<div>Jo,</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I agree with your contribution. Thank you also for your former mail to me: I'm rather stuffed with work these days. I'll come back to this.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>My only remark to the talk is that information models - either adapted or suplemental - as well as "best practices" will play a crucial role in "implementing rules". With best practices I mean human and machine readable modeling languages (which do you know?) which allow to discuss and define requirements on a higher level than formats.
</div>
<div><br>Regards,</div>
<div>Stefan<br> </div>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">2006/12/9, Jo Walsh <<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:jo@frot.org" target="_blank">jo@frot.org</a>>:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">dear all,<br><br>On Tuesday I am giving a talk at a conference organised by the<br>Romanian Space Agency which forms part of their preparation for the
<br>INSPIRE directive after Romania joins the EU next January.<br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://portal.rosa.ro/conferinte/2006_12_event/index.php?page=infoday-inspire" target="_blank">
http://portal.rosa.ro/conferinte/2006_12_event/index.php?page=infoday-inspire </a><br><br>The talk is catchily titled "An Open Source, Geospatial Web approach<br>to implementing INSPIRE" and is part open source geospatial plug, part
<br>rant about neogeo specifications, part metadata + GeoNetwork <br>obsessing, part open data propaganda. I am not sure if i will have<br>time to cover it all, or really what my fellow attendees are likely to<br>expect, so my tune might change before then. Nonetheless i include my
<br>notes for it below this email and any feedback would be appreciated.<br><br>Perhaps i will run into the full text of the elusive final INSPIRE<br>directive while i am there. It feels odd to be talking about it when<br>
it doesn't publically exist yet - but "search services" will be mandated <br>and free of cost for sure, so metadata is solid ground.<br><br>cheers,<br><br><br>jo<br><br>===============================================================
<br>An Open Source, Geospatial Web approach to implementing INSPIRE <br>===============================================================<br><br>Jo Walsh - OSGeo - 12-12-2006<br>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br><br>Now a compromise has been reached that will allow the INSPIRE Directive
<br>establishing a framework for European spatial data infrastructure to become <br>law. Within 2 or 3 years its "implementing rules" governing the publication of<br>geospatial data and metadata, by state agencies that collect it. Now all across
<br>Europe, public sector information providers will be asking, "How can we do this <br>as cheaply as possible?" and "How can we generate the most value from this<br>data?".<br><br>I think the answer to the first question is contained in Open Source
<br>software and open standards for information exchange. The answer to the second <br>question is contained there too, but in a less obvious way. The perspective I<br>hold is biased by the fact that I am serving on the Board of the Open Source
<br>Geospatial Foundation; but this in turn I am doing because of a conviction that <br>open source offers the best platform and the best model for the maintenance of<br>a civic information infrastructure.<br><br>The products comprised by OSGeo form a "stack"; data manipulation libraries
<br>GDAL and GeoTools underpin web services interfaces Mapserver and GeoServer, <br>with GRASS and OSSIM providing heavyweight analysis and processing tools, and<br>Mapbender, Mapbuilder and OpenLayers offering a variety of web mapping client
<br>functions, all oriented towards open standards; and MapGuide Open Source, the <br>more "all in one" open source geospatial project originating with Autodesk, and<br>most recently FAO GeoNetwork, the geospatial metadata catalogue service.
<br><br>[picture of stack]<br><br>(These projects have a variety of backgrounds, from academic institutions to <br>"<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://dot.org/" target="_blank">dot.org
</a>" social enterprises to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation,<br>private consultancies and community cycling groups. They have many things in<br>common; their source code is openly published and once "incubated" from the
<br>Foundation, guaranteed free of copyright and patent constraints, and available<br>for re-use without restriction. Developments in each project are overseen by an<br>active Project Steering Committee and subject to extensive peer review.
<br><br>Open source projects are heavily involved in the open standards development<br>process as "reference implementations".) Also community involvement in<br>standards which hit the open source domain first, driven very directly by needs
<br>of developers and immediate end-users, solving problems faster. Strongly to<br>open source benefit to be 'interoperable' to have common interfaces.<br>Emergent specifications focused on making it easier to contribute and
<br>redistribute geospatial data.<br><br>Examples:<br><br>WMS --> TMS<br><br>[OpenLayers screenshot]<br>[GeoNetwork screenshot]<br><br>[redundant distribution - lessening infrastructure investment - 'bleeding edge' comes up with budget constrained things that work.]
