IGC2008

Event Owner User:Daoane

Retrospect of GFOSS Session at the 33rd IGC Geoscience World Congress 2008

IEI-20 Free and open source geospatial software: applications in Earth Sciences and recent development

An immense amount of spatial data are collected by earth-scientists every year, e.g. geophysical investigations, remotely sensed data and information acquired during field-work. This information has to be stored, interpreted and, ideally, published and shared within the Earth Sciences community. To tackle this challenge without the help of dedicated geospatial software and networks is unthinkable. Unfortunately, proprietary software-solutions tend to be expensive or downright unaffordable for scientific institutions, particularly in less developed countries and data sharing is impeded by proprietary formats. However, during the last two decades several alternative software packages were developed in the open-source community and are available for free. The functionality of these highly flexible software solutions includes, amongst others, classical GIS and remote sensing task, virtual reality and geospatial data storage and sharing. Furthermore, the open source nature of the software allows for peer review of the programme code and therewith a good understanding of the processes operating on the users' data. This symposium attempted to provide a forum to present and discuss all aspects of scientific work in Earth Sciences which utilises and/or is related to free and open-source geospatial software. Its main intention was to make the geoscientific community aware of the diversity, power and advantages of free and open source geospatial software and to attract new users.

Although the session got only 9 contibutions (5 oral and 4 poster presentations; 2 were cancelled), the authors represented the whole width of the open source community with affiliations at universities, public service, research institutes, industry and high school. Equally broad were the topics of the presentations, covering latest free and open source software development, its use in research, outreach and teaching and spatial data infrastructure, e.g. spatial data storage and its publication and sharing via internet. Surