The Evolving GeoWeb

IEEE Internet Computing, 2015

2019

LocWeb 2019 was the ninth workshop in the LocWeb workshop series at the intersection of location-based services and Web architecture and was held at The Web Conference, WWW 2019, in San Francisco. It focused on Web-scale services and systems facilitating location-aware information access as well as on Spatial Social Behavior Analytics on the Web. The LocWeb 2019 workshop had contributions ranging from location data analysis over vocational trips and visualization of linked data to geolocation and browser integration. This report briefly presents the theme, contributions, and discussions of the workshop.

Geography Compass, 2008

2017

Recent decades have seen a growing interest in the accurate collection, visualization and analysis of spatial data and the geographical components of data capturing wider social processes. More and more, the complexities of big data analysis call for accurate and innovative mapping techniques to identify and clarify the role of geographical space. Also, the growing quality and availability of a wide range of datasets is fostering a growing interest in the analysis of the effects of geographical space. As society is increasingly characterized by a high level of interconnectedness and social networking, it seems clear that an accurate spatial representation of many phenomena is of key importance to students, researchers, and practitioners across the social sciences. As David Abernathy aptly puts it: "We have come to understand the power of "where" when attempting to better understand the "why" and "how" (p. 6). Against this background, the book by Abernathy is a very welcome and important contribution to the literature. In his book, Abernathy argues that society can increasingly be characterized as consisting of a geoweb, defined as "a distributed digital network of geolocated nodes that capture, produce, and communicate data that include an explicitly spatial component" (pp. 2-3). Next to computers and mobile phones, these nodes consist of a variety of machines, appliances and objects that are connected to the internet and provide a growing amount of data. The geographical components of this data are offering new opportunities and challenges to researchers and practitioners that want to identify and understand the roles of place and space. As Abernathy notes: "This is the promise of the geoweb: that the collection and visualisation of large volumes of spatial data, being generated by everything from mobile phones to smart cities, can help us better understand our social and natural environments" (p. 27). The main purpose of the book is to provide a background to the visualization of geodata and to discuss a variety of tools, examples, and advice on how to start doing this. The book consists of two parts. In the first part, Abernathy provides the necessary context of the nature and analysis of spatial data. In Chapter 2, the concept of geoweb is further explained and explored. Chapter 3 provides a discussion of geodata as an example of big data, offering new opportunities and challenges for existing tools and analysis. Chapter 4 discusses the growing importance of the vast number of technology users as providers of geodata. Chapter 5 addresses issues on data accuracy, privacy and surveillance. The last chapter of Part 1 discusses the various types of geodata and provides a guide to the second part of the book. The second part of the book contains a collection of chapters that provide discussions and explanations of several tools for the collection and visualization of a variety of types of geodata. Chapters 7-10 deal with different types of geodata, whereas Chapters 11-14 discuss several types of software programs that can be used for data visualization. Chapters 7 and 8 deal with data on absolute space, either in the form of GPS data or geographical data that can be transformed into exact locational data. Chapter 9 looks at how to identify and collect data with spatial components from Twitter. Chapter 10 explores geodata that machinery and applications transmit via the internet. Chapters 11 and 12 provide practical introductions to the desktop GIS software applications QGIS and GRASS. Chapter 13 explains how to access and visualize geodata with the software program R. In Chapter 14, several web browser-based tools are discussed, including Google Maps, OpenLayers and Leaflet. Finally, Chapter 15 returns to the concept of geoweb and places its development in a broader social context.

casa.ucl.ac.uk, 2008

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 ...

Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, 2012

While mobile applications typically offer access to standardized ‚basic' geo-content, there is evidence in the human sciences that people actually prefer subjective information sources for decision making, e.g. personal stories about experiences by family and friends. The success story of content communities in web applications confirms the wide acceptance of innovative information systems that offer the potential to consume, to produce and to rate personalized data. Therefore in this paper an approach for a mobile, interactive and integrated system is presented that do not only deliver basic geo-referenced information, but also allow the users to create location aware information for themselves and other users: information like hints and personal experience will be geo-referenced, time stamped and annotated with text and keyword information. It is stored and exchanged between community members. This individual information creates information content which is continuously growing and updated. Image based and text based information retrieval in combination with location information are used to provide easy access to relevant information. In this paper we outline the system architecture and components that enable these new approaches also providing augmented reality navigation. The approach was tested in a field test study and results and open issues are given. The system worked well and could be applied to future experiments in order to gain more insight in the mobile users' behaviour in real contexts.

