GI Science and
technology - where next?
EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE
Education towards professional qualifications has frequently
been named as a key factor towards extending the reach of the
geospatial industry, with the idea that qualified specialists rang-ing
from IT-focussed via methodology-centered analyst to
application experts. While this observation is certainly true and
needs to be supported through the development of suitable
curricula and implementation of programs across traditional
boundaries between disciplines, another aspect might be even
more decisive. Traditionally, one aspect of schooling is the
establishment of literacy as a foundation for critical thinking,
creativity and participation. The spatial angle has been covered
by the building of map reading skills supporting education
towards spatial awareness and understanding many facets of
our world. Well, map reading skills are changing substantially
and are applied in the computing domain. 'Maps' now move,
change perspective, can be actively navigated and are much more
an orientation device and spatial user interface.
Most surveys and visionary perspectives claim that the
geospatial industry is moving from a technology-oriented niche
into the mainstream of society. GI only has limited growth
potential in the business-to-business sectors of corporate
decision support, workflow optimisation and day-to-day oper-ations.
Rather, a customer-focused evolution towards spatially
enabled and locally centered services are considered as a major
growth opportunity.
If we want customers to use a search engine's spatial portal
as their default web page, bookmark their community's map
interface, work out an itinerary from a spatial perspective and
shop, eat and interact with friends based on ICT-facilitated
proximity, we need support from general education.
Spatial literacy is not about teaching GIS in schools.
Rather, creating spatial awareness, navigational ICT skills and
an understanding that all or most of today's problems have a
significant spatial aspect to them need to become objectives
throughout schools curricula. Only spatially aware citizens with
the requisite ICT skills will be able to critically participate and
contribute to an information society.
WILL OUR LIVES BE DIFFERENT?
Of course the answer will be yes and no, depending on what we
consider the defining aspects. Will our future lives be different
due to progress in geoinformatics? For all of us, and many
others, yes. In what ways will life be different? This will depend
largely on lifestyles, professions and interests, and of course our
geographical and societal positions on the globe.
Geospatial information will more and more affect us on
different scales. The 'global village' and the much quoted links
between local action and global thinking will become less
philosophical and more practical. Beyond the obvious
assistance with travel and transportation, geography affects
everything around us. The environment, sustainability and
infrastructures are all inherently geographical issues. As they are
being represented through geoinformation to enable direct,
location aware interaction, digital geospatial interfaces
essentially become our dashboards as we navigate life.
On a practical level, the trend towards networked services
means that local availability of computing and processing
power becomes much less critical than the availability of band-width.
If ample bandwidth is provided differences in educa-tion,
opportunities and participation will decrease. Bandwidth
as an indicator for access to information and interaction there-fore
is the key differentiating factor in future geographies.
TOWARDS THE GEO-INFORMATION SOCIETY
The European Union’s 'Information Society' concept claimes
that the spatial aspect is pertinent to a majority of information
aspects and it also provides interesting perspectives to toy with
the term 'Geo-Information Society'. I believe that, in a way, we
are moving into this direction.
Let us briefly look at information from an abstract meta-per-spective:
information objects or features can be located in an
'information cube' which has defined geographical research
since the early days of the (then) 'quantitative revolution'.
Objects have attributes characterizing their position in subject,
temporal and spatial domains. A cube (Fig 1) with the dimen-sions
of subject (what?), time (when?) and place (where?) can
therefore be used to place information objects.
This view provides support for the argument that GIS is not
a distinct area along the lines of the 'spatial-is-special' phrase,
but geography is rather a view, often a very important view on
our world through the lens of information representations. In
simple terms, the spatial dimension is a key component of the
'context' of objects, and which affects our actions. Providing
full context for decisions and actions is essential, as we know
from our many 'profiles' we use to make software and services
more focussed on our preferences and intentions. Context is a
key enabler of semantic-rich interaction (Semantic Web, see
reference), and context is rarely complete without location.
So, the concept of a Geo-Information Society as a more
context-sensitive, less abstract concept might not be so far-fetched
after all! Technologically speaking, it is built on three
pillars: (Fig 2) geospatial data as digitale representations of
much of our world; positioning services putting people, assets
and other 'objects' into this context; and mobile telecommuni-cation
connecting everything and providing access for users.
GI SCIENCE AND THE INFORMATION ECONOMYM
In 1995 and 1997, the magazine 'Economist' declared the
'death of distance' caused by information infrastructures
making location largely irrelevant. Telecommunication,
telecommuting and globalization appeared as clear indicators.
Interpreting Tobler's 'First Law of Geography' (stating
'Everything is related to everything else, but near things are
more related than distant things') this should mean that geog-raphy
had to be declared defunct as well.
In March 2003, though, the same publication tltled an arti-cle
'The revenge of geography', starting with the observation:
"In the early days of the internet boom, there was much talk of
the death of distance. The emergence of a global digital net-work,
it seemed, would put an end to mundane physical or geo-graphical
constraints. There was some truth in this, but …"
Clearly, the authors had recognized that location provides the
best general means of connecting virtual and real worlds. This
connect in turn is required to provide business models for the
information economy - Geography and GI Science are well
placed to provide some of them!
Just as there are 'macro' and 'micro' aspects to economy, we
recognize this as a valuable distinction in geography and now
GI science. Up to now we have mostly worked in the frame of
macro-geography. Now due to positioning services, detailed
geospatial data, and powerful communication GIS moves more
towards micro-geography. Actually, there would be no macro-economy
without the micro-level of businesses. I wonder what
it means that GIS has come the other way?