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Bridging Geographic Information with Mainstream IT: Challenges and Opportunities

Explore the integration of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) with mainstream IT, addressing SDI technologies, current practices, challenges, and the impact on e-government solutions. Learn about the harmonization efforts like INSPIRE and the evolving trends in IT. Discover how SDIs simplify data access while facing semantic interoperability challenges.

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Bridging Geographic Information with Mainstream IT: Challenges and Opportunities

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  1. SDI technologies and mainstream IT Clemens Portele interactive instruments GmbH 24.03.2009

  2. Motivation • Historically geographic information has been an island in the world of information systems • Key success criteria for the Danish SDI framework: • Make spatial information a natural component in e-government solutions • Ensure the integration between the SDI and mainstream IT • Current SDIs and SDI technologies – do they help or hinder the integration of geographic information into other state-of-the-art IT applications ? Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  3. SDIs – The original point of departure ... • Access to geographic information typically via digital media or by downloading complete datasets • User has to deal with interpreting heterogeneous data in different formats and extract the information he needs user user ... ... dataset dataset dataset Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  4. SDIs – Current practice ... • SDIs allow publication and online access to geographic information via standardised web services • User still has to support / understand a variety of data specifications (if they are available at all) and software that is able to process the data • User requires software that knows how to accesses the particular web services • Result: Simplified, granular access to data, but does not address semantic interoperability user user ... ... WFS, WMS, … WFS, WMS, … WFS, WMS, … dataset dataset dataset Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  5. SDIs – What is increasingly happening ... • Efforts ongoing in SDI activities like INSPIRE to harmonise data content offerings (typically by agreeing on data specifications based on the ISO 19100 series and OGC standards) • Each content provider has to translate between the internal data model and the agreed data specification • Without such specifications, using data is usually still difficult as clients can rarely interpret and make full use of the data • Even with them a significant amount of out-of-band communication is required so that a client can work with the data user user ... ... WFS, WMS, … WFS, WMS, … WFS, WMS, … dataset dataset dataset Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  6. SDIs – Summarising challenges for users ... • A significant amount of out-of-band communication and knowledge about geographic information concepts is required so that a user – or his software – is able to access or use the data. • For example: • How to find the data ? • Search interfaces • Metadata • How to get the data ? • Service interfaces • Access control • What can I do with the data ? • Rights • How to understand the data ? • Data specifications • Metadata user user ... ... WFS, WMS, … WFS, WMS, … WFS, WMS, … dataset dataset dataset Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  7. Take INSPIRE as an example ... Application and Geoportals Service Bus Rights Management Layer Registry Service Discovery Service Transf. Service ViewService DownloadService InvokeSDService Registers Service Metadata Data Set Metadata Spatial Data Set Thematic DS Framework for harmonized DS Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  8. Take INSPIRE as an example ... Metadata Services Data specs Data/service sharing Monitoring/reporting Implementing Rules Technical Guidance Standards/ References Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  9. How successful were SDIs so far ? Estimated German geographic information market volume: „In general, the market for public sector information has stagnated in recent years. The private sector has, for the most, turned to the private data market.“ Source: MICUS Management Consulting Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  10. How successful were SDIs so far ? • Some preliminary observations: • SDIs simplify access to and use of geographic information • They have the potential to improve e-government processes and applications • The impact outside of the public sector is low • SDIs so far have not created significant new market volume or reached a significant number of new users on their own Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  11. Trends in „Mainstream IT“ • Gartner Group: Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2008 Source: Gartner Group Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  12. Trends in „Mainstream IT“ • Gartner group‘s 2008 list of the Top 10 Disruptive Technologies that will effect IT in the next five years • Multicore and hybrid processors • Virtualisation and fabric computing • Social networks and social software • Cloud computing and cloud/Web platforms • Web mashups • User Interface • Ubiquitous computing • Contextual computing • Augmented reality • Semantics Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  13. Trends in „Mainstream IT“ • Gartner group‘s 2008 list of the Top 10 Disruptive Technologies that will effect IT in the next five years • Multicore and hybrid processors • Virtualisation and fabric computing • Social networks and social software • Cloud computing and cloud/Web platforms • Web mashups • User Interface • Ubiquitous computing • Contextual computing • Augmented reality • Semantics “The ability to combine information into a common dashboard or visualise it using geo-location or mapping software is extremely powerful.” Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  14. Trends in „Mainstream IT“ • Gartner group‘s 2008 list of the Top 10 Disruptive Technologies that will effect IT in the next five years • Multicore and hybrid processors • Virtualisation and fabric computing • Social networks and social software • Cloud computing and cloud/Web platforms • Web mashups • User Interface • Ubiquitous computing • Contextual computing • Augmented reality • Semantics “Social software provides a platform that encourages participation and feedback from employees and customers alike.” “The added value for businesses is being able to collect this feedback into a single point that reflects collective attitudes, which can help shape a business strategy.” Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  15. Geographic information and non-expert applicationsExamples: Expedia Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  16. Geographic information and non-expert applicationsExamples: Wikimapia Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  17. Geographic information and non-expert applicationsExamples: Mashup AP/Yahoo/Google Maps Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  18. Geographic information and non-expert applicationsExamples: Mashup Craiglist/Google Maps Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  19. Geographic information and non-expert applicationsExamples: Mashup Wildfires Google Maps/Fire Authority • „By now, you're undoubtedly aware of the terrible bushfire tragedy that is unfolding in Victoria. • „We've today pulled together a Flash Map, containing the latest up-to-date information about fire locations and their status from the Country Fire Authority (CFA). The Flash Map is updated in real-time from the CFA website via an RSS feed. We hope that it's of some use to people who may be affected, to emergency services personnel, and that it takes some load off other websites which are being inundated. The map certainly makes the scale of this disaster immediately apparent.“ Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  20. Geographic information and non-expert applications • Preliminary observation: • The last years saw a dramatic increase of such non-expert applications using geographic information, yet governmental SDIs do not usually play a significant role in them Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  21. How to find the data ?Issues • Special Search Engines • Location usually has no value on its own – value is created by associating thematic information with location • I.e., users do not search for geographic information per se • Relevant geographic information should thus be discoverable using general or theme specific search engines – not only via Catalogue Services • Metadata • As a corollary, metadata for geographic information should be harvestable by those search engines Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  22. How to find the data ?Issues • Metadata (cont‘d) • Today, metadata for geographic information is largely equated with ISO 19115 – arguably this does not cover all the metadata users are really interested in (at least those that are not geo-experts) • Users are probably more interested in user-centric and user-provided metadata • Did others use the data ? Who ? • What worked, what didn‘t ? • Etc. Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  23. How to find the data ?Issues • Metadata (cont‘d) • Example from a different domain (travel) Metadata contributed by the hotel (amenities, address, photos, etc.) User-provided metadata User-provided metadata (reviews, ratings, photos, etc.) Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  24. How to get the data ?Issues • Service interfaces • OGC Web Services require quite specific client support • For example, to construct a query request to a Web Feature Service one has to invoke a GetCapabilities request and likely a DescribeFeatureType request first – this requires a significant amount of prior knowledge to eventually get access to the data • Service metadata • In SDIs, metadata about services is usually captured in representations unique to the geo-community, ISO 19119 and/or OGC Web Service Metadata (“Capabilities”) • For example, SOAP-based architectures typically use WSDL to describe services Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  25. How to get the data ?Issues • Specific approach to web services • OGC Web Services are largely based on an architecture and approach to web services developed ≈10 years ago • This approach has been successful and has been widely implemented in applications used by geo-experts • As a result, change to support additional architectural styles and service bindings (SOAP/WSDL, RESTful) has been slow • There is no standardised approach to authentication and access control so far (this is a general issue – not only an SDI issue) Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  26. How to get the data ?Issues • APIs vs OGC Web Services • An integration into e-government applications will generally require a simple Web API that hides complexity and exposes the capabilities needed by the application • In Denmark, see "Vis Stedet" (Show the Location) as an example • APIs should be considered as part of SDIs (this is currently usually not the case), in particular if they target non-experts, too Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  27. How to understand the data ?Issues • As stated earlier, a significant amount of out-of-band communication (data specifications) and knowledge about geographic information concepts (standards) is required so that a user is able to use the data accessed from services • Most non-expert applications do not need all the information – APIs can help to hide complexity Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  28. How to understand the data ?Issues • Exchange formats • Traditional GIS formats (e.g. SHP, MIF) are well supported by GIS applications • For an integration into mainstream IT, formats that are commonly understood are essential (e.g. XML, PNG) • GML is an XML framework that has the advantage that it can be used to encode concepts according to the geographic information standards used in SDIs • One advantage of KML is its immediate usability in commonly used geobrowsers and APIs – which lead to quick uptake Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  29. SDIs and mainstream IT – Conclusions • SDIs today are mainly built for geographic information experts • They support the virtualisation of the infrastructure and provide data and access to it in a standardised way • In general an additional API layer id required to make the offerings accessible to non-expert applications, e.g. in e-government, to hide unnecessary complexity • The specification of SDIs should include Web APIs and protocols like (Geo)RSS • Support encodings like KML that can be used to visualise geographic information in common APIs and geobrowsers • SDIs should learn from Web 2.0 and allow for an integration of user-provided metadata and data Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

  30. Thank you! Clemens Portele Managing Director  Trierer Strasse 70-72, 53115 Bonn, Germany  +49 228 91410 73 portele@interactive-instruments.de Clemens Portele - 24.03.2009

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