[GeoForAll-UrbanScience] Urban Science - City Analytics - The Road Map Challenge

Sun Mar 1 07:43:14 PST 2015

________________________________________
From: ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Mueller, Thomas [Mueller at calu.edu]
Sent: Sunday, March 01, 2015 3:36 PM
To: Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX)
Cc: ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org; Varun Chandola (chandola at buffalo.edu); Gabor Remetey; Stepanov Alexander; Giuseppe Conti; James Miller; MELICK Brandt
Subject: Re: [Ica-osgeo-labs] Urban Science - City Analytics - The Road Map Challenge

Patrick

I agree on the issue with getting GIS educators involved.  I am thinking after the model is built we can create scenario lessons (sort of game simulations) and this can help students learn critical thinking skills on this topic, etc.

Tom

Sent from my iPad

On Feb 28, 2015, at 12:11 PM, "Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX)" <patrick.hogan at nasa.gov<mailto:patrick.hogan at nasa.gov>> wrote:

Charlie,

I think your vision for how to approach this seems quite good. And yes, there seems a lot of activity in this ‘future cities’ area but much of it seems like a lot of smoke yet no fire. The problem cities must face is recognized and the desire for a solution is there, but not much ‘there’ is there. E

ven if we only get as far as defining the problem and establishing the requirements for a solution, that will serve a tremendous purpose. From there we and others can keep knocking on doors until one or more of them open. Meanwhile  would certainly be possible for academia (students) to begin building against the requirements document. If we can’t generate a blueprint for what is needed, it  can’t get built. And we just want it built, no matter who does it, as long as it is open source.

I think your idea for the letter is right on. Meanwhile, we need to be working up the requirements document with use-case scenarios. And we do have some pretty good legitimacy if Brand Melick is participating, he is the IT Director for the city of Springfield Oregon, ‘proverbial’ home to the Simpsons, though without the nuclear reactor. Brandt may be able to help keep us on track as we flesh out the blueprint for an open source CitySmart app. The nascent effort for that actually began with Brandt, along with help from Prof Jim Miller, http://nsdinow.org/SDI_Now_02/Technical_Support.html.

These are some pretty serious credentials that we can point to and build upon, though not as a JavaApplet. In my opinion, the CitySmart ‘virtual globe’ app needs to be browser-based and designed from the ground up with an API for the menu system. This will allow anyone to add whatever functionalities they need. It is the underlying platform that all of us will share. And certainly there will be many functionalities that are common for many municipalities. We’ll want to identify those as best we can and work them up first.

And I just saw Julia Koschinsky response and I very much agree with those ideas! After she identifies multiple efforts around the world engaged in this ‘smart city’ need, her last paragraph clearly states what we could do, and it echoes well what Charlie has been saying: “There's an opportunity to overcome this disconnect and make our algorithms, analytic tools, and research relevant to these and related efforts by interfacing with these infrastructures and communities. The growing number of university programs in urban informatics around the country is already starting to make these connections.”

We need to engage the GIS Educator community, asking them to help us clearly identify our collective need with an *actionable design document* for the CitySmart app we all know we need. One part of that will involve, as Julia says, “interfacing with these infrastructures and communities.”

-Patrick
 650.604.5656 (office)
 650.269.2788 (cell)

From: Charles Schweik [mailto:cschweik at pubpol.umass.edu]
Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2015 2:40 AM
To: MELICK Brandt
Cc: James Miller; Thomas Mueller; Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX); ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>; Varun Chandola (chandola at buffalo.edu<mailto:chandola at buffalo.edu>); Gabor Remetey; Giuseppe Conti; Stepanov Alexander
Subject: Re: [Ica-osgeo-labs] Urban Science - City Analytics - The Road Map Challenge

Terrific all.

I'm in the process of developing a draft letter of inquiry to be sent to NSF for a Research Coordination Network proposal. If you haven't yet, any interested people/organizations, please add your name and affiliation to the "Who in our Network..." section of the wiki [1].

