PowerPoint Presentation

Public Participation GIS:From the Desktop to the GeoWeb.

Matthew Dance

Matthew DanceRecent MA grad in Geography from the UofA1

PurposeTo connect the rich human geography tradition of place-based enquiry to the emerging GeoWeb.

How is knowledge of place expressed?How is this relevant to PPGIS?

2

Talk OverviewContext: Overview 15 years of PPGIS.My MA research: Place based communication via emerging tech.Bringing these two related themes together.Current and future trends in location based collaboration.

3

Do you recall?

Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City, 1960

Lynch was perhaps one of the first to use crowdsourced data in his research. He compiled mental maps of Boston, New York and Jersy City that were derived from interviews with people who lived within those cities. This could represent the first PPGIS4

PPGIS the early yearsA practice where GIS technology and methods are used in support of public participation and decision making in a number of domain applications (Sieber, 2000).Top down & authority drivenNOT collaborativeConcerned with problems defined by authoritiesStakeholders are to be mined for data

5

Diagram of a Collaborative Spatial Methodology From Balram and Dragicevic (2006)

6

Mapping, Mashups, and BeyondEarly 2000s Basic web maps such as MapQuest.2005 Launch of Google Earth (now at over 1 billion downloads).2005 + - Ubiquitous Computing (Ubicomp) via hand held smart phones and the Internet of Things where inanimate objects talk to each other (i.e. Air Quality Sensors).

7

8

What is place?Place is defined as being comprised of three dimensions (after Relph, 1976):1. Observable activities that occur in relation to the location;2. The meanings that are created by a person in that location, and;3. The physical features that comprise the locations concrete or tangible attributes.

Themes such as:IsolationGetting away from it allConnecting with people

Deeply personal and varied.9

MethodsQualitative MethodologyCase Study MethodSemi-structured interviews (N=17)Mental MapsPlace and spaceThe GeoWebDiscourse analysis of transcriptsPrimary on-line sources such as Facebook & Garmin Connect

10

Results: Mental Maps

11

There was a path in the woods there, and we call that Moonies run because our teacher, Mr. Moonie, lived right there. My friend played guitar and I played guitar, and we used to take our amps, carry our amps across back and forth across the river. At this point here right in the middle of the bridge was we deemed that as perfectly half way, so we would say, Okay, Ill meet you on the bridge. But yeah, I spent a lot of time down there, in Gold Bar.

ChrisResults: Nuanced Understanding

Thematic clusters around:Sports and recreation activitiesActivity routesImpressions of placeMemories of placeSpecial placesNotions of power relative to place12

Results: Data GenerationWebMobileData TypesEvanGarmin Connect, FacebookGarminForerunnerGPS trace, heart rate, time, distance, elevation.MeganGoogle EarthGarmin eTrex, iPhoneGPS trace, video, photos, GE fly through visualizationIsabelGoogle Earth, Map my runGarmin ForerunnerGPS trace, time, distanceChrisRunning mapGarmin ForerunnerGPS trace, time, distance

JohnOSMGarmin eTrexGPS trace, line, polygons

13

Results: Data Communication

EvanGarmin Connect:Facebook:

14

Results SummaryQ1: How is knowledge of place expressed?People have a detailed and nuanced understanding of place.Current tech does not capture this variation and nuance.Current tech is good at point-line-polygon-real-time types of quantitative data.

15

So what?Q2: How is this relevant to PPGIS?

16

PPGIS is deadlong live PPGISCitizen Participation

Open (geo) DataOpen CodeGeoWeb

Crowd mapCrisis MapsGoogle MapsESRI Story MapUshahidiMapBox & TileMillWAZEPlan Your PlaceOpenStreetMap

FlickrTwitterFacebook

The main thing to see in this list is that many of these applications rely on OPEN DATA and CROWDSOURCED DATA for their operation. OSM crowdsources data to populate their base map, Ushahidi and crisis maps for their content. Sensitive content. BUT REALLY, is crowdsourced data a viable business opportunity?

MAP BOX -- Data journalismWAZE - Traffic mapping

The addition of applications like Flickr, twitter and FB attempts to gain access to those data that are more qualitative how a person feels about a place,

17

WAZEThe point is Waze didnt just create a static navigable map, it created a real-time (crowdsourced) representation of the current state of roads.Via gigaom.comGoogle recently bought WAZE for 1 billion USD.

Haiti Crisis Map Edits

19

OSM iD Editor

20

CSV>Q>TileMill

Global NewsFOIPP CSVOil Spill DataQGIS

TileMill

I support MapBox with a monthly subscription because they contribute to the OSM project AND they make beautiful maps. It is a matter of business for them.21

MapBox

New PPGIS paradigmUpsideBottom upUser drivenDefine issuesWho is needed to addressBest way to addressRealtime dataPush notifacations

Open data / softwareCrowdsourced data and information

DownsideDigital divideKnowledge of code a +LiterateAccess to computersUnderstanding of data

Still lacking access to nuanced understanding of place..

23

Situating citizens:Who is a place expert?"Given a large enoughbeta-testerand co-developerbase, almost every problem will be characterized quickly and the fix will be obvious to someone."Eric Raymond, The Cathedral and the Bazaar, 1999

24

Place-based Digital Infrastructure

IOTBase MapLocation ServicesUbicompAugmented RealityReal-time Push

The combination of these plus other emerging location based technologies will set the stage for a digital infrastructure that will define, in part, a new way of making places that goes beyond check-ins and maps that locate businesses and restaurant reviews.

These data will be crowdsoucred and verified by . The crowd.

25

Thank you

Matthew Dance, M.A.Geographer@mattdancematt@matthewdance.ca780.554.9222

26