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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Rupert Essinger designed a visual GIS workflow language in 1991.&nbsp;
<a href="http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/Publications/Tech_Reports/91/91-6.pdf">http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/Publications/Tech_Reports/91/91-6.pdf</a>&nbsp;
<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Max Egenhofer designed an entire Direct manipulation UI around
Map Algebra.&nbsp; <a
href="http://www.spatial.maine.edu/~max/MapAlgebraSurvey.pdf">http://www.spatial.maine.edu/~max/MapAlgebraSurvey.pdf</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Both might be inspiring to someone wishing to have a formal
framework for documenting GIS workflow in a simple and intuitive way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>I&#8217;m still unclear on what type of GIS data models the
original poster wants to document as Smallworld, ArcGIS, GRASS, and others all
have quite different approaches to modeling.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>If it&#8217;s OO data, etc then UML class diagrams work great
and don&#8217;t need to be heavy.&nbsp; In software dev there are many tools
that keep the data models in sync with the code, there is no reason why the
same thing couldn&#8217;t be created for GIS data modeling.&nbsp; The diagrams
could be GIS independent, with underlying drivers to read/write data models for
particular GIS packages.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>If it is a data model, then there are already tools for keeping
an Entity-Relationship Model (ERM) in sync with the data table.&nbsp; Geometry
is just another data type in the Simple Features view of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Craig<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Geospatial Software Architect<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><a href="http://spatialminds.com/">Spatial Minds, LLC</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> discuss-bounces@lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:discuss-bounces@lists.osgeo.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Brian Russo<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, September 09, 2009 2:49 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> OSGeo Discussions<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Documenting GIS Data Models (Again): Using
DXF<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal>I think it's an interesting problem to solve (Sharing gis
models/processes), but...<o:p></o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal>* Way too heavyweight for us, I don't have time/interest to
build &amp; maintain&nbsp;sheets of DXFs manually<o:p></o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal>* Of little practical use for us since our processes
typically grow pretty organically with small meetings and whiteboards/stickies,
eventually we are going to stop maintaining these 'heavy' model diagrams.<o:p></o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal>* Probably more useful for very large teams defining massive
workflows with well-defined requirements/outputs, but I don't really work on
those types of problems often (nor personally&nbsp;know many that really do
anymore - and they'd probably already have some dialect of UML or ERM)<o:p></o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal>* Can't easily convert those DXFs into GDB/DB schemas or
into the processes themselves, etc, so hence little use at the tech level<o:p></o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal>It might be more useful to define a simple standardized set
of symbols that handles 80% of what we do, and then for more complex processes
just lets you name it, treat them like blackboxes and just annotate them or
something.<o:p></o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal>Personally I would just probably use simple data flow &amp;
entity-relationship diagrams. If there was a simple system that modelled common
spatial analysis processes via symbols then I might be interested in that.<o:p></o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal>I'm skeptical on the real world utility of
building/maintaining large sets of diagrams that A) Don't fit into the business
process generation/capture processes and B) Don't easily convert into the
actual code/schemas underlying.<o:p></o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal>Perhaps figure out what the problem you're really trying to
solve is. I.e. What am&nbsp;I trying to achieve via sharing models?<o:p></o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>- bri<o:p></o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal>On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Landon Blake &lt;<a
href="mailto:lblake@ksninc.com">lblake@ksninc.com</a>&gt; wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>

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<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>I posted a
few weeks back I posted about possible ways to document and share GIS data
models. I decided to move forward with a graphical approach. </span><o:p></o:p></p>

<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></p>

<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>I started
building diagrams to document my GIS data model for the Public Land Survey
System in the United States. I am drawing these diagrams in a CAD program. When
I get things ironed out I hope to release the following items to the GIS
community:</span><o:p></o:p></p>

<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></p>

<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>-</span><span
style='font-size:7.0pt'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>My completed GIS data
model in DXF format that can be used as an example or template for other
models.</span><o:p></o:p></p>

<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>-</span><span
style='font-size:7.0pt'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>A set of CAD
&#8220;blocks&#8221; that can be used to build similar diagrams.</span><o:p></o:p></p>

<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></p>

<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>If I like
how things come together with the diagrams, I might try converting the diagrams
to SVG. The diagrams would be much prettier in SVG, but I am quicker with CAD
than I am with Inkscape, and I want to get a prototype completed quickly.</span><o:p></o:p></p>

<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></p>

<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>This will
make a lot more sense when you get to see the example diagrams.</span><o:p></o:p></p>

<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></p>

<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>I welcome
any collaboration on this effort. If there is interest, I could move this
discussion to the Standards mailing list. It would be great to get input from
interested parties now, while the diagrams are still taking shape.</span><o:p></o:p></p>

<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></p>

<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Landon</span><o:p></o:p></p>

<p>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p><strong><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Warning:</span></strong><b><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><br>
</span></b><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Information
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recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or
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information in error, please notify the sender immediately.</span><o:p></o:p></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><br>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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