I worry a little that the Urban Science\City Analytics might have too many competing projects in this space already, but I think if we can focus on some important research questions\areas (such as climate change planning\resilience) AND a focus on how to build collective action (cross sector, cross university) might provide some potential. Moreover, I think the idea on the education side to collectively develop co-produced "flipped" or blended learning materials, coupled with offering parallel course where students build products or advance urban analytics using universities or local towns/cities as service learning projects may be a potential, unique selling point.

For instance, my colleague Sasha and I, had a student develop a web-based campus tree inventory and management database (using ESRI products) as an independent study [2]. This is just an example of what we can potentially accomplish.

So I will continue drafting this letter, but I will need help on a section about Urban Science/City Analytics.

Cheers all,

Charlie

[1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/GeoForAll_UrbanScience_CityAnalytics
[2] https://umass-amherst.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=6b6bab7d2726462694bafbcc337cd981

Thanks,

Charlie

On Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 10:02 PM, MELICK Brandt <bmelick at springfield-or.gov<mailto:bmelick at springfield-or.gov>> wrote:
Excellent recommendation Jim.  Perhaps we consider "developing the database" as finding common web service exchange standards (content and structure), i.e., keeping as much of the data in its native format and in native maintenance environment and using spatial ETL to publish OGC/ASPRS/etc standard services.  The basic idea being - a quilt of standardized services rather than a polithera of distinct and out of date data holdings.

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 27, 2015, at 12:33 PM, "James Miller" <miller at ittc.ku.edu<mailto:miller at ittc.ku.edu><mailto:miller at ittc.ku.edu<mailto:miller at ittc.ku.edu>>> wrote:

I just finished reading the "OGC Smart Cities Spatial Information Framework" document. It seems like an excellent and obvious framework to which we should relate whatever we wind up doing. It would seem that there is wide and rapidly growing use of CityGML and related standards. I would really like to see the document they say that OGC is working on  now ("Rapid Model Building for Venue Owners") that they say lays out the steps, costs, etc. involved in creating a CityGML description.  I searched the OGC web site a bit, but could not find it.

I suspect that large parts of any effort will be detailed legwork creating databases and the like.  But - as others have suggested - if we are looking for NSF money to help fund our work, we will need to identify basic research questions that we identify and propose to solve. NSF does not fund basic development.  I am not an end user, so I can't list them right now.  But once we identify the area (e.g., management of cities and regions for climate resilience as suggested in an earlier email), we should be able to identify solid research problems in the usual way by exploring use cases, required queries, types and sources of data and related computations, etc.

I look forward to the process.

Jim

James R. Miller, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
University of Kansas (2001 Eaton Hall)
1520 W. 15 Street; Lawrence, KS  66045-7621
785-864-7384<tel:785-864-7384> (Eaton); 785-864-7728<tel:785-864-7728> (Nichols); 785-864-3226<tel:785-864-3226> (FAX); 785-864-4620<tel:785-864-4620> (EECS Office)
jrmiller at ku.edu<mailto:jrmiller at ku.edu><mailto:jrmiller at ku.edu<mailto:jrmiller at ku.edu>> ; http://people.eecs.ku.edu/~miller
________________________________
From: "Thomas Mueller" <Mueller at calu.edu<mailto:Mueller at calu.edu><mailto:Mueller at calu.edu<mailto:Mueller at calu.edu>>>
To: "Charles Schweik" <cschweik at pubpol.umass.edu<mailto:cschweik at pubpol.umass.edu><mailto:cschweik at pubpol.umass.edu<mailto:cschweik at pubpol.umass.edu>>>, "Patrick Hogan (ARC-PX)" <patrick.hogan at nasa.gov<mailto:patrick.hogan at nasa.gov><mailto:patrick.hogan at nasa.gov<mailto:patrick.hogan at nasa.gov>>>
Cc: ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org><mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>>, "Varun Chandola (chandola at buffalo.edu<mailto:chandola at buffalo.edu><mailto:chandola at buffalo.edu<mailto:chandola at buffalo.edu>>)" <chandola at buffalo.edu<mailto:chandola at buffalo.edu><mailto:chandola at buffalo.edu<mailto:chandola at buffalo.edu>>>, "Gabor Remetey" <gabor.remetey at gmail.com<mailto:gabor.remetey at gmail.com><mailto:gabor.remetey at gmail.com<mailto:gabor.remetey at gmail.com>>>, "Giuseppe Conti" <Giuseppe.Conti at trilogis.it<mailto:Giuseppe.Conti at trilogis.it><mailto:Giuseppe.Conti at trilogis.it<mailto:Giuseppe.Conti at trilogis.it>>>, "Jim Miller" <miller at ittc.ku.edu<mailto:miller at ittc.ku.edu><mailto:miller at ittc.ku.edu<mailto:miller at ittc.ku.edu>>>, "MELICK Brandt" <bmelick at springfield-or.gov<mailto:bmelick at springfield-or.gov><mailto:bmelick at springfield-or.gov<mailto:bmelick at springfield-or.gov>>>
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2015 1:41:35 PM
Subject: RE: [Ica-osgeo-labs] Urban Science - City Analytics - The Road Map        Challenge

