Geospatial Collaboration Chris Holmes OpenGeo

Agenda Background GeoNode TsuDAT/Risiko USGS NHD Editing and Versioning

04/26/10

Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI)

“[Spatial Data Infrastructure] provides a basis for spatial data discovery, evaluation, and application for users and providers within all levels of government, the commercial sector, the non-profit sector, academia and by citizens in general.” – SDI Cookbook Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI)

The theory of SDI developed before we learned what was possible with the Internet

...what an ideal SDI would be like Imagine...

...an SDI that makes uploading, sharing, and working with data as easy as blogging Imagine...

Publishing data Anthony has some spatial data and wants to display it as part of a blog post.

Publishing data Anthony uploads it to a public SDI, styles it, provides a background, and then puts a map widget on his blog.

Publishing data Meanwhile, the data, style, and map remain available on the public SDI for others to use.

Metadata and reputation The World Organization tells Cameron, their consultant, to put data she has gathered on their SDI.

Metadata and reputation Other users notice mistakes in the metadata. They notify Cameron and give it a low rating.

Metadata and reputation Cameron fixes the mistakes, and the other users rate the data more highly. Her reputation on the SDI improves.

Federated search A regional Health agency and a regional Transit agency have separate SDI systems.

Federated search Tom, a GIS analyst doing research, seeks out correlations between health and bicycle routes

Federated search Tom searches for data in a single federated index and downloads the data as a batch.

How do you make an SDI that's as compelling as modern, widely-used web services?

Make an SDI using the best practices of these web services and projects

General Principles Grow Bottom Up Align Incentives through Openness Build it for Casual Users Features, not Policies

04/26/10 Grow Bottom-Up Reduce barriers to participation as much as possible. Be useful (if imperfect) as fast as possible.

04/26/10 Grow Bottom-Up Start with data. Let users work with it. Generate metadata as needed.

Align Incentives... Align incentives for contribution and use so growth is natural.

Align Incentives... Reward data providers for good contributions Encourage users to contribute back Make value of service transparent to system providers

... through Openness Provide a reason to participate Reward collaboration Make it as transparent as possible

Build it for Casual Users Using Spatial Data Infrastructure should not require expertise

Build it for Casual Users Reading documentation is too much work. The burden is on the system developers to make it intuitive to use.

Features, not Policies If SDI technology requires No overhead or compromises there will be No organizational resistance

Features, not Policies Look for and implement smart technical solutions to legitimate organizational concerns.

is a new software project to build this SDI

What does GeoNode actually do ?

Give a reason to participate A major problem with SDI is that people lack incentives to use it

Problems with Portals No benefit to registering Few real users No recognition or reward for the effort Uses stick, not carrot

GIS SDI

GIS SDI

Embed SDI in the real work of GIS practitioners, and it will have more impact.

Embed SDI in the real work of domain experts, and it will have more impact.

Embed SDI in the real work of everyone and it will have more impact.

Provides styling and cartography tools Users can use the tools on data they upload GeoNode provides a reason to participate

Map composer makes Maps Maps are an important content type They bind together ecosystem of geospatial content

Maps, Data and Users form an web to be browsed

Generic search engines (like Google, Bing) can crawl and rank these pages.

Users Have Identity People fill out user profiles to establish identity on the web Profiles are also useful data

Meanwhile, Metadata Pain Good metadata for geospatial data is important but hard to produce.

GeoNode has user profiles and features them prominently Those profiles have ISO metadata fields within them

Metadata Made Easy

Metadata Published Metadata is published with open standard CSW using GeoNetwork

Open standards and API's

Data published by GeoServer in OGC Services: WMS, WFS, WCS Metadata published by GeoNetwork in CSW Output KML for Google Earth, Tile Overlays for Google Maps/Bing/etc.

We use open standards for data access. GeoNode also has open APIs

HTTP

Make Content Portable

Let Users Control Content

Content owners control access with easy user interface Deep data security extends to OGC services

We are building GeoNode to accommodate any institution's access policy

OpenStreetMap and Risiko

USGS NHD Editing and Versioning

04/26/10

Versioning Specs WFS-V (never standardized) OWS-8 GeoSynchronization Service for OGC / NGA WFS 2.0 Versioning for IGN France

GeoGit next steps Hook USGS NHD Demo commits to Versioned Layers Build javascript tools for visualization of Diffs, rollbacks, conflict resolution, pull requests Create RESTful spec of advanced features, driven by front end requirements Test in low and no bandwidth scenarios Mobile implementation Test and iterate

Data Collaboration Encode business rules and QA as WPS using GeoScript Version to never lose an edit Provenance tracking of every single change Innovation needed, to adapt the governance and advanced tools of Open Source Software to geospatial data and workflows

Beyond Portals To real collaboration at all levels: on software, individual layers, and sharing new layers Thousands of nodes of collaboration Custom apps like TsuDAT Data communities like USGS NHD Each feeding in to other nodes that build on top Geospatial becomes a fabric to solve real problems

04/26/10

Frequently Asked Questions

What's it made of?

HTTP

04/26/10

What about INSPIRE? GeoServer needs WMS 1.3 to meet INSPIRE standards OpenGeo has found partners to fund this development It is coming soon

Open Data Skepticism Isn't GeoNode an open data platform? Doesn't open data raise concerns about data quality and data security?

Open Data Optimism Yes, GeoNode is designed to promote open data.

Open Data Optimism Features like User reputation Organizational endorsement Flexible security address data quality concerns

Open Data Optimism GeoNode supports the continuum of openness with a common platform for institutional GIS and neogeography

What about Features X,Y,Z? We welcome your investment in new GeoNode features and involvement in the developer community.

GeoNode Action

How to Try It Play with the live public demo at (Warning: Unstable)

How to Install It Follow instructions in README at questions to mailing list Talk to developers in #geonode IRC channel

Tell us about your experience Your comments will help us Improve it

If you want to use GeoNode in production you may want professional quality support How to Buy It

Contact OpenGeo at Or visit our booth How to Buy It

(OpenGeo has a network of regional partners and is looking for others) How to Buy It

Is GeoNode perfect for you except that it needs one more feature? How to Invest In It

Contact OpenGeo at Or visit our booth How to Invest in It

How to Join It Contributing Organizations: OpenGeo, World Bank, Civic Works We hope others will join the developer community Patches welcome Community growth a priority

Developer Community Join Us! to join the mailing IRC: #geonode See the issue tracker at –

If you have any questions about GeoNode Feel free to

Or ask them now. Any questions?