The paper describes the architecture and main concepts of a geo-referenced web 2.0 application with a strong social-network component and possibly integrated with handheld devices. The application, called MyTravel, allows the users to share their travel experiences, in terms of geographic information and publishing contents like photos, notes and comments. In the paper we present the domain model of the application, associated to the functional prerequisites; then, we describe the architecture, technologies and the integration techniques adopted in the project, that have been validated through the development of the application prototype.

GeoTropico, 2003

por la introducción de nuevas tecnologías en el aula, en el lugar de trabajo, en los sectores públicos y privados. La geografía ha sido siempre una disciplina que adopta y utiliza tecnologías para escribir, describir, analizar y predecir acerca de patrones y procesos espaciales. El mapa es una de tantas tecnologías que hemos utilizado en nuestras pesquisas geográficas. Otras son la cámara fotográfica, las imágenes de percepción remota, y ahora los sistemas SIG. Las tecnologías las empleamos para cartografiar paisajes, actividades, interacciones hombre/medio, regiones y sistemas a escalas locales y globales. Lo que está surgiendo en el mundo académico y en los mundos reales

Journal of Regional Science, 2017

Recent decades have seen a growing interest in the accurate collection, visualization and analysis of spatial data and the geographical components of data capturing wider social processes. More and more, the complexities of big data analysis call for accurate and innovative mapping techniques to identify and clarify the role of geographical space. Also, the growing quality and availability of a wide range of datasets is fostering a growing interest in the analysis of the effects of geographical space. As society is increasingly characterized by a high level of interconnectedness and social networking, it seems clear that an accurate spatial representation of many phenomena is of key importance to students, researchers, and practitioners across the social sciences. As David Abernathy aptly puts it: "We have come to understand the power of "where" when attempting to better understand the "why" and "how" (p. 6). Against this background, the book by Abernathy is a very welcome and important contribution to the literature. In his book, Abernathy argues that society can increasingly be characterized as consisting of a geoweb, defined as "a distributed digital network of geolocated nodes that capture, produce, and communicate data that include an explicitly spatial component" (pp. 2-3). Next to computers and mobile phones, these nodes consist of a variety of machines, appliances and objects that are connected to the internet and provide a growing amount of data. The geographical components of this data are offering new opportunities and challenges to researchers and practitioners that want to identify and understand the roles of place and space. As Abernathy notes: "This is the promise of the geoweb: that the collection and visualisation of large volumes of spatial data, being generated by everything from mobile phones to smart cities, can help us better understand our social and natural environments" (p. 27). The main purpose of the book is to provide a background to the visualization of geodata and to discuss a variety of tools, examples, and advice on how to start doing this. The book consists of two parts. In the first part, Abernathy provides the necessary context of the nature and analysis of spatial data. In Chapter 2, the concept of geoweb is further explained and explored. Chapter 3 provides a discussion of geodata as an example of big data, offering new opportunities and challenges for existing tools and analysis. Chapter 4 discusses the growing importance of the vast number of technology users as providers of geodata. Chapter 5 addresses issues on data accuracy, privacy and surveillance. The last chapter of Part 1 discusses the various types of geodata and provides a guide to the second part of the book. The second part of the book contains a collection of chapters that provide discussions and explanations of several tools for the collection and visualization of a variety of types of geodata. Chapters 7-10 deal with different types of geodata, whereas Chapters 11-14 discuss several types of software programs that can be used for data visualization. Chapters 7 and 8 deal with data on absolute space, either in the form of GPS data or geographical data that can be transformed into exact locational data. Chapter 9 looks at how to identify and collect data with spatial components from Twitter. Chapter 10 explores geodata that machinery and applications transmit via the internet. Chapters 11 and 12 provide practical introductions to the desktop GIS software applications QGIS and GRASS. Chapter 13 explains how to access and visualize geodata with the software program R. In Chapter 14, several web browser-based tools are discussed, including Google Maps, OpenLayers and Leaflet. Finally, Chapter 15 returns to the concept of geoweb and places its development in a broader social context.