Charlie

Thanks for the email.  Yes, I intend to read the documents this weekend and hopefully will have some ideas on a research question, etc.

As far as focal points, I like the climate change resilience part - under that section we could discuss the issue of mapping or managing rolling brown outs, etc.  Just an idea

Tom

________________________________
From: ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org><mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>> [ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org><mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>>] on behalf of Charles Schweik [cschweik at pubpol.umass.edu<mailto:cschweik at pubpol.umass.edu><mailto:cschweik at pubpol.umass.edu<mailto:cschweik at pubpol.umass.edu>>]
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2015 8:55 AM
To: Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX)
Cc: ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org><mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>>; Varun Chandola (chandola at buffalo.edu<mailto:chandola at buffalo.edu><mailto:chandola at buffalo.edu<mailto:chandola at buffalo.edu>>); Gabor Remetey; Giuseppe Conti; Jim Miller; MELICK Brandt
Subject: Re: [Ica-osgeo-labs] Urban Science - City Analytics - The Road Map Challenge

Hi Patrick, Chris, colleagues:

I'm working on a draft letter to one or more US NSF directorates to explore whether they would have interest in a full proposal to support an International Research Coordination Network on "Commons-based Peer Production for Urban Science and City Analytics". This email by Patrick provides a start to what the task of this RCN might be

Questions:

1) Is the OGC smart cities framework [1] that Patrick pointed out something we can use as a "foundation" for this network (I haven't yet read it fully, but it looks very useful)? Is there one or more people on this list who were involved in the development of that framework?

2) Can we define some focal areas of Smart Cities we'd want to concentrate on? Key application areas? For instance, the management of cities and regions for climate resilience might be one? Or support for the deployment of environmental sensors (e.g., water pollution monitoring, flood monitoring, etc)?

3) NSF, of course, is often looking for key, basic science, research questions that need to be addresses. Can we perhaps on the wiki come up with a list of really key research questions? There is a Research Questions section that is blank right now on the wiki [2]

4) Does anyone know of efforts in the past to try and create a collaborative network like this that were unsuccessful and why? I recall years ago an effort to develop collection action in local government open source (not geo specific) that failed - I forget what it was called. But answering the question of "why do we need this network?" is key. I have a lot to say but would welcome points here (perhaps on the wiki? [2])

Any reactions in response to the group or me individually are appreciated.

Charlie

[1] http://gisuser.com/2015/02/ogc-smart-cities-spatial-information-framework-white-paper-announced/
[2] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/GeoForAll_UrbanScience_CityAnalytics

On Thu, Feb 26, 2015 at 2:36 AM, Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX) <patrick.hogan at nasa.gov<mailto:patrick.hogan at nasa.gov><mailto:patrick.hogan at nasa.gov<mailto:patrick.hogan at nasa.gov>>> wrote:
Dear OSGEO,

Urban Science - City Analytics is going to take a lot of work.
But I can't think of more fertile ground for engaging a world in a
mutually beneficial enterprise with practical and positive results than this.

How hard the climb will be a measure of how much we want to accomplish.
If easy, then not much, or maybe we really are all pulling each other up.

