Alfredo Covaleda,
Bogota, Colombia
Stephen Guerin,
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
James A. Trostle,
Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Susan Smith, editor of GISWeekly Review, reviews a new book from ESRI Press on GIS portals. See review below or check out Spatial Portals: Gateways to Geographic Information ============================== Spatial Portals Book Review By Susan Smith
A new book out from ESRI Press called Spatial Portals: Gateways to Geographic Information by Winnie Tang, founder and CEO of ESRI China (Hong Kong) and Japan-based independent consultant Jan Selwood, offers a comprehensive look at spatial portals from an ESRI point of view, using as examples spatial portals developed with ArcExplorer Web Services, Geography Network software, ArcIMS for internet mapping, and ArcSDE for data management.
Spatial portals are described in this book as Web sites that either “assemble many online resources and links into a single location to form easy-to-use products or provide search tools that help users find information on the Web.” Of course, portals such as America Online and CompuServe have provided this type of single source for resources for a long time; Google and Yahoo! and MSN have provided search tools that are now in direct competition with ESRI in some areas.
Three types of spatial portals are currently in use: application portals, catalog portals and enterprise portals.
Catalog portals maintain indexes or catalogs of available information services. Generally service providers can add metadata to the portal and it is then organized into a catalog that allows users to access information.
Application portals are for the well-defined audience or those with specific requirements and generally combine information services into a Web-based mapping package that is task-specific. They usually include dedicated application and data servers and provide services that are more complex than catalog servers.
The enterprise spatial portal is designed to integrate spatial data with business enterprise solutions. Initially they were originated by Oracle and SAP, and their focus was on enterprise wide resource planning, office automation and document management. Now they also encompass spatial information.
Spatial portals are often the spatial data infrastructure (SDI) front end to a network of information, and although SDI has been used by organizations and governments since the 90s to organize, access and search information, spatial portals allow faster access to information than ever before.
What we've seen repeatedly in the past couple of years has been the proliferation of spatial portals after a natural or other type of disaster, such as the Indian Ocean tsunami or Hurricane Katrina. An example is the Pacific Disaster Center's portal launched within hours of the news of the tsunami, providing news, data and links to mapping services related to the disaster. Also the PDC launched a Map Viewer and an underlying map service.
Besides this portal, the PDC hosts a number of permanent portals to help improve coordination of efforts and access to information. Disaster and resource managers and others can register services such as online or downloadable datasets with the Asia Pacific Natural Hazards Information Network (APNHIN) so that governments, planners and non-governmental organizations can search for and access information pertinent to hazard evaluation and response planning.
Hurricane Katrina occurred after this book's publication so the myriad of spatial portals developed to aid in response and recovery for that disaster are not covered here.
Some time is spent on Geospatial One-Stop, whose mantra is “two clicks to content.” The One Stop program, launched in December 2002, is an intergovernmental project managed by the Department of the Interior in support of the President's Initiative for E-government. Geospatial One Stop builds upon its partnership with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) to provide easy to use geospatial information access to the public and government, drawing from databases and directories across the nation.
In 2003, the Norwegian government endorsed Norway Digital, a plan to develop a spatial data infrastructure with spatial portals at its heart. Norway is a land of contrasts – 11 percent of the total population live in Oslo, the nation's capital, while 45 percent live in provinces located in 100 kilometers of the city, concentrating population in the southeast. There are fewer than six people per square kilometer in some municipalities.
While national mapping programs all have their own challenges, Norway has addressed its problem of mapping remote regions by building partnerships between public agencies and private industry. Although it is focused on government agencies, Norway Digital embodies the building of a national geospatial framework that is composed of multiple spatial portals that can be used by participating members to build their own sites and services. A new NMA portal is geoNorge, which adds search functionality and indexing as well as hosts topographic map services across the whole framework.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environment Control (DHEC) has developed a portal called the South Carolina Community Assessment Network (SCAN) South Carolina Community Assessment Network (SCAN) that provides a real -time, interactive gateway to DHEC's databases. Users can use it to integrate and analyze health data with other data from state, local and federal agencies and provides efficient access to public health information.
Each of the case studies found in the book are interesting examples of what has been accomplished using spatial portals. The book is described by one reader as a “true portal on spatial portals.” Whether or not this is the case, the book is a valuable resource showing just what spatial portals are capable of and how they are changing the way we view, manage, sort, find, share and use geographic information. Spatial Portals: Gateways to Geographic Information, by Winnie Tang and Jan Selwood, 176 pages ESRI Press ISBN 1-58948-131-3
Interesting announcement from Yahoo Maps this week. Seems as though Google, Yahoo and Amazon (with it's A9 entry) are starting to look like three NASCAR competitors on the backstretch of the lap before the finish line. Here's the latest from Yahoo: ==========================
In June of this year, we gave developers the ability to overlay geographic data on a Yahoo! Map. Since then, we've seen a lot of terrific maps mash-ups. But you wanted more. You wanted the ability to embed Yahoo! Maps on your own Web site. You wanted to programmatically convert addresses into geocoded longitude/latitude pairs. You wanted more data feeds, such as highway traffic and local data, to plot on a map. But most importantly, you wanted a user experience that's better than any online mapping product out there.
