GIScience Panel

Brett, Celeste, Michael, Mark, David

Michael F. Goodchild• Professor of

Geography at UCSB• Chair of the Executive

Committee, National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA)

• BA from Cambridge in Physics 1965

• PhD from McMasters in Geography 1969

Goodchild continued• Spent 19 years at the University of Western

Ontario, including three years as chair.

• In 1988 he moved to UCSB

• He was director of NCGIA from 1991 – 1997

• Elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and Foreign Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2002

• Numerous honorary doctorates and awards

Goodchild continued• Has collaborated with

Dr. Dawn Wright• Suggested reading:

Wright, D.J., M.F. Goodchild and J.D. Proctor, 1997. Demystifying the persistent ambiguity of GIS as "tool" versus "science". AAG Annals, 87(2): 346-362.

Google Earth WOW!

Googles Top Ten List

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow. The interface is clear and simple.

Pages load instantly.

Placement in search results is never sold to anyone.

Advertising on the site must offer relevant content and not be a

distraction.

Google’s Top Ten List continued2. It's best to do one thing really, really

well.

3. Fast is better than slow.

4. Democracy on the web works.

5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.

6. You can make money without doing evil.

Google’s Top Ten List continued

7. There's always more information out there.

8. The need for information crosses all borders.

9. You can be serious without a suit.

10. Great just isn't good enough.

What is a picture worth? 2004• Towards the end of October, Google

announced the acquisition of Keyhole Corpa digital & satellite image mapping company based in Google's own headquarter town, Mountain View, Calif. The acquisition gave Google users a powerful new search tool to view 3D images across earth, and the ability to tap a rich database of roads, businesses and many other points of interest.

Google Earth• “And speaking of the world at large, our

Keyhole acquisition last fall led us to create Google Earth, which was unveiled in late June. This technology enables users to fly through space, zooming into specific locations they choose, and seeing the real world in sharp focus. It turns out that when we talk about "the world's information," we mean geography too.”

Geographical information science

By Michael F. Goodchild

Published inInternational Journal of Geographical Information Systems, 1992

Based on keynote addresses by the author atThe Fourth Internation Symposium on Spatial Data Handling, Zurich, July 1990

Introduction

• The handling and processing of data?

• A technology in search of applications?

• New applications for old data?

What are the “drivers” of all this GIS activity and growth?

No, interest in GIS is due to more than these things.

The Fourth Driver

• GIS as a science – the intellectual curiosity about the nature of GIS itself, and

• GIS as a tool for science – a toolset properly applied to scientific research

The fourth driver – Science – is… “located apparently irrelevantly in the back seat…”

Thus there is a pressing need to recognize and develop the role of science in GIS, in two senses:

The Fourth Driver

• geospatial data are unique

• there are problems which are generic to all geographical data

To recognize and develop the role of science in GIS, we must establish that:

What is unique?

• GIS data has a "spatial key" which is unique - it is continuous key

• Spatial dependence - nearby locations influence each other and possess similar attributes

• Geographic data are distributed over a curved surface

The content of geographical information science

1. Data collection and measurement – how should continuous data be compiled and measured?

2. Data capture – how to deal with the poor quality of original documents?

3. Spatial statistics (uncertainty, probability) - how to represent these in a GIS? How to measure data quality?

Goodchild proposes a set of generic questions which might constitute important research areas in geographical information science:

The content of geographical information science

4. Data modeling and theories of spatial data – what are the constraints of particular implementations?

5. Data structures, algorithms and processes – how do we address the difficult, context-specific problems?

6. Display – how do we make our display choices?

Research areas (cont.)

The content of geographical information science

7. Analytical tools – we can calculate buffers, determine shortest-pathing, compute centroids - but there has been little progress in incorporating the range of known techniques of spatial analysis into current products. Why?

8. Institutional, managerial and ethical issues – will GIS enable surveillance and invasion of privacy? What will it mean to the balance of power in society?

Research areas (cont.)

Tests of commonality

• Are such challenges unique, or do they have something in common with other areas?

• In some cases, they may not be unique; they may be common to information technology adoption/diffusion in general.

• Other issues do seem to be unique to GIS.

Currently, the absence of solutions impedes the effective application of GIS technology.

Unique to GIS

• how to model time-dependent geographic data• how to capture, store, and process three-

dimensional data• how to model data for geographical

distributions draped over surfaces embedded in three dimensions

• how to explore data• how to evaluate the geographic perspective on

information and processes relative to more conventional perspectives

Challenges that seem unique to GIS:

A proposed definition of GIS research

• Research about GIS, as well as

• Research with GIS

“Research on the generic issues that surround the use of GIS technology, impede its successful implementation, or emerge from an understanding of its potential capabilities.”

The future

• Users, vendors and most importantly, researchers, have symbiotic roles to play in the advancement of geographic information science.

• GIS must be taken seriously as a science in academia, by a group of disciplines with common interests.

“Without such arguments, the GIS field will fragment, and the GIS storm will blow itself out.”

In the future:

Other interesting quotes

“The field is small—rhetoric about growth in the industry aside, no one would suggest that the field of GIS is a major discipline.“

“Is there a valid analogy between the systems and science of geographical information on the one hand (tools supporting researchers) and statistical packages and statistics on the other?”

The Web-wide World. Nature, Feb. 2006

Web tools – Google Earth, World Wind, ArcGIS Explorer

Three dimensional displays –

“…we have few methods for analyzing data on the sphere or spheroid…We need to develop appropriate techniques for working with the globe.” Goodchild, 1992

The interaction of the research community and GIS software

The adoption and use of GIS in the scientific research community

“…many scientists that could use GIS do not, and it has remained largely the preserve of specialists.” Butler, Nature 2006

Some Questions:• Are we moving away from maps altogether?

• Have advances in GISci technologies like Google Earth compromised individual privacy?

• Do you share Goodchild’s belief that the GIS community can benefit greatly from interdisciplinary research?