Geoweb
Encyclopedia
The Geospatial Web or Geoweb is a relatively new term that implies the merging of geographical (location-based) information
with the abstract information that currently dominates the Internet
. This would create an environment where one could search for things based on location instead of by keyword only – e.g. “What is Here?”.
The concept of a Geospatial Web may have first been introduced by Dr. Charles Herring in his US DoD
paper, An Architecture of Cyberspace: Spatialization of the Internet, 1994, U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (40°8′58.9"N 88°16′22.7"W). Dr. Herring proposed that the problem of defining the physical domain in a computer or cyber-infrastructure, providing real time and appropriate fidelity, required a cyber-spatial reference or index combining both Internet Addressing and Hierarchical Spatial Addressing. As such, the Geoweb would be characterized by the self synchronization of network addressing, time and location. The Geoweb would allow location to be used to self organize all geospatially referenced data available through the Internet.
Another early reference to the concept of the Geoweb is the Genasys Spatial Web Broker. Development of this capability began in 1994 and was officially announced in 1996. This product was designed to allow any web developer to integrate GIS functions, such as routing, into portal applications, e-government applications, and e-business applications.
The interest in a Geoweb has been advanced by new technologies, concepts and products. Virtual globe
s such as Google Earth
and NASA World Wind
as well as mapping websites such as Google Maps
, Live Search Maps and Yahoo Maps have been major factors in raising awareness towards the importance of geography
and location as a means to index information. The increase in advanced web development
methods such as Ajax
are providing inspiration to move GIS (Geographical Information Systems) into the web.
The capacity of Geospatial Web would be similar to Google Search and likely provide similar value. It is conceived that the Geospatial Web will present as a visual medium and geospatial platform for data self-organization, discovery and use. Capabilities that allow every Internet user to post to this flow of information and anyone to poll or pull the information will lead to a new commons, media or marketplace for publication, trade and commoditization of information.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have long been the domain of experienced, trained professionals and have been used by large organizations such as governments or municipalities. The geoweb also promises to make geographical information much more ubiquitous, opening geoinformation up to the mass market.
Geographic Information Retrieval
(GIR) has emerged as an academic community interested in technical aspects of helping people find information about places. In order to make information accessible from geographically oriented applications, coordinate metadata must be created via some form of geocoding
or geoparsing
process. After obtaining geographic coordinates, they must be indexed in useful ways that allow people to interact with the non-geographic nature of the content, e.g. viewing photographs or keyword searching.
Some see the goal of the Geoweb to be the creation of fully immersive digital environments, or virtual reality
that mirror our own reality. This would have the effect of greatly improving our understanding of the world and its processes, allowing us to better manage our resources, find nearby services, meet people, and have fun.
Information
Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...
with the abstract information that currently dominates the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. This would create an environment where one could search for things based on location instead of by keyword only – e.g. “What is Here?”.
The concept of a Geospatial Web may have first been introduced by Dr. Charles Herring in his US DoD
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
paper, An Architecture of Cyberspace: Spatialization of the Internet, 1994, U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (40°8′58.9"N 88°16′22.7"W). Dr. Herring proposed that the problem of defining the physical domain in a computer or cyber-infrastructure, providing real time and appropriate fidelity, required a cyber-spatial reference or index combining both Internet Addressing and Hierarchical Spatial Addressing. As such, the Geoweb would be characterized by the self synchronization of network addressing, time and location. The Geoweb would allow location to be used to self organize all geospatially referenced data available through the Internet.
Another early reference to the concept of the Geoweb is the Genasys Spatial Web Broker. Development of this capability began in 1994 and was officially announced in 1996. This product was designed to allow any web developer to integrate GIS functions, such as routing, into portal applications, e-government applications, and e-business applications.
The interest in a Geoweb has been advanced by new technologies, concepts and products. Virtual globe
Virtual globe
A virtual globe is a 3D software model or representation of the Earth or another world. A virtual globe provides the user with the ability to freely move around in the virtual environment by changing the viewing angle and position. Compared to a conventional globe, virtual globes have the...
s such as Google Earth
Google Earth
Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographical information program that was originally called EarthViewer 3D, and was created by Keyhole, Inc, a Central Intelligence Agency funded company acquired by Google in 2004 . It maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite...
and NASA World Wind
NASA World Wind
World Wind is an open-source virtual globe developed by NASA and the open source community for use on personal computers. Old versions need Microsoft Windows but the more recent Java version, , is cross platform and provides a suite of . The World Wind Java version was awarded in November 2009...
as well as mapping websites such as Google Maps
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...
