This document discusses the benefits of opening up geographic data to fuel innovation. It notes that while maps are useful, the underlying data is even more valuable for tasks like routing, themed cartography, and addressing global issues. However, the data has traditionally been restricted by specialist industry and academia. The document argues that opening the data in standard, web-friendly formats along with crowd-sourcing tools allows more people to use it for pressing needs and helps answer important geo-temporal questions about where, when, and why events occur.

1. Opening Geographic Data
As Catalyst for the Creative Economy & Innovative Solutions
Shoaib Burq
shoaib@nomad-labs.com
t: @sabman

2. Geographic Data
What’s so special about it?

3. When did most people start to take note of Ajax?

4. When they first saw Google Maps and asked how it works?

5. Why?

6. because maps are useful!
and data used to make the map is even
more useful

7. ... but, someone forgot to put the download button

8. Why would we need a download button/data?
Don’t the people who really need it have it already?

9. I want to create themed cartography

10. I want to create my own a routing server

11. ... I want to route in Tehran ...

12. and route my bike to get here today

13. What about for building other open government sites

14. as at 21 December no way
to get postal regions
boundaries for Australia
without paying for non-
commercial user
What about for building other open government sites

15. What about for more pressing uses?
as if routing my bike isn’t pressing enough

16. Global Issues

17. What about for
Geo-Temporal Data Global Challenges
Predicting Bush fires?

18. What about for Climate
Geo-Temporal Data Global Challenges
Change Research?

19. The Geographic Questions

20. Where? and Why there?

21. The Temporal Questions

22. When? and Why then?

23. Increasingly we want to answer
Geo-Temporal questions

24. Where & When?
Why there & then?

25. So way can’t we just have the geographic data?
To create say a poverty map for analysis on
directing my donations

26. Key Indicators
• Socio-Economic Data
• Distribution of Poverty
• Basic Human Needs
• Infant Mortality
• Malnutrition Measures

27. Geographic Factors
• Coastal Proximity
• Climatic Conditions
• Elevations
• Transportation Networks
• Exposure to Natural Disasters
• Climate Change Vulnerability

29. Besides the reasons mentioned by others
there is one reason unique to GeoData

30. Was Dominated by Specialist Industry and Academia (Suits)

31. The changing face of the GIS Industry

32. These people speak another language few web
people understand - W*S
• Simple Features Specification
• Web Mapping Service (WMS)
• Web Feature Service (transactional) (WFS-t)
• Web Coverage Service (WCS)
• Web Processing Service (WPS)
• Sensor Observation Service (SOS)
• OGC Catalogue Service (OCS)
• Style Layer Descriptor (SLD)

33. GIS & Web 2.0
Only just coming to terms with
the web architecture
Still have an XML-RPC bias
Still searching for a cleaver
search solution

34. Now Barbarians at the Door

35. prangz.com (Real-time NSW Traffic Incidents)

36. prangz.com (Real-time NSW Traffic Incidents)

37. When Governments Open Up their Data

38. let’s take GeoRSS
+ =

39. Atom & GeoRSS

40. Interoperable out of the box
Standard Identification System (URI)

41. Interoperable out of the box
Standard interaction protocol

42. Interoperable out of the box
Standard data exchange formats

43. Load balance? Easy
REST resources are cacheable

44. Scalable out of the box
REST resources are stateless so easy to scale

50. Microformats & Semanitcs | http://microformats.org

51. Role of Web 2.0 tools
• Crowd sourcing for data
• Local engagement
• Self-help & Collaboration

52. OpenStreetMap proves public contribution works

53. Learn More
OpenStreetMap http://openstreetmap.org/
Canberra Mapping Party: http://
wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Canberra
Open Source Geospatial Conference:
October 2009 Sydney http://
2009.foss4g.org/

55. Thank you
Shoaib Burq
t: @sabman
shoaib@nomad-labs.com
http://sideshare.net/sabman