GeoJSON-T will add time to geographic features. A data modeling story, from requirements, to the more complex Topotime, to an incremental extension for an existing standard.

1. A Tale of Two Models
or
Place and Period in Web Maps:
From Topotime to GeoJSON-T
Karl Grossner, PhD
World History Center,
University of Pittsburgh

2. GeoJSON overview

3. GeoJSON
• Features in a
FeatureCollection
• Geometry
• Properties
• Nothing explicitly
about time

4. GeoJSON
• Features in a
FeatureCollection
• Geometry
• Properties
• Nothing explicitly
about time

5. GeoJSON
• Features in a
FeatureCollection
• Geometry
• Properties
• Nothing explicitly
about time

6. ID Name Variants Country Lat Long
01 A Coruna "Coruna, A Coruña" Spain 43.3623 -8.4115
ID Name Var1Name Var1Source Var2Name Var2Source
01 A Coruna Coruna http://foo.com A Coruña http://bar.com
name,variants,country,lat,long
A Coruna,"Coruna, A Coruña",Spain,43.362344,-8.41154
CSV
0000 0040 cf8a 38c0 0000 0040 b1f4 48400000 00c0
396d 4240 0000 0000 e830 5440fc00 0000 a058 0000
0000 0000 2100 00005d00 0000 a500 0000 c900 0000
2e01 00005701 0000 6801 0000 7501 0000 ac01
0000ba01 0000 d101 0000 ea01 0000 0202 0000
shapefile

7. One-to-many
{
“type”: “Feature”,
“geometry”: {
“type”: “Point”,
“coordinates”: [-8.412, 43.362] },
“properties”: {
“name”: “A Coruna”
}
}

8. One-to-many
{
“type”: “Feature”,
“geometry”: {
“type”: “Point”,
“coordinates”: [-8.412, 43.362] },
“properties”: {
“name”: “A Coruna”
“alt_names”: [
“Coruna”, “A Coruña”
]
}
}

9. One-to-many
{
“type”: “Feature”,
“geometry”: {
“type”: “Point”,
“coordinates”: [-8.412, 43.362] },
“properties”: {
“name”: “A Coruna”
},
“names”: [
{“toponym”: ”A Coruna”,
“source”: http://foo.com},
{ … }
]

10. http://linkedplaces.org

11. https://github.com/kgeographer/geojson-t
GeoJSON-T

12. https://github.com/kgeographer/geojson-t
GeoJSON-T

14. { “timespan”: [0651, , ,0651, “3 months in 649AD”]],
“duration”: “3m”,
“follows”: “”,
“certainty”: 2
}

15. GeoJSON consumers
WEB
• Leaflet
• OpenLayers
• D3
DESKTOP
• QGIS
• esri ArcGIS

16. Web Mapping Platforms
• Carto (import)
CSV, Shapefiles
• esri Story Maps (nope)
• Palladio (nope)
• MapStory

17. Web Mapping Platforms
• Carto (import)
CSV, Shapefiles
• esri Story Maps (nope)
• Palladio (nope)
• MapStory

18. GeoJSON Support
• GitHub 
• geojson.io
• geojsonlint.com

19. Once upon a time…

20. 3 Dec 2010 Representing Historical Knowledge in GIS 20
motivation | first steps | research | contribution | next

21. 3 Dec 2010 Representing Historical Knowledge in GIS 21
motivation | first steps | research | contribution | next

22. 3 Dec 2010 Representing Historical Knowledge in GIS 22
motivation | first steps | research | contribution | next

23. Theory

24. Patterns (GHICs*)
*Geo-Historical Information Constructs

25. Logical Requirements
attribution events and participation historical process
placegroups and membership historical period

26. Logical Requirements
attribution events and participation historical process
placegroups and membership historical period

27. Some First Order Logic
PSBL(PD, A)
PSBL(A, AGA)
PSBL(A, NAGA)
∀x (ACH (x )) ∃y ((DK(x, y, t ) ⋁ SK(x, y )) ⋀ A (y)
PCRT (x, y, r, t) ≜ ∀y PD(y) ∃w(ACH(w)) ⋀
∃z [1..*](A(z) ⋀ (GK(w, z) ⋁ SK(w, z)) ⋀
∃t (qlT,PD (t, w) ⋀ ∃t’(P(t’, t)) ⋀ ∃x(APO(x) ⋁
ASO(x)) ⋀ ∃r(FR(r) ⋀ playedBy(r, x)
Activity constituting Events as a function of Participation (PCRT)

