems, search > non-spatial visual data, and a repository for Africa research > projects. There is a lot of data on Africa, but not many know about > it. Africa has been mapped by colonial powers for over a hundred > years. Most of the continent is LandSat (not very good imagery). > Russians have the best mapping of Africa. [12] > > Don Cooke observed that users of geographic information are two orders > of magnitude greater after Google Earth than before [13]. > > I gave a presentation on the Science Commons Open Data Mark. Last > Thursday this was still an "upcoming data mark" which became official > three days later! Some of you may know that I have been involved in > this initiative since May's Brazil workshop on open access and the > subsequent follow-up in Paris in September. The Paris workshop was > really where most of the ideas of the Data Mark were crystallized, so > I have been able to develop a presentation that I am going around > giving wherever I can. I will continue to refine that presentation and > offer it online sometime soon. > > Some of the many, many Research Questions: what are the researchable > questions? What disciplines should be involved? What are the roles of > the academies, private sector, agencies, public? What is the legal > status/ownership of VGI? What points of view are missing? What > activities might maintain this momentum? What might be done to > publish, reach wider audiences? > > The findings of the workshop will be published. The final outlet is > not determined, but it might be a special issue of a suitable journal > such as the Journal of SDI Research (IJSDIR) or the GeoJournal. > > [1] Sarah Williams. Spatial Information Design Laboratory, Columbia University > [2] Rajan Gupta. Los Alamos National Labs > [3] Sarah Elwood. University of Washington; David Tulloch. Rutgers > University; Morgan Bearden. The National Map, USGS > [4] Steve Coast. OpenStreetMap > [5] John Krumm. Microsoft. > [6] Mike Goodchild. [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [7] Werner Kuhn. University of Muenster > [8] Jack Dangermond. ESRI > [9] David Maguire. ESRI > [10] Lior Ron. Google > [11] Allen Carroll. National Geographic > [12] Ben Lewis. Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis > [13] Don Cooke. TeleAtlas > > > On 1/3/08, Andrew Turner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Anyone that attended the super-elite and private VGI-dubbing > > discussion in December at UCSB want to enlighten us all on various > > interesting matters that were discussed? > > > > http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/projects/vgi/ > > > > > > On Jan 3, 2008 12:53 PM, michael gould <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > By the way, although Goodchild's GeoJournal article is not so accessible, > > > a > > > similar version *is* available at > > > > > > > > > > > > http://ijsdir.jrc.it/editorials/goodchild.pdf > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > cheers, > > > > > > > > > > > > ------- > > > > > > Michael Gould > > > > > > Centro de Visualización Interactiva www.cevi.uji.es > > > > > > Dept. Information Systems (LSI), Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castellón, > > > Spain > > > > > > email: gould (at) lsi.uji.es // email2: mgould (at) opengeospatial.org > > > > > > research group www.geoinfo.uji.es // personal www.mgould.com > > > > > > AGILE www.agile-online.org > > > > > > Vespucci Summer Institute www.vespucci.org > > > > > > Erasmus Mundus: Master in Geospatial Technologies www.mastergeotech.info > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Geowanking mailing list > > > [email protected] > > > http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Andrew Turner > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] 42.2774N x 83.7611W > > http://highearthorbit.com Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA > > Introduction to Neogeography - http://oreilly.com/catalog/neogeography > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Geowanking mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking > > > > > > > -- > Puneet Kishor > http://punkish.eidesis.org/ > Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies > http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/ > Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) > http://www.osgeo.org/ > > _______________________________________________ > Geowanking mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking > -- Now offering training and consulting in maximizing corporate efficiency using Web 2.0 tools and techniques. Rich Gibson Chief Scientist (and bottle washer), Locative Technologies http://mappinghacks.com http://geocoder.us http://testingrange.com AIM period3equals _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking
