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Enhancing the Vision of CyberGIS

Explore the evolution of CyberGIS vision, measuring success, novel scientific advancements, and problem-solving abilities. Discover current fragmented tools, new integration goals, and expanding user base considerations for CyberGIS development.

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Enhancing the Vision of CyberGIS

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  1. Enhancing the Vision of CyberGIS Michael F. Goodchild University of California Santa Barbara

  2. Three years in • How has our vision changed since the proposal? • What will be the next phase and how will it be different? • Are we measuring success appropriately?

  3. Five areas • The problem set • Analysis and modeling • Broadening the base • The science of CyberGIS • Education

  4. The story so far • CyberGIS • a subset of cyberinfrastructure • specific to geospatial activities • The components of CI: • high-performance computing • applied to geospatial analysis, modeling • because such problems are often compute-intensive • distributed, collaborative systems • using geospatial data and tools • strong emphasis on visualization • community building

  5. No shortage of large problems • Global DEM at 30m resolution • 5x1011 data elements • computing intervisibility • Longitudinal change in land cover at 1 hectare resolution • 5x1010 data elements per time sample • 20 visits per year (Landsat) for 40 years • 4x1013 data elements • Fixes of the entire US vehicle fleet every second

  6. Measuring success • What new scientific discoveries could not have been made without CyberGIS? • What new problems could not have been solved? • What new decisions could not have been made? • What new predictions could not have been made? • …without x • where x = GIS and t ~ 1990

  7. Traditional approaches • Divide and conquer • familiar geospatial analyses can be partitioned geographically • intervisibility on 1 degree squares • 107 data elements • one Landsat scene at a time • 107data elements • tracking of a subset of vehicles in one metropolitan area • 107data elements per second • Over what set of problems does divide and conquer work? • and is that the complete set?

  8. Elements of a vision (1) • In the set of geospatial problems only some are amenable to divide and conquer • Because of our reliance on divide and conquer we do not give such problems serious consideration; we are not even able to enumerate such problems • CyberGIS invites us to rethink our problem set; CyberGIS will be measured not by the existing problems it solves but by the new problems it makes solvable

  9. What makes divide and conquer acceptable? • Short-distance social interactions • geography’s distance decay • Long-distance interactions are problematic • and increasingly common in a virtual world • A world partitioned into places • cities as discrete objects vs population density as a field • Short-distance physical interactions • versus long-distance air and water transport

  10. The New Yorker, 12/10/01

  11. http://gigaom.com/2010/12/14/facebook-draws-a-map-of-the-connected-world/http://gigaom.com/2010/12/14/facebook-draws-a-map-of-the-connected-world/

  12. www.esquire.comJuly 21, 2008 The Butterfly Effect, Part 2* How 9/11 pissed off the Saudi high rollers, boosted Al Qaeda recruitment ,and got us all to put eggplant on our pizza.

  13. Analysis and modeling • CyberGIS as integrated functionality • serving an interoperable data environment • Interoperable data • self-descriptive • embedded metadata • hiding details of implementation • projection, datum • alternative field representations • user should engage only with those details that affect the science • uncertainty

  14. Where are we now? • Fragmented, Balkanized tools • User must engage with a myriad details • steep learning curve • Models not interoperable • not plug-and-play • no common language • Even in the limited domain of geospatial analysis and modeling • Must each effort to integrate result in another alternative?

  15. Elements of a vision (2) • An environment for analysis and modeling • Backed by powerful, distributed computation • Hiding as many implementation details as possible • a new generation of the GIS user interface • allowing the UI to focus on science • The original but much neglected goal of GIS: to integrate knowledge • in a framework of space and time

  16. Broadening the base • Who are the users of CyberGIS? • a subset of GIS experts? • a subset of the “GIS community” • the next generation of GIS experts? • a redefined “GIS community” • the next five million users of GIS? • the average citizen? • Business as usual? • an inaccessible interface • motivating only the technologically adventurous • or those who have a genuine problem to solve?

  17. Elements of a vision (3) • A technology that is adopted because the benefits of doing so outweigh the costs of learning how • A technology that reaches beyond the “GIS community” • A technology that has something to offer the average citizen

  18. The science of CyberGIS • The principles of GIScience • spatial dependence • spatial heterogeneity • extended to spacetime • relative accuracy always better than absolute accuracy • a polyline representation of a curve is always shorter than the curve • But what additional principles? • any geographical system can be modeled as a set of semi-independent parallel systems

  19. Partitioning a geographical system • Into a set of semi-indepenent parallel systems • Should the partitioning be static or dynamic? • Can there be a hierarchy of partitions? • Can there be multiple overlapping partitions? • social and environmental? • Is partitioning the best approach? • or fuzzy partitions? • or proximity to nodes?

  20. Elements of a vision (4) • A new science of CyberGIS • with a set of distinct principles • foundations for teaching • still true in 20 years • independent of today’s technology • CyberGIScience? • a place in the academy • compare GIS in 1990 • “GIS is just a tool” • “non-intellectual expertise”

  21. Education • The field of CyberGIS is advancing rapidly • what place does it deserve in the curriculum? • Is it just a flash in the technological pan? • or a truly new addition to scientific knowledge? • How should we prepare students • for a world of CyberGIS? • for a world in which today’s hot new tools are tomorrow’s cyberjunk?

  22. Can education keep up? • Higher education is the second-most conservative industry known to humanity • curriculum advance is slow • and perhaps for good reason

  23. Elements of a vision (5) • The curriculum needs constant revision • in a field advancing as rapidly as GIS/CyberGIS • Textbooks on a 3 to 4 year cycle • courses on a 1-year cycle • BoK? • What mechanisms will ensure a continuously evolving curriculum? • and how do we ensure that what is new is worth teaching? • textbooks, teaching materials, online resources, MOOCs, …

  24. Concluding points • The vision of CyberGIS has advanced since the original proposal • and needs to advance continuously • We need to think about the next phase • Many other related activities are under way • among industrial partners • in the open-source community • We continue to attract attention from the HPC community

  25. http://www.cra.org/ccc/files/docs/Spatial_Computing_Report-2013.pdfhttp://www.cra.org/ccc/files/docs/Spatial_Computing_Report-2013.pdf What is the intersection between this report and CyberGIS?

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