, Live Search Maps and Yahoo Maps have been major factors in raising awareness towards the importance of geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
and location as a means to index information. The increase in advanced web development
Computer programming
Computer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a program that performs specific operations or exhibits a...
methods such as Ajax
Ajax (programming)
Ajax is a group of interrelated web development methods used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications...
are providing inspiration to move GIS (Geographical Information Systems) into the web.
The capacity of Geospatial Web would be similar to Google Search and likely provide similar value. It is conceived that the Geospatial Web will present as a visual medium and geospatial platform for data self-organization, discovery and use. Capabilities that allow every Internet user to post to this flow of information and anyone to poll or pull the information will lead to a new commons, media or marketplace for publication, trade and commoditization of information.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have long been the domain of experienced, trained professionals and have been used by large organizations such as governments or municipalities. The geoweb also promises to make geographical information much more ubiquitous, opening geoinformation up to the mass market.
Geographic Information Retrieval
Geographic Information Retrieval
Geographic information retrieval or geographical information retrieval is the augmentation of information retrieval with geographic metadata.Information retrieval generally views documents as a collection or `bag' of words...
(GIR) has emerged as an academic community interested in technical aspects of helping people find information about places. In order to make information accessible from geographically oriented applications, coordinate metadata must be created via some form of geocoding
Geocoding
Geocoding is the process of finding associated geographic coordinates from other geographic data, such as street addresses, or zip codes...
or geoparsing
Geoparsing
Geoparsing is the process of assigning geographic identifiers to textual words and phrases that occur in unstructured content, such as "twenty miles north east of Jalalabad". You can also geoparse location references from other forms of media, for example audio content in which a speaker mentions...
process. After obtaining geographic coordinates, they must be indexed in useful ways that allow people to interact with the non-geographic nature of the content, e.g. viewing photographs or keyword searching.
Some see the goal of the Geoweb to be the creation of fully immersive digital environments, or virtual reality
Virtual reality
Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
that mirror our own reality. This would have the effect of greatly improving our understanding of the world and its processes, allowing us to better manage our resources, find nearby services, meet people, and have fun.
See also
- Digital EarthDigital EarthDigital Earth is the name given to a concept by former US vice president Al Gore in 1998, describing a virtual representation of the Earth that is spatially referenced and interconnected with the world’s digital knowledge archives.-Original Vision:...
- Search engineSearch engineA search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...
- Geospatial Content Management SystemGeospatial Content Management SystemA Geospatial Content Management System is a Content Management System where objects can have a Latitude, Longitude position to be displayed on an online interactive map...
(GeoCMS) - Geographic Information RetrievalGeographic Information RetrievalGeographic information retrieval or geographical information retrieval is the augmentation of information retrieval with geographic metadata.Information retrieval generally views documents as a collection or `bag' of words...
- GeocodingGeocodingGeocoding is the process of finding associated geographic coordinates from other geographic data, such as street addresses, or zip codes...
and GeoparsingGeoparsingGeoparsing is the process of assigning geographic identifiers to textual words and phrases that occur in unstructured content, such as "twenty miles north east of Jalalabad". You can also geoparse location references from other forms of media, for example audio content in which a speaker mentions...
External links
- GeoWeb Conference 2009 - all things GeoWeb - everything is connected
- Geoweb Report - Tracking and supporting the emerging geoweb industry
- The World on your Desktop September 2007 Article in The Economist
- The Geospatial Web - How Geobrowsers, Social Software and the Web 2.0 are Shaping the Network Society
- OSGeo - The Open Source Geospatial Foundation
- the PYXIS innovation Geospatial Web and Cyber-physical indexing
- Open Geospatial Consortium
- W3C Geospatial Incubator Group
- The Digital Geographer: a blog by Prof. Jonathan Raper, City University
- Straight To The Point - Location based technology, local content services, and new developments in local media and journalism.
- A digital geography manifesto., Jonathan Raper in receiver magazine, Autumn 2008
- Genasys unveils industry's first full function GIS interface to the World Wide Web Business Wire, March 1996
- The Geoweb Guru A community site that includes articles, news, and discussion forums for the Geospatial Web