Today we build on the success of the Simple Maps API by adding several new APIs for Yahoo! Maps. These products enable developers to use Yahoo! Maps in exciting new ways — including embedding maps on your Web site.
With this release, we are providing:
Of course, the Simple Maps API we released in June is still there, giving developers and non-developers the ability to plot locations on Yahoo! Maps with no programming and no rate limits.
We're giddy with excitement about this release, and we can't wait to see how you use the new APIs. We know there's lot to digest here, so if you have questions, feedback, or just want to show off what you've done, please join us in the yws-maps group.
Jeffrey McManus Director, Yahoo! Developer Network
Much of what we've seen and read about the U.S. government's plan to stave off a pandemic bird flu suggests that everyone — EVERYONE — needs to be vaccinated. Even if we knew what is necessary to produce an appropriate vaccination, producing 280 million doses is not a trivial task. But there may be another strategy that journalists should be asking about: Isolation strategies and then vaccination of a limited number of persons in a society. These strategies have been developed as a result of work by the simulation modeling folks, especially Josh Epstein at The Brookings Institute. See — and be sure to click on the videos: Toward a Containment Strategy for Smallpox Bioterror: An Individual-Based Computational Approach
Joshua M. Epstein, Derek A. T. Cummings, Shubha Chakravarty,Ramesh M. Singa, and Donald S. Burke CSED Working Paper No. 31 December 2002
For those interested in the forensic process — and in this case, computer forensics — be sure to check out this fine, fine piece of digital detective work by Mark Russinovich, a computer security expert with Sysinternals. He discovered evidence of a “rootkit” on his Windows PC.
We don't think journalists need to know how to DO this kind of deep-diving probing, but we should be aware that it is possible and, broadly speaking, the methods if only to know the appropriate search terms. Through heroic forensic work, he traced the code to First 4 Internet, a British provider of copy-restriction technology that has a deal with Sony to put digital rights management on its CDs. It turns out Russinovich was infected with the software when he played the Sony BMG CD Get Right With the Man by the Van Zant brothers.
Here's WIRED Magazine's take on the story, “The Cover-Up Is the Crime“
And here's what Dan Gillmor had to say about it, with additional links.
Another example of how journalists can learn from other disciplines comes to the surface in the form of an LA Press Club meeting Nov. 9. “Digging deep: What reporters can learn from and about private investigators,” is the topic, and the panel of speakers, though large, seems rich with potential.
Here at the IAJ we also value the well done blog, “PI News Link,” run by Tamara Thompson. Check it out; enter it in your blog harvester.
We're all awash in data, so finding the significant bits and bytes that can lead to information is a maddening process. Jon Burke, writing in the November 2, 2005 edition of MIT's Technology Review, presents some web-based technological options. See “Finding Signals in the Noise.” We were impressed by a new product/site called “Memeorandum,” but Burke points out a handful of alternatives. Excerpt:
“Few would dispute that we live in an age of information overload. In the last few years alone, blogs have increased the torrent of information each day to unmanageable levels. This would explain, then, why a corresponding torrent of startups has surfaced recently to help us filter, manage, and control this flood of information. Some rely on insightful algorithms that understand popularity to filter the news, while others rely on the preferences of readers.
For example, Digg is a San Francisco startup that ranks news items by letting people choose which stories they like. It just landed $2.8 million in venture capital from Omidyar Network, former Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, and Greylock Partners. We also understand that a comparable site — Memeorandum — may close a round of financing shortly.
The concept of making users prioritize or create hierarchies for news is not new — Slashdot has been doing it since 1997. But the latest generation of sites like Digg and Memeorandum are showing that user-prioritized news is, indeed, a powerful and easy way to drive traffic — in some cases to a site created by a single employee with a lone server.”
Simulation modeling is one of the four cornerstone areas of interest to the IAJ. It's a relatively new, and largely unknown, field that can be of great advantage to journalists if we can take the time to learn how it works and then how we can apply it to our field. The best resource to date for journalists is the J-Lab, (http://www.j-lab.org/) at the University of Maryland.
But today along comes this announcement of a rich issue of the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation. It's filled with deep thinking and application.