<br><br>GML --> GeoRSS<br>"long tail", 90% of applications, etc.<br>[Maybe a Mapbuilder/WFS-T/Geoserver screenshot?]<br><br>WFS --> WFS-Simple?<br><br>ISO19915/FGDC --> ?<br><br>[uDig catalog screenshot]
<br>[FAO GeoNetwork screenshot]<br><br>GeoRSS / WFS Simple etc advantages - ease of implementation + support. "Lego<br>model" No need for heavy lifting backend systems initially.<br>Webserver orientation = low overhead, easy to distribute.
<br>When needed easy to build on more complex interfaces lego-wise.<br>Adaptability of component-style software architecture: start w/ PostGIS, add<br>GeoServer later.<br><br>I want to talk about GeoNetwork a lot more because it is relatively unique and
<br>represents an area where open source definitely has the edge on proprietary<br>software offerings when it comes to SDI implementation. Metadata collection,<br>management; registry + search of OWS services...<br><br>Metadata on both the bottom and the top of the open source geospatial stack.
<br>Essential for managing any kind of repository as well as publishing. Metadata<br>is at the core of the INSPIRE directive and metadata access and search is the<br>only service that INSPIRE rules dictate must be offered to the public free of
<br>cost.<br><br>Metadata extends a lot further than data about descriptions of geospatial<br>features. 80% of information collected by government has a spatial component.<br>Metadata is the main area in which "translation" and "transformation" problems
<br>will arise, attempting to map between different taxonomies and cadastral models<br>used within each of the European member states. It is helpful to think of<br>INSPIRE as a building block for a more generalised data infrastructure. As
<br>such, connection with related information exchange standards and interfaces is<br>of benefit. Idea of a "geospatial web" using existing frameworks, particularly<br>RSS, RDF and the semantic web, to publish data and metadata, achieving the same
<br>ends as the web services comprising a Spatial Data Infrastructure.<br><br>Architectures of participation... ease of participation. Registering source<br>with resource like GeoNetwork. Filesystem feeder application, encouraging
<br>"organic growth" of better information about data, more componentisation.<br><br>[screenshots]<br><br>Easy syndication of updates - RSS feeds or access to an OAI-PMH repository<br>holding references to data. Publish metadata it will get indexed, metadata
<br>search services crawlers. Find other people doing your job for you. Become node<br>on GeoNetwork. Data on web more likely it will get used. Metadata is byproduct<br>of own internal systems management - needed to do job better - fact it is
<br>available on web a sideeffect. But to really get value / knowledge from it this<br>way has to be in open.<br><br>Open data = similar ideas of collab data production. "Many eyes shallow bugs".<br>Contribution federated nearer to where data collection happens. Increased
<br>timeliness through distribution. Prospect of interesting connections to<br>location-enabled services.<br><br>Openstreetmap example. Commercial operators admit it is viable. Local councils<br>start contributing data to it. Business value in exploitation of data.
<br><br>[screenshot of Timisoara Free Map in progress in JOSM.]<br>[something from mapnik/OSMarender]<br><br>Business value in exploitation of data. Public data generation exponential more<br>value in general if open at the point of collection + initial distribution. See
<br>table from Weiss paper.<br><br>(Here in the UK the Office of Public Sector Information is working on RDF<br>project for publishing metadata about civic information. 'click-use' license -<br>'atomisation' whereby metadata attached to smaller items of information. Ease
<br>of entry and encouragement of reuse both by other public sector bodies and by<br>small commercial enterprises. Making data available raw - with consistent<br>identifiers - and an open license. Machine-negotiable click-use licenses
<br>planned. Big difference Ordnance Survey stance. General trend availability.<br>Look at GeoConnections - they also fund OSGeo projects.<br><br>The trend in legislation and infrastructure is going to be to more open, so more open now saves time later.
<br><br></blockquote></div><br>