Choosing a Platform to Support a Web Based

Collaborative GIS EnvironmentBrian Aldrich

Penn State UniversityAdvisor - Anthony Robinson

July 5, 2011

Overview

Purpose Objectives Background Methodology Creating User Personas Components to a Viable Solution Conclusion and Further Research

Purpose To propose method for choosing a platform on which to build a

geospatial collaboration portal

To define the term “Geospatial Collaboration Portal” A web presence enabling users to discover, view, create, utilize and expose

geospatial products and services (ESRI, 2007) while facilitating a collaborative environment to promote geospatial knowledge refinement, decision support, product design and training (MacEachren & Brewer, 2004).

To define a set of required components Use these requirements to aid in choosing a platform

Objectives Establish a set of criteria with which we can compare multiple platforms

to support a geospatial collaboration portal solution

Further define requirements through user engagement and the development of user personas

Compare existing platform solutions that meet the criteria and choose the best candidate

Propose the development of new, or use of existing components to include in the portal design solution to meet the usage scenarios outlined by each of the user personas

Background

Web Portal: a single point of entry to content and functionality Examples: Yahoo!, MSN, Google

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Collaboration Portals

Geospatial Portal

Geocollaborationhttp://myrosea.homeip.net/personal/research.htm

Relevant Terminology and Concepts

Background

An architecture based on several design principles that can vary depending on the situation and the consultant. (Thomas Erl)

Relevant Design Concepts loose coupling of services

the reduction of dependencies between services service reusability service abstraction

logic or code facilitating the service is hidden from the end user service discovery

Service Oriented Architecture

Collaboration Portals

Background Web 2.0

Self servicing lightweight software components with intuitive user interfaces Collective intelligence and scalable services (O’Reilly, 2005)

Includes Social networking components such as knowledge bases, wikis, blogs, instant messaging, discussion boards

SOA and Web 2.0: Shared or Common Services Facilitating the dissemination of various resources (Schroth & Janner, 2007)

Portlets a.k.a. web parts, widgets, gadgets, modules, and snippets

Mashups systems incorporating two or more existing web technologies to form a new

system

The Geospatial Portal

Background “A human interface to a collection of online geospatial information

resources, including data sets and services”(Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc., 2004)

ESRI claims a geospatial portal should enable users to: Discover the geospatial data resources of others View the geospatial data resources of others Make maps combining GIS data produced by others Make use of data services maintained by others Expose their own geospatial data resources for discovery

(Environmental Systems Research Institute, 2007)

The Geospatial Portal

Background

FGDC Geospatial Platform Architecture

Roadmap for the Modern Geospatial PlatformFederal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), 2011

Data Services Applications Shared infrastructure

The Geospatial Portal

Background

Geospatial Portal Reference ArchitectureOpen Geospatial Consortium (OGC)

portal services User interface to content and services

portrayal services support visualization of geospatial information

catalog services allow users to classify, register, describe, search, maintain and access

information, or metadata, about available resources data services

enable users to interact with databases and other repositories through queries that return feature and attribute information

Geospatial Portal Examples

Background

ArcGIS Online http://www.arcgis.com/home/

Geospatial One Stophttp://gos2.geodata.gov/wps/portal/gos

Geocollaboration

BackgroundCollaboration with geospatial information through geospatial technologies (MacEachren & Brewer, 2004).

Four key components:

Knowledge construction and refinement

Design

Decision Support

Training and Education

http://kiwigis.blogspot.com/2009/05/p2p-geocollaboration-in-arcgis-explorer.html

Geocollaboration Examples

Background

Commercial: GeoViz (SAIC) http://www.saic.com/products/software/geoviz/

Open Source: GeoDeliberator (Cai & Yu, 2009) A map viewer enabling the display of multiple raster and/or vector

layers Ability to display attribution and or map annotation along with the

map An area showing what users or user groups are online (presence

awareness) A record of all comments and annotation along with corresponding

time-stamps

Geocollaboration

Background

1 - User Panel

2 - Project Panel

3 - Map Panel

4 - Timeline

5 - Annotation Panel

GeoDeliberator; Cai, G., & Yu, B. (2009)

Methodology Hypothetical Request for Proposal (RFP)

High level requirements an enterprise level solution into which it can integrate existing network

based services attract professionals as well as novices enable organizations within the company to set up sub-sites or

“communities” within the portal to cater to different types of activities within the agency

User Engagement Interview potential users to gain insight into the users perspective Develop user personas to represent the types of users interviewed

Abstract representations of real people with different characteristics, skills, responsibilities and personalities (Grudin & Pruitt, 2002)

Creating User Personas Develop user personas that would correspond to MacEachren

& Brewers’ four components of geocollaboration Knowledge construction and refinement Design Decision Support Training and Education

Divide user-base into three experience levels on which to base your personas Basic Intermediate Advanced

Creating User Personas

Recent graduate with little or no professional GIS experience Knowledge may be limited to activities such as finding their house

with Google Earth and obtaining driving directions from Bing Maps.

New employee tasked with quickly finding a forum in which to publish their companies’ most recent maps for discovery by potential customers.

Would find any available self-help tools useful. This user is most interested in the training and education

component.

Basic User Example

Creating User Personas

GIS Analyst with 5+ years experience Possesses general GIS knowledge and is relatively familiar with

common GIS tasks, like creating maps with multiple raster and or vector layers.

Often asked to submit work in an online environment requiring approval prior to publishing to a specific community of interest

They would regularly make use of search functionality to find the right forums in which to participate and also to find other sources from which to base his or her work.

This user would be primarily involved in knowledge construction and refinement as well as decision support.

Intermediate User Example

Creating User Personas

Professional GIS Specialist with 15+ years experience Needs to set up a community in which he or she can perform a

multitude of tasks Set up an approval workflow allowing employees to utilize, approval

and publishing of products created with ArcGIS software, Set up and configure multiple map viewers for display of WMS feeds, Analyze data real time with colleagues.

This user would be interested in the decision making and design aspects of MacEachren and Brewers geocollaboration environment.

Advanced User Example

Components to a Viable Solution

Collaborative shared services Social networking features such as wikis, blogging, RSS, discussion

boards and text chat Portal services such as presence awareness, permissions and access

management, directory services for locating people or groups and discovery services for searching content.

Portrayal services such as a map portrayal service and symbol and style management services.

Catalogue services enabling the publishing and searching of metadata

Data services enabling the querying of content in databases and other repositories.

Elements of Geospatial Collaboration

Components to a Viable Solution

The portal should enable users to share geospatial resources: Discover resources through a comprehensive search

functionality View GIS data via an online map viewer Create interactive maps with existing resources Utilize products and services of others Expose one’s own geospatial data and services.

Elements of Geospatial Collaboration

ESRI, 2007

Components to a Viable Solution

An application integration framework to enable dynamic integration of new services and content

Knowledge maintenance. Enable creation and publication of web content to develop online knowledge repositories that can be continuously updated through a content management system.

Collaborative design capability. Enable the design of systems for use through interactive development and collaboration.

Decision support system. Enable users to collaborate using online mapping functionality to facilitate decision making with the use of geospatial data.

Facilitation of training and education. Provide access to self-help material such as tutorials, glossaries, training presentations and videos

Elements of Geospatial Collaboration

Components to a Viable Solution

Versatile, customizable map viewer(s) Provide options for basic,

average and advanced end users Enable simple display as well

as analysis capability

User Needs and Expectations

http://openlayers.org

http://explorer.arcgis.com

Components to a Viable Solution

Geospatial Product Workflow Enable means to submit, approve, and publish map documents or other

geospatial products for public consumption. Enable email notifications for approval and submittal

User Needs and Expectations

http://tamhsc.edu/information-technology/web/cms/workflow.html

Components to a Viable Solution

Application Development Framework Example: ESRI’s Web ADF, which can be incorporated into any .NET or

Java IDE (Integrated Development Environment) Designated users with administrative access to the system would be able

to develop their own ArcGIS compatible web applications

User Needs and Expectations

http://forums.arcgis.com

Components to a Viable Solution

Suitability Scoring of Platforms for Geospatial Collaboration Platform

0 The component does not exist as defined by requirements1 The component requirements are superficially addressed2 Some component requirements are met (< 50%)3 Most component requirements are met (> 50%)4 The component requirements are generally met, but not all specifics are addressed5 All component requirements are met without exception

Evaluating the Options

Score candidate platforms against established criteria using a matrix representing functionality Wikipedia example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collaborative_software

Assign a score of between zero and five to each component of a platform to rate how well it meets the requirements

Scoring system for rating suitability of a platform for geospatial collaboration (based on Nielsen, 1994)

Project Plan Research possible support platforms that meet the general

requirements put forth in the hypothetical RFP. Complete by 7/20/2011

Choose 3 best candidate platforms meeting as many of the geospatial collaboration portal requirements as possible. Complete by 7/27/2011

Create comparison matrix and score platforms based on suitability. Choose the platform with the highest score. Complete by 8/3/2011

Propose components or design ideas to meet user personas. Complete by 8/17/2011

Present results at GIS in the Rockies Conference Denver, CO - 8/31/2011 – 9/1/2011

Conclusion A geospatial collaboration portal is a web presence enabling users to

discover, view, create, utilize and expose geospatial products and services while facilitating a collaborative environment to promote geospatial knowledge refinement, decision support, product design and training.

By combining the results of research performed on collaboration portals, geospatial portals and geocollaboration, this study has proposed a set of core components that should be considered in the planning and design of a geospatial collaboration portal

A method has been proposed to aid in the selection of a platform to support the portal that can be applied to various scenarios

Further Research

Research in developing a set of universal standards is recommended.

Further research in the use of open source solutions such as OpenLayers along with proprietary enterprise web collaboration platforms

Research in incorporating more powerful analytical tools to enable collaborative visual and geospatial analysis in a web portal

Research development of GIS User Personas for general use

References Cai, G., & Yu, B. (2009). Spatial Annotation Technology for Public Deliberation. Transactions in

GIS, 13(1), 123-146. Environmental Systems Research Institute. (2007). Geospatial Portal Technology. ESRI. Erl, T. (2007). An Introduction to Service Oriented Computing. Retrieved June 2, 2011, from

What is SOA?: http://www.whatissoa.com/ Federal Geographic Data Committee; US Department of the Interior. (2011, March).

Modernizing Roadmap for the Geospatial Platform. Retrieved from Geospatial Platform: http://www.geoplatform.gov/Geospatial%20Platform%20Roadmap%20v4%20Final.pdf

MacEachren, A. M., & Brewer, I. (2004). Developing a Conceptual Framework for Visually-Enabled Geocollaboration. International Journal of Geographic Information Science, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 1-34.

Nielsen, J. (1994). Enhancing the Explanatory Power of Usability Heuristics. Human Factors in Computing Systems, (pp. 152-153). Boston.

Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (2004, July 2). Geospatial Portal Reference Architecture. Retrieved from Open Geospatial Consortium: http://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=6669

O'Reilly, T. (2005, September 30). What is Web 2.0. Retrieved May 16, 2011, from O'Reilly: http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html

Schroth, C., & Janner, T. (2007). Web 2.0 and SOA: Converging Concepts Enabling the Internet of Services. IT Professional, 9(3), 36-41.