We need a groundswell for a world in mutually constructive dialogue, working in unison towards a common goal.
This is something our planet dearly needs at this very precarious time in one species' very short history (~150k years, we're just babes).
We are a species consuming resources at an unsustainable rate (a future in jeopardy),
and polluting our biosphere (our life support system) as if we didn't need it.

What Can We Do?
I hope we can design/architect an OSGEO software solution that excites the world community.
We need municipalities around the world engaged in a partnership with us and us with them.
What can we do for them? The OGC Smart Cities SI Framework and others is a big-picture bird's-eye view:
http://gisuser.com/2015/02/ogc-smart-cities-spatial-information-framework-white-paper-announced/
And also these:
http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/
http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smarter_cities/overview/
There must be more of these, help us find them please!

Some Recent History:
When NASA took on the mantle of going to the Moon, there were several independent projects designing and testing their idea for a Moon-shot.
>From that group some projects were selected to go forward while others were mined for their gems to go into the remaining projects.
This process continued until there was only one 'project,' Apollo. Apollo was not one program, but the cumulative result of several 'competing' projects.

Our Task:
We need to develop a road map, the requirements doc, for what this Urban Science - City Analytics (CitySmart) program looks like.
The requirements doc will likely be based on information in the 'framework' documents above
This road map needs to allows for some early successes so we can get buy-in from 'real' municipalities to work with us to keep value-added on target.
Then we will need a cadre of software development teams (or individuals) providing their solution in response to the road map.
As we collectively together evaluate these, some will be asked to mashup until in the end we have one OSGEO CitySmart app. This app will have an open API for the menu system, for drag-n-drop of functionalities, so that each city can tailor it for their use, and the world community can continue to optimize old functionalities and design new ones (proprietary or open source).

Who Will Do This?
Maybe we can ask an academic or other organization to provide us with the road map (specifications/requirements), such as these two:
http://sustainablecities.aau.dk/
https://rd-alliance.org/
If anyone knows of an organization or university who would be interested in designing the road map for city management per the 'framework' document links above, please let me know.

The Road Map Challenge (a proposal):
Here is 'a' plan (not 'the' plan, this 'plan' will change depending on feedback from all of us).
An OSGEO Challenge with a NASA crystal bull for the award, just like the Europa Challenge, http://eurochallenge.como.polimi.it/, and of course NASA T-shirts.
We need YOU (whoever you are) to design the requirements doc for the Urban Science - City Analytics (CitySmart) program.
We will rank these and the number one vote getter will get the crystal bull (after they mashup the best of what is in all of the road maps into theirs).
We will ask the Region and Theme Chairs to do the voting. http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/GeoForAll
And if there are special needs for the cities in the respective Regions, we need to hear about those requirements.

What Next?
The next challenge, the OSGEO SmartCity Challenge, will be to build according to those requirements and put a smile on the face of every municipality! And something the whole world can be proud of together, while experiencing the benefits of living in a smarter city. The City of Springfield Oregon has already shown us the path, http://www.nsdinow.org/SDI_Now_02/Technical_Support.html. Are there others?

-Patrick
 (650) 604-5656<tel:%28650%29%20604-5656><tel:%28650%29%20604-5656> (office)
 (650) 269-2788<tel:%28650%29%20269-2788><tel:%28650%29%20269-2788> (cell)

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--
Charlie Schweik

Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Dept of Environmental Conservation and Center for Public Policy and Administration

Personal website: http://people.umass.edu/cschweik
Publications: http://works.bepress.com/charles_schweik/

Author, Internet Success: A Study of Open Source Software (MIT Press, 2012) - see http://tinyurl.com/d3e4545

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--
Charlie Schweik

Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Dept of Environmental Conservation and Center for Public Policy and Administration

Personal website: http://people.umass.edu/cschweik
Publications: http://works.bepress.com/charles_schweik/

Author, Internet Success: A Study of Open Source Software (MIT Press, 2012) - see http://tinyurl.com/d3e4545

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Q: Why is this email five sentences or less?
A: http://five.sentenc.es

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