============================================= The Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk) published issue 4 of Volume 8 on 31 October 2005. JASSS is an electronic, refereed journal devoted to the exploration and understanding of social processes by means of computer simulation. It is freely available, with no subscription. ================= This issue is our largest ever, with 12 peer-reviewed articles, eight of them forming a special section on Epistemological Perspectives, edited by Ulrich Frank and Klaus Troitzsch. If you would like to volunteer as a referee and have published at least one refereed article in the academic literature, you may do so by completing the form at http://www.epress.ac.uk/JASSS/webforms/new_referee.php
How Can Social Networks Ever Become Complex? Modelling the Emergence of Complex Networks from Local Social Exchanges by Josep M. Pujol, Andreas Flache, Jordi Delgado and Ramon Sanguesa <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/12.html>
Violence and Revenge in Egalitarian Societies by Stephen Younger <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/11.html>
Influence of Local Information on Social Simulations in Small-World Network Models by Chung-Yuan Huang, Chuen-Tsai Sun and Hsun-Cheng Lin <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/8.html>
It Pays to Be Popular: a Study of Civilian Assistance and Guerrilla Warfare by Scott Wheeler <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/9.html>
——————————
Towards Good Social Science by Scott Moss and Bruce Edmonds <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/13.html>
A Framework for Epistemological Perspectives on Simulation by Joerg Becker, Bjoern Niehaves and Karsten Klose <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/1.html>
What is the Truth of Simulation? by Alex Schmid < http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/5.html>
The Logic of the Method of Agent-Based Simulation in the Social Sciences: Empirical and Intentional Adequacy of Computer Programs by Nuno David, Jaime Simao Sichman and Helder Coelho <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/2.html>
Validation of Simulation: Patterns in the Social and Natural Sciences by Guenter Kueppers and Johannes Lenhard <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/3.html>
Stylised Facts and the Contribution of Simulation to the Economic Analysis of Budgeting by Bernd-O. Heine, Matthias Meyer and Oliver Strangfeld <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/4.html>
Does Empirical Embeddedness Matter? Methodological Issues on Agent-Based Models for Analytical Social Science by Riccardo Boero and Flaminio Squazzoni <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/6.html>
Caffe Nero: the Evaluation of Social Simulation by Petra Ahrweiler and Nigel Gilbert <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/14.html>
==============================
Edmund Chattoe reviews: Routines of Decision Making by Betsch, Tilmann and Haberstroh, Susanne (eds.) <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/reviews/chattoe.html>
The new issue can be accessed through the JASSS home page: <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk>.
The next issue will be published at the end of January 2006.
Submissions are welcome: see http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/admin/submit.html
______________________________
The premise of the IAJ is to discover find how other professions and academic disciplines do what we do as journalists. That is, how do they find and analyze data and then present the results of that analysis.
We recently subscribed (it's free) to Law Technology News. It's no surprise that the data management needs of large law offices are much the same as those of journalism organizations. Lawyers pretty much follow the RRAW-P process, too. So topics like Calendaring, Case Management, Contact Management, Document Management, Electronic Data Discovery (EDD) are right up our alley. Law Technology News doesn't do much journalism, in fact it pretty much reprints press releases. But it does provide many, many pointers to products and methods related to journalism. Give it a look. as well.
A future question for the SAT or GRE exams: “What is the relationship between Tom DeLay and redistricting?” Obviously that one is going to have many, many possible correct answers. But redistricting is a difficult and complex topic. This recent paper, though, might provide a good jumping off point for reporters working on the topic. “Public Choice Principles of Redistricting” BY: JOHN G. MATSUSAKA USC Marshall School of Business USC School of Law THOMAS W. GILLIGAN University of Southern California Marshall School of Business Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection: http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=775186 Paper ID: USC Law and Economics Research Paper No. 05-18; USC CLEO Research Paper No. C05-8 Date: July 2005 Contact: JOHN G. MATSUSAKA Email: Mailto:matsusak@usc.edu Postal: USC Marshall School of Business Dept. of Finance & Business Economics Los Angeles, CA 90089 UNITED STATES Phone: 213-740-6495 Fax: 213-740-6650 Co-Auth: THOMAS W. GILLIGAN Email: Mailto:TGILLIGAN@MARSHALL.USC.EDU Postal: University of Southern California Marshall School of Business Los Angeles, CA 90089 UNITED STATES ABSTRACT: This paper uses fundamental principles of public choice, mainly the median voter theorem, to develop a simple theory of redistricting. The focus is on how closely policy outcomes correspond to majority rule. The main results are: (1) Potential policy bias in favor of nonmajority groups is structurally linked to the number of legislative seats and the population, and the structure of most states puts them very close to the theoretically maximum bias. (2) Random districting, which might seem like the essence of neutrality, does not eliminate policy bias on average. (3) Traditional principles of compact, contiguous districts that respect existing political boundaries, stressed in the Supreme Court's Shaw v. Reno decision, minimize the chance of nonmajoritarian outcomes.”
