Geo-spatial data service developments at EDINA - interoperability in the Information Environment Dr David Medyckyj-Scott Manager, EDINA Research and Geo-data services JISC/NSF All Projects Meeting Edinburgh

Roadmap setting the context EDINA and the JISC 5/99 programme geo-X-walk - a gazetteer server Go-Geo! - a geo-data portal e-MapScholar - customisable, interactive learning materials the importance of interoperability conclusions

Setting the context

EDINA part of the Data Library, University of Edinburgh designated a JISC National Datacentre in 1995 EDINA's mission... to enhance the productivity of research, learning and teaching in UK higher and further education provides key information resources, as part of the JISCs Information Environment geo-spatial data and geo-referenced information an increasingly important part of EDINAs activities two main geo-spatial services: EDINA Digimap & UKBORDERS undertake R&D service strategic move toward interoperability

Mapping clients Data search and export clients Carto (applet) Lite Downloader Gazetteer

Widening our activities - the JISC 5/99 Programme

The JISC Information Environment is… a national digital library... for higher and further education a managed collection of resources a distributed resource supporting learning and research in the UK heterogeneous… bibliographic, images, data, video, geo-spatial, etc. an information environment that enables people to discover, access and use a wide variety of quality assured resources simple underlying functional model of the Information Environment - discover, access, use, publish JISC interested in applying this model to geographic information also desire to look for ways to enable geographic searching of the Information Environment

JISC Information Environment Portal Content providers End-user Portal Broker/Aggregator Authentication Authorisation Collectn Desc Service Desc Resolver Instn Profile Shared services Portal Provision layer Fusion layer Presentation layer geo-X-walk Go-Geo! Portal

Geo-spatial data data that have some form of spatial or geo- graphic reference that enables them to be located in two- or three-dimensional space Statistical Account of Scotland NUMBER XIII. PARISH OF CULLEN. (COUNTY OF BANFF, SYNOD OF ABERDEEN, PRESBYTERY OF FORDYCE.) By the Rev. Mr. ROBERT GRANT. Royalty, Extent, Climate, etc. CULLEN, as appears from old charters, was originally called Inverculan, because it stands upon the bank of the Burn of Cullen, which, at the N. end of the town, falls into the sea: but now it is known by the name of Cullen on- ly. Cullen is a royal burgh, formerly a constabulary, of which the Earl of Findlater was hereditary constable. The set, as it is called, of the council, consists of 19, in which num- ber are included the Earl of Findlater, hereditary preses, 3 bailies, a treasurer, a dean-of-guild, and 13 counsellors. The parish extends from the sea fouthward, about 2 English miles in length.

geo-X-walk - a gazetteer service Digital Gazetteer - An electronic list of geographic features together with their associated spatial location Digital Gazetteer Service - A network-addressable middle-ware server supporting geographic referencing and searching aim: develop a demonstrator gazetteer service suitable for extension to full service a shared terminology service within the JISC IE phase II demonstrator project - commenced June 2002 builds on the ideas of the Alexandria Digital Library Project

Reference use Information server Searching Geo-parsing & indexing The geo-X-walk Server

Reference Use - Example queries What is at grid ref. NT ? Where is Ormskirk? What is the county town of Shropshire? List me all places ending with chester What parishes fall within the Lake District National Park? On what river is Liverpool situated? Which Roman roads pass through Leicestershire? By what alternative names has York been known?

Assist information services with searching geographic searching is an important and powerful information retrieval facility but users think about space in different ways this means information services would have to support a full range of geographic search options pointless for a service to try and index information on them all more efficient to map a user view to native spatial coding scheme BUT want to avoid services having to hold multiple geographies to perform mapping THEREFORE need a translation mechanism machine to machine interaction (m2m)

Geo-parsing and indexing increasing demand from data providers, archives, libraries, and museums to support geographic searching large number of information resources NOT geographically indexed assist in the geo-referencing of information objects –parse documents, metadata records etc. to identify geographic names, features and other geographies –semi automatic indexing lets look at some examples….. (1) (2)(1)(2) ideally everyone should use standard spatial coding scheme –why? Because wide variety of geographies exist which change over time! –geographic coordinates preferred choice –convert into geographic 'footprints

Approach similar to the ADL approach (Linda Hill et al) structural model: metadata model v. hierarchical thesaurus emphasis on implicit spatial relationships over explicitly stated relationships –more than the traditional administrative hierarchy of current political entities represent objects by correct geometry feature type thesaurus important merge data from various sources comprehensive description but with small set of core elements –temporal aspects of names, footprints, relationships, … –document source, spatial accuracy/scale of footprint technically challenging and many data related issues

Go-Geo! - A Geo-data Portal Go-Geo! will be a resource discovery tool that tells users what spatial data exists for a given area phase II demonstrator project - JISC funded, commenced June 2002 aim: develop a demonstrator service suitable for extension to full service lots of interest and a number of challenges but also lots of similar services e.g. AskGiraffe in the UK, FGDC Clearing house in US so….

What's different then? better than existing services :-) promote greater awareness of data within HE –increasing amounts of geo-spatial data being created –help everyone make more (effective) use of these data particularly the wider GI community in the UK an access point to related resources –obvious things (software, learning resources, training, etc.) –BUT ALSO case studies, articles and projects, mail lists etc –all tied together by location portal becomes a geographically oriented access point to the JISC Information Environment extend services to support access and data fusion

Other IE Content Providers Go-Geo! Data Portal Geo-data Network (proposed) NGDF Gateway Geo-data Gateway Metadata or resource servers

Challenges yet another set of metadata standards creation of metadata –how do we encourage documentation of data? –how do we ensure metadata is comprehensive, current? discovery is all very well but what about access –researchers and lecturers unable to handle requests for data –require mechanism for 'publishing' their data spatial searching for related resources –majority of services within JISC IE have no spatial indexing –even if they were, the z39.50 software employed either doesn't support appropriate profiles e.g. GILS, GEO doesn't have functionality to undertake spatial searching

Learning and Teaching - the e-MapScholar project develop tools and learning and teaching materials that enhance and support the use of geo-spatial data in learning and teaching led by EDINA with a number of associate partners deliverables a range of Teaching Case Studies from a variety of subject areas customisable and interactive Learning Resources a proof-of-concept Virtual Placement

Digimap - obtaining a map Bridging the Skills/Concepts Gap Increasing user sophistication Learning Materials Tools Learning/skills curve Using data from Digimap in a GIS or drawing package

Framework for resource delivery three main areas identified as key conceptual interdisciplinary domains –Working with digital map data –Data integration –Visualisation if we are going to provide something online, the materials must in someway be enhanced by this approach in the case of e-MapScholar, this is provided through: –the provision of interactive tools to students to illustrate key concepts and perform some basic analytical tasks –the facility for lecturers to customise materials through provision of discipline and place specific examples

Example page from a learning unit Text Interactive tool

Assessment Example tools Digitiser Map Viewer

Components of a Learning Resource A learning resource contains: Learning objects include: Plain text Interactive tools Web mapping and are customisable in content and spatial extent where appropriate Learning units contain: Metadata Learning objectives Learning objects Metadata Learning objectives Learning units And can be made up of different combinations of units

Content Management System Interface of CMS showing how tutors can select units to create a new resource, and edit metadata associated with that resource

Interoperability- tying it all together

The need for interoperability EDINA increasingly needs to share spatial data between main services and services being developed in projects also being approached by other JISC services wanting to use OS maps and data in their services ditto external organisations e.g. NOF projects EDINA looking to interoperate with OS GB to reduce data storage and management costs gazetteer designed with interoperability in mind from start –an infrastructural service that will be used by other service providers Q. How to go about this? –need to use agreed standards with likelihood of wide adoption

OGC and interoperability Open GIS Consortium (OGC), a private sector initiative, formed in 1994 aim is to develop software specifications to advance geo- processing interoperability across the GIS industry employing practical testbeds and a consensus specification development process to arrive at open specifications for standard interfaces and protocols defined web service implementation specifications for –Map Services– Gazetteer Services* –Feature Services– Geo-parser Services* –Coverage services– Catalog Services over last few months, EDINA has begun implementing some of the specifications

OGC-based interoperability at work

An interoperable infrastructure Web Map Server Web Feature Server Web Coverage Server Web Feature Server Web Map Server Gazetteer Server geo-X-walk Geo-parser Server e-MapScholar Service Go-Geo! Portal GE:Source Portal Clients Services Infrastructural Services

Example application Go-Geo! Portal Gazetteer Server geo-X-walk Geo-parser Server Content Provider 1 Content Provider 2 Content Provider 3 Content Provider 4 customised requests crosswalk spatial component geo-parse records (exp) initiate search ('Edinburgh') return result set content spatially indexed content not spatially indexed content provider profiles JISC IE

Conclusions EDINA building on experience of Digimap and UKBORDERS interoperability critical for multiple reasons e.g. efficiency and costs gains centralised data and expertise for a particularly data type but distributed use distributed services but data fusion standards based approach providing the means increasingly confident that we can build a geo-spatial service infrastructure provision of a geography oriented entry point to IE possible ?number of outstanding questions... will JISC support and fund it? will other services use it? will data providers allow it?

Contacts Dr David Medyckyj-Scott Manager, Research and Geo-Data Services EDINA web site: Tel.: +44 (0) Fax: +44 (0)