[Geodata] Geodata Research

[David Campbell]

Excerpts from Landon Blake's message of 2011-01-24 15:28:07 -0500:
> David Campbell wrote:
> As part of my M.A. in Computer Science I am going to be doing
> GIS research, and my interests look like they align well with
> the goals of the Public Geospatial Data Project...
>
> Landon wrote:
> I take it your interests are along the software development lines, since
> your major is in computer science. Can you give us any more details on
> the topic of your thesis? Are you researching a solutions to a technical
> challenge? Or is your thesis focused on policy issues? What do you hope
> the end result of your research project will be? Is it going to be a
> software package, a set of best-practices, or something else? I'm just
> trying to understand the relationship between your research and open
> geospatial data.

Although I am a Computer Science student, my research is a
collaboration between both the Computer Information Science and
Earth Science departments. I am interested in the value of open
source software and open data for solving global issues. I am
currently in the early stages of research, so all the details of
where my research will go are not set in stone, but I will begin
by talking with faculty at my university to see how they use
geospatial software and data. If anyone has input from the
commercial world regarding their use or the usefulness of open
geospatial data or open source software, I welcome the feedback.

The product of my research will at least be background
information on and a survey of open source software and open data
available. The hope is that my initial research will inform me as
to what problems exist that can be tackled with a technical
solution (probably involving social issues as well). I also plan
on creating a website for the sake of demonstrating and comparing
the available GIS web technologies, and discovering the ease of
using different data sources for thematic mapping.

My guess is that there are holes in the data available for
certain parts of the world and that the interoperability of many
GISs may be able to be improved. I don't know how much work has
been done on efforts to aggregate many different data sources to
get a better picture of global issues.

I also realize that tackling global issues involves the hard work
of many people and the ease of learning and availability of GIS
software and geospatial data is crucial for this effort.

> David Campbell wrote:
> I want to see OSGeo get their geodata repository off the ground
> and would be happy to work on researching data standards,
> building the browsing interface, building the back-end, and
> researching discovery methods (one thing at a time).
>
> Landon wrote:
> David Bitner gave you a good response to this. The first question to ask
> is "Why does the OSGeo need a GIS data repository, and how will it be
> different from existing repositories?". I'm not saying there isn't a
> need in this area, but you should understand what type of problem you
> are trying to solve. As a land surveyor, I'm certainly interested in
> encouraging and national land parcel dataset, which comes with all sorts
> of challenges. Some of these are typical of all geospatial data
> catalogs, and some are specific to the parcel dataset. Another

In agreement with what I said above, my focus would probably be
on the importance of the data sets for learning to use GIS tools
and making it easier to research global issues (e.g. the
MDGs[1]). I think OSGeo makes sense for this effort due to the
open and community centered nature of OSGeo and the foundation of
tools provided by its member projects. A data service/repository
provided by OSGeo could work with its member projects to ensure
high interoperability with open source GIS software and easy access
to learning data sets.

[1]: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

These are my initial thoughts; however, I must determine what the
real needs are before I dive into building something. I plan to
keep an open dialog with this community as my research
progresses, and if what I suggest makes sense for and is accepted
by the geodata project/OSGeo, I hope we will be able to create
such a service/repository.

> interesting concept is a SourceForge like system for geospatial data,
> with specific data creation projects.

What do you mean by SourceForge like? What is it about
SourceForge that would make it an interesting model for data
hosting?

> Have you checked out the Natural Earth GIS data set?
>
> http://www.naturalearthdata.com/ <http://www.naturalearthdata.com/>

I have, briefly, thanks to another post that was on this list.

> Landon wrote:
> Python, CSS, and HTML coding skills seem like a good fit for your area
> of interest.

Regarding the website I am planning to build to compare GIS web
technologies, I looked some into both django[2,3] and pylons[4]. Would
you suggest one over the other for this project or some other
framework to build with?

[2]: http://www.djangoproject.com/
[3]: http://geodjango.org/
[4]: http://pylonshq.com/

> I look forward to learning more about your research if you can share
> some details with us.

I have shared most of my current thoughts. I submitted an initial
research proposal which I got positive feedback on, but am
revising based on some of my the input from members of the
geodata project and my advisers. I will share this if people want
me to, but may wait till it is officially approved first.

Unrelated:
Is the practice on this list to direct all mail to the geolist,
or should I be directing mail to the people I am responding to
and CCing geodata or vice-versa?
--
David Campbell