Four half day tutorials, and four full day workshops will take place on the 14th of September, immediately prior to the GIScience 2010. A doctoral colloquium will also be hosted by GIScience on the 18th of September.
Morning Tutorials (0930-1230)
Development of Web GIS and Web Mapping Applications with QGIS mapserver
Organisers: Ionut Iosifescu, Marco Hugentobler and Lorenz Hurni
Web GIS and Web Mapping Applications allow the real-time visualization and dissemination of available GIS data sources to a multitude of users distributed all over the world. The tutorial for the development of Web GIS and Web Mapping Applications with the QGIS mapserver provides the participants with the skills necessary to create their own standardized Web mapping services based on formal cartographic rules implemented in the open source software QGIS mapserver. The tutorial covers the complete cartographic workflow for the Web: map authoring with the Quatum GIS, export of basic cartographic rules with "Publish to Web" plugin and integration in a Web GIS. The participants also learn how to create more expressive maps with cartographic rules defining SVG point symbols, patterns for spatial features, and thematic maps (choropleth maps, simple proportional symbol maps, pie and bar diagrams).
GISolve Toolkit: Cyberinfrastructure-based Geographical Information Systems
Organisers: Shaowen Wang, Yan Liu
Cancelled
Afternoon Tutorials (1400-1700)
Geometric Algorithms and Efficiency for GIScience
Organisers: Marc van Kreveld and Bettina Speckmann
This half-day tutorial presents an overview of the basics of algorithms and efficiency analysis. We introduce some basic terminology (efficiency, complexity, asymptotic running time, intractability, NP-completeness) without going into mathematical detail. We explain why certain problems cannot be solved exactly at all, and how approximation algorithms work. We explain what combinatorial complexity of certain structures means, and how it can be useful. Then we proceed with a number of examples of computational problems arising in GIScience, and how algorithms and efficiency analysis can help with their (efficient) solution.
We believe that algorithms for GIScience should be developed through collaborations of experts from GIScience and Algorithms. The main objective of this tutorial is hence to provide a better understanding of the concepts and techniques that algorithmsresearchers use (and not to train the participants to perform efficiency analysis).
A Practical Introduction to Geospatial Visual Analytics
Organisers: Natalia Andrienko and Gennady Andrienko
The tutorial introduces Visual Analytics - a new research discipline defined as the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces. Visual analytics combines automated analysis techniques with interactive visualizations so that to extend the perceptual and cognitive abilities of humans and enable them to extract useful information and derive knowledge from large and complex data and to solve complex problems. Particularly, data and problems involving geospatial components and time are inherently complex and therefore call for visual analytics approaches.
We present a system of tools and methods for exploratory data analysis, including interactive maps, statistical graphics and multiple coordinated displays, data transformation methods for spatial and temporal data, and appropriate computational techniques such as cluster analysis and aggregation.
We focus on analyzing data about movement of discrete objects in geographical space. We consider three different examples of data:
- movement of a single object during a long time period;
- simultaneous movement of multiple objects, such as city traffic;
- discrete (event-based) movement data, such as positions of Flickr photos.
The tutorial participants will be provided a complete version of Geospatial Visual Analytics Toolkit (a.k.a. CommonGIS) and several example real-world data sets. The toolkit may be used after the tutorial for research and educational purposes.
All-day Workshops (0930-1700)
Emerging Methods for Studying the Use of Spatial Technologies
Organisers: Amy Griffin, Scott Bell and Mary Hegarty
Spatial technologies of all types are becoming an increasingly common part of many individuals' daily lives. We define spatial technologies broadly, including, but not limited to location-based services, mobile mapping, mash-ups, interactive maps, geovisualizations, and GIS applications such as decision support systems. Although much effort is devoted to building these technologies, fewer resources have been devoted to making them usable or understanding why and how a technology is usable. Encouragingly, however, a growing number of researchers have shown interest in recent years in working in the area of user studies.
This workshop is aimed at promoting interactions between researchers who do user studies (or would like to do them in the future). The workshop consists of invited keynotes in the morning and an interactive poster session in the afternoon. Participation is open to all researchers (including PhD students) who have an interest in understanding how and why spatial technologies are used or are usable.
Role of Volunteered Geographic Information in Advancing Science
Organisers: Budhendra Bhaduri, Michael Goodchild and Daniel Getman
Geographic data, describing objects and events, have been a fundamental component of scientific experiments and more importantly, in model calibration, verification, and validation for physical sciences. Recent evolutions and advancements in geospatial and cyber technologies, combined with a population that is well informed and interested in global issues such as energy and climate, have cultivated an environment in which scientific research can potentially benefit significantly from the enormous volume of data that can be provided by citizens through their offering of volunteered geographic information (VGI). However, the value of VGI is still largely limited to satisfying the intellectual curiosity of the common public. The critical challenge that faces the research and operational communities is to understand and assess the authenticity, validity, and uncertainty of volunteered geographic information. Progress towards rendering VGI as a valuable and usable component for scientific research will require development of appropriate reference frameworks, standards, and models for data and communication coupled with novel analytical approaches that allow uncertainty quantification. This workshop aims to bring leading researchers from the fields of geographic information science to discuss this important topic and to define and describe a set of preliminary research topics for the community to pursue.
Linked Spatiotemporal Data
Organisers: Krzysztof Janowicz, Todd Pehle, Glen Hart and Patrick Maué
Whilst the Web has changed with the advent of the Social Web from mostly authoritative towards increasing amounts of user generated content, it is essentially about linked documents. These documents provide structure and context for the described data and easy the interpretation. In contrast, the upcoming Data Web is about linking data. Datasets are not bound to a specific document but can be easily combined and used outside of their original context. With a growth rate of millions of new facts per month, the Linked Data cloud allows users to answer complex queries spanning multiple sources. Due to the uncoupling of data from its original context, semantic interoperability, identity resolution, and ontologies are central to ensure consistency and meaningful results.
Space and time are fundamental ordering relations to structure such data and provide implicit contexts for their interpretation. This workshop will introducing the GIScience audience to Linked Data and discuss the relation to Spatial Data Infrastructures.
Workshop on Movement Pattern Analysis
Organisers: Roland Billen, Björn Gottfried, Alexander Klippel, Patrick Laube and Nico Van de Weghe
Movement pattern analysis aims at capturing the space-time structure of data describing the movement of moving objects. In recent years, a broad range of movement pattern analysis methodologies emerged from a wide spectrum of scientific fields. Given the diversity of application fields it is difficult to find a common strategy that would help in sharing results, exchanging methods as well as heading towards an established theory on movement pattern analysis. It is the goal of this workshop to contribute to such a common view on methods of movement pattern analysis. For this purpose, concrete datasets will be moved into the centre of this workshop. The goal of the workshop is answering the question of what makes a useful benchmark dataset for movement pattern analysis. WPA'10 addresses researchers with interests in spatial information theory and method development with application researchers, institutions, and private companies that collect, manage, and analyze movement data.