28. attribution
participation
membership
location
influence

29. Practice
sort of - it’s dissertation exemplars

30. Swing Rebellion of 1830
“change in the frequency and character of
gatherings in which people make collective claims
on others, including public authorities...repertoires
of contention” (Tilly 2007)

31. De Fezensac 1970/1834

32. Atlantic Slave Trade, 1514-1866
British trade

33. 16 Sep 2010
Event Objects for Spatial History :: K
Grossner
33Xuanzang’s Pilgrimage 629-645CE

34. Practice
actual: interactive scholarly works for DH research

37. Temporal trouble
• 01 April, 1754
• Probably 1754
• About 1754
• After the birth of her daughter
• Mid-summer, 1754
• Not after 20 Nov 1754
• Born ??, Died 1754
• In his teens

38. More temporal trouble
• Summers of her youth (in Norway, versus Rio)
• Not long after the end of the war
• Late Anatolian Neolithic; Roman, early Empire
archaeological excavation
After Unit 2345; Before Unit 3456; equal to
Unit 3453
plays
Iago enters; Othello enters; Desdemona leaves

39. Science by engineering

40. http://timemapper.okfnlabs.org
see also: MapStory, StoryMap, Omeka Neatline, HistoryPin
“last mile” data for time maps

42. Joseph
Priestley
SIMILE
Timeline

43. 1
0
s ls ee e
1
0
s ls ee e
“or”

45. 1
0
s ls ee e
terminus
ante quem
terminus
post quem

46. continuous
multipart
cyclical
composite
sequence
2D
1D
Topotime schematic design

47. Topotime schematic design

48. • All temporal things are Periods,
sub-classed as Event, HistoricalPeriod, Life, ?
• Extents of Periods are tSpans
• Every tSpan is throughout (default) or during
• { s [, ls, ee, e] } ; also “d”: “14m”
• BEF, AFT and ABT: <, >, ~
• Values can be
• Any ISO-8061 parts (Y{1,7}[-MM-DD])
• Another tSpan or tSpan part (>12.s)
• a URI (JSON-LD)
Data format / vocabulary

49. Pilot timelines

50. Temporal geometry

51. Uptake (a bit)
• People liked the 4-part
timespan, PeriodO
adopted it http://perio.do
• We couldn’t identify
anyone willing to
transform their data to
conform to Topotime
format
• A bridge too far, even for
the immediate project at
hand, Kindred Britain

52. Back to theory

53. x, y, [z,] t
Spatial things and temporal things are not so
different!
 Events and historical periods are geographic
phenomena, they have spatial extents
 Places have temporal extents
 Trajectories (routes) are spatial-temporal
sequences
Answers to “where?” always include when,
whether implied or explicit (even a river)

55. virtually all are geographic

56. Setting
Grossner, Janowicz & Keßler (2016)
Place, Period, and Setting for Linked Data Gazetteers
In Berman, Mostern, Southall (Eds.) Placing Names: Enriching and
Integrating Gazetteers
( ≅ dc:coverage )

57. GeoJSON-T, models Setting

58. Back to practice

59. http://linkedplaces.org

60. GeoJSON-T
for routes

61. Many Polands over time
GeoJSON-T
for
time-indexed
geometries

62. FeatureCollection {
features: [{
type: Feature,
geometry: {
type: GeometryCollection,
geometries: [
{type: Point,
coordinates: [[x, y]],
loc_attestations: [
{source, contributors: [], when: {}, certainty}],
}
]
},
when: { conflates “when” from names and geometries },
properties: {
name_attestations: [
{ name, language, when: {}, source, isPreferred} ],
relations: [
{ relation, placeUri, when: {}, source } ],
snippets: [
{ uri, language, description, source } ],
links: [
{ type, uri }, {...} ]
}}
]
}
GeoJSON-T
for places

63. Ruth Mostern (WHC Director)
Principal Investigator
Karl Grossner
Technical Director
Ryan Horne
WHC post-doctoral fellow
Patrick Manning (WHC Founder)
Project consultant
NEH-funded project at the
University of Pittsburgh’s
World History Center
(2017-2019)

64. Questions? Comments?
http://whgazetteer.org
http://linkedplaces.org
http://dh.stanford.edu/topotime/
https://github.com/kgeographer/geojson-t
e: grossner@pitt.edu
w: http://kgeographer.org
t: @kgeographer