Last year I pretty much gave up on the AGI conference as it did not seem to be representative of the Geographic Industry I could see around me. However over the past few months my attitude has begun to change, finally I pushed into completely reversing my opinion my this communication..
Yes,this is a Twitter message from AGI conference organisers announcing a stream at the conference addressing the issues and potential of the Geoweb, mobile applications, mash ups etc.
Its great to see the AGI making use of Twitter, as it is a mechanism to communicate with a whole new generation of GI developers and users.
This is a great opportunity for both communities to learn from each other, and I hope is a reflection of the AGI actually moving to represent the wider community of Geographic Information users, rather than just a fan club for it’s largest corporate sponsor.
With last months launch of Google Earth 5.0 much “mainstream” interest was focused on the capability to view under the ocean, and of course to begin the search for the lost city of Atlantis 🙂
For many however, myself included, the most important new capability is the ability to view historic images from the Google archive of satellite and aerial imagery.
Wembley Stadium 1997-2007
Early days of course, but the potential to view history in this way has massive potential as illustrated by this image of Wembley Stadium in London. As you can imagine the back office system needed to deliver this are substantial, but the limiting factor remains access to imagery from around the world.
As to be expected by now the greatest availability is in the United States where the enlightened federal data policy means that it is possible to view Mountain View Ca. from the late 1940s — fantastic for viewing the development of the city from farmland to Silicon Valley.
Similar imagery of course was acquired at the same time in Europe, if would be wonderful to see it also made available..
Written and submitted from the Fira Exhibition Centre, Barcelona, using its public wifi network
As highlighted by Keir on the excellent Google Maps Mania last week, AfricaMap is an interesting attempt to build a repository of geospatial data about Africa, developed by the Center for Geographic analysis at Harvard University.
Map of Africa
What is interesting about this site, is both the scope of the project and the approach taken.
From decades many individuals, groups and organisations have been trying to develop Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) at a regional or global level (GSDI), with it must be said very limited success so far.
Unlike many previous attempts at developing a portal to a regional SDI, Africamap tries to hide as much complexity as possible from the user just presenting a map display and a search tool – Great start after-all I would argue that more than anything else a SDI is really just an example of a vertical search application.
But no.. You have been mislead dear user, just searching for something like “Sudan Population” or Nile Delta won’t give you any results – you need to select which maps layers (data-sets) you need to search first. This is not unusual in SDI implementations, but it would be like having to tell a generic web search tool, which websites the information you are looking for can be would.
This approach is, I believe, the result of a culture of system design that is dominated by data providers, not users. The user interface here has been influenced I’m sure by the creation of the metadata that SDI convention states is always the first step in building an SDI.
It’s not that the data is not available, it’s just that the approach taken so far by the SDI community makes its inaccessible to almost anyone other than the original data provider or someone who has the time to work out which map layers should be searched.
So some may argue, this and similar sites are designed for specialised users, who have intimate knowledge of this type of data and how it is structured, even so there is no reason to make access to this more difficult than it needs to be..
OK rant over, from a technology and tools point of view Africmap demonstrates what is possible now with a freely available web tools and open standards based geospatial services, and without doubt the team at Harvard should be congratulated for doing the hard back office work to provide access to all this important information from one place.
This is not yet GSDI 2.0 then, but GSDI 1.5 and a pointer to the direction which ultimately may finally deliver on the GSDI vision.
To understand more about the efforts to create a GSDI, visit the GSDI conference this year in collaboration with the EC’s third INSPIRE conference in Rotterdam in June.
Written and submitted from the Google Office, London.
OK, firstly I’m not a great royalist I must admit, but I am quite impressed by the new Royal Family website. As government websites go this is fairly impressive and well designed with great use of media, social network linking, FAQ’s etc.
Of course for me the most innovative part of the site is the Royal Diary Map, a simple tool well executed, which allows interested members of the public to find out where members of the Royal Family will be in the next two weeks.
What’s good enough for the Royal Family should be good enough for other parts of UK government don’t you think ?
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
Nobody can have failed to be moved by the tragedy of the Bush fires which have been devastating Victoria, Australia this weekend. As reported by Official Google Australia Blog the Google Geo team in Sydney worked fast yesterday to get a real-time map of the extent of the fires available online and is has seen extensive use over the last 24 hours.
A crucial part to making this happen beyond the skill and dedication of the Google team in Sydney, has been the system put in place by State of Victoria Country Fire Authority (CFA). This largely volunteer fire brigade have put in place an excellent web based system including a RSS feed of incidents which is used to produce the map.
This is a great example for all public sector providers of information.. provide your information in a form that allows reuse via different channels, not only does this spread the flow of information to as wide an audience as possible, it also reduces the direct traffic to your site during major events.
And for UK readers it is interesting to note that although protected by our familiar friend Copyright, these feeds are available and indeed designed for personal and non-commercial use.
Written and submitted from the Google Office, London.
Blogger at the excellent Mobile Industry Review, Ben Smith has developed one of the most useful services to emerge from the event that will become known to many as #uksnow.
UK trains is a BBC Backstage powered mash-up which sends travel update information from all the UK Train Operating companies to dedicated twitter feeds, so for me to find out if my train to work in running I just need to follow @uktr_southwest.
This morning most of the official web sources of public transport information failed under the weight of traffic, which just highlights, as Ben points out the, the value of publishing transport information via as many online channels as possible.
It would be great for example to be able to offer transit information for London of Google Maps as happens in New York or Chicago, perhaps fellow Londoners you might ask Transport for London why this is not possible ?
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
The influential Power of Information task force, the group working within the Cabinet Office to suggest better ways of using Government Information has published their interim report back to government in a “wiki-like” form to allow comments from the community before final publication.
The report make a number of recommendations which don’t really appear to be that radical, and are not a million miles away from suggestions I have made in the past, lets hope the influence of the cabinet office can move policy in Southampton with more success.
Here are the recommendations themselves..
▪Basic geographic data such as electoral and administrative boundaries, the location of public buildings, etc. should be available free of charge to all.
▪There should be simple, free access to general mapping and address data for modest levels of use by any user
▪Voluntary and community organisations pursuing public policy objects should benefit from straightforward standard provisions for ensuring access to geospatial data at all levels of use
▪Licensing conditions should be simplified and standardised across the board and, for all but the heaviest levels of use, should be on standard terms and conditions and should not depend on the intended use or the intended business model of the user.
▪The OpenSpace API, similar to but currently a constrained version of Google Maps should become the primary delivery point for the Ordnance Survey’s services
Although not a recommendation in itself, clearly a key point remains the OS view of derived data, and it viral effect on the creation of geospatial data in the UK, the current situation where even the smallest use of OS mapping in locating a new feature on a map results in the OS claiming IP on the whole map cannot continue.
Overall the report itself and the process by which it has been created are a great example of how Government can really make use of “web 2.0” approaches to change how policy is developed, discussed and communicated.
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
A brilliant result for mySociety and all who support openness in government, I guess that includes President Obama.
“And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account – to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.”
Today the UK Government shelved plans to exclude MP’s expenses from the Freedom of Information Act, a result of an active online campaign and the resulting loss of cross party support.
As Tom points out, this is a real example of the potential of citizen power in the age of the internet.
Great Stuff, and huge kudos to mySociety.
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
I thought this must be a joke, or pehaps a clever “Get Well Soon” card for Steve Jobs, you know don’t worry iLife is safe for the next six months because your competition is Microsoft Songsmith.
I still think maybe this is an elaborate joke, along the lines of the Microsoft Shoe commercial, just to demostrate the potential of spinning the blogosphere.. but it seems real ?
Love the fact they use a Macbook Pro covered in stickers in the video.
Written and submitted from the Google Office, London.
I often talk about the use of Google Earth for storytelling, illustrating a story with its geographical context displayed interactively is very powerful, to see what I mean just watch the first few minutes of the launch event for the new Palm Pre at last weeks CES show.
BTW Its great to see Palm that seem to be getting their original mojo back, remember how cool the original Palm V was..
Written and submitted from the Google Office, London.
