The Renaissance of Geographic Information: Neogeography, Gaming and Second Life: Working Paper 142

Tweet

The world of Geographic Information (GI) Science has changed. It has experienced expeditious growth over the last few years leading to fundamental changes to the field. Web 2.0, specifically The Cloud, GeoWeb and Wikitecture are revolutionising the way in which we present, share and analyse geographic data.

In this paper we outline and provide working examples a suite of tools which are detailed below, aimed at developing new applications of GIS and related technologies. GeoVUE is one of seven nodes in the National Centre for e-Social Science whose mission it is to develop web-based technologies for the social and geographical sciences. The Node, based at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London has developed a suite of free software allowing quick and easy visualisation of geographic data in systems such as Google Maps, Google Earth, Crysis and Second Life.


These tools address two issues, firstly that spatial data is still inherently difficult to share and visualise for the non-GIS trained academic or professional and secondly that a geographic data social network has the potential to dramatically open up data sources for both the public and professional geographer.


With our applications of GMap Creator, and MapTube to name but two, we detail ways to intelligently visualise and share spatial data. This paper concludes with detailing usage and outreach as well as an insight into how such tools are already providing a significant impact to the outreach of geographic information.

Such tools open up a cornucopia of possibilities for the world of GI Science, especially for geovisualisation and it is high time to embrace the Neogeographer, the data and perhaps more importantly the services they are creating.

Welcome to the new world of geographic information.

Authored by Dr Andrew Hudson-Smith (Digital Urban) and Dr Andrew Crooks (gisagents.blogspot.com)

You can download the full paper The Renaissance of Geographic Information: Neogeography, Gaming and Second Life in .pdf format (9.8Mb).

Google and The Ordnance Survey: Disappointed

Tweet

We do not wish to fan the flames of the outcome of negotiations between the Ordnance Survey and Google with reference data licensing and our Virtual London model but the graphic image above made by Spatial Miscellany did make us smile.

Read the full story in our earlier post...

MapJack, Google Street View and EveryScape Video Comparisons

Tweet

Google's Street View currently leads the field in 360x180 degree street level imaging. A few months ago we put up a post and movie about EveryScape another company covering San Francisco with beta imagery and now we have MapJack as the latest kid on the block.

The concepts between all three are basically the same: to provide blanket street level coverage of a city linked to a map - allowing users to visualise their route step by step. Map Jack's approach is to simplify the process back to set photographic views rather than interactive panoramas ala EveryScape and Google's Street View.

By embedding three movies its possible to gain a basic level of comparison between the three systems, Google Street View, EveryScape and MapJack:

Google Street View


EveryScape



MapJack



We like MapJack for its simplicity and sharp infocus photography. EveryScape has the unique 'morph' feature as you link between scenes and Google Street View is simply highly polished with coverage now extending to San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston and Orlando.

San Francisco is becoming the stomping ground for new geo-related start up companies and this can only be seen as a good thing. We like MapJack as its simple and easy to follow a route but Google's Street view is still the one to be beaten.

View MapJack

View Everyscape

View Google's Street View

Ordnance Survey and Google Statements on Virtual London in Google Earth

Tweet

Despite the best of our efforts we have been informed by Google and the Ordnance Survey that our Virtual London model will not be appearing in Google Earth due to data licensing issues.

The decision by the Ordnance Survey effectively puts a stop to six years of research to openly inform the public about changes to London's built form via a publicly accessible model. Negotiations have been going on between Google and the Ordnance Survey for the last year, in two distinct stages. Our model, detailed in the movie below and containing 3 million buildings has been running locally in Google Earth during this time:



The first phase of negotiations broke down 6 months ago at a time when the Ordnance Survey were under increasing pressure to justify their licensing arrangements. Full details on this aspect can be found in the Guardian Article by Michael Cross 'Copyright Sinks Virtual Planning'.

The second phase of negotiations took place recently after the notable loss of Ed Parsons at the OS and his subsequent move to Google. This combined with the publication online of the Haringey Heatloss Map which effectively uses the same data as Virtual London - as pictured below - gave renewed hope of a breakthrough:


Sadly, despite the renewed efforts at all levels negotiations have now ceased between all the parties involved.

Ordnance Survey issued the following statement:

"We have had dialogue with Google concerning commercial licensing issues around our data in CASA’s Virtual London model. There are differences in what Google wants and what our licensing framework permits that mean we have not been able to reach agreement.

We provide an open, fair and transparent set of terms for providers seeking to operate in the same commercial space as each other. We cannot therefore license Google in a different way to other providers. We are completely supportive of anyone putting our data on the web as long as they have a license to do so. Regarding the reference to Haringey, it is not the building of the model that is the difference – it is the use.

There is an existing licensing model that works for the original purpose of Virtual London i.e. the availability to London boroughs etc. What Google wanted to do would take it out of those licensing arrangements."

Google on the other hand have issued a single worded statement - simply 'disappointed'.

While it is fair to say that Google can be demanding the lack of movement by the OS does strike of a agency out of touch with today's data requirements.

The Free Data Campaign has a number of posts and information with regards the practices of the OS. While we have not always agreed with them, and indeed have been warned off openly criticising the OS in the past by the powers that be, we cannot deny that the whole episode has been slightly Python'esk.

The OS currently does not have the ability to license models for public usage and this is from a government-funded and approved agency.

What can you do? In the first place join the Public Geodata campaign and if your publicly motivated lobby your MEP about the Inspire plan - see this article from The Guardian in the Free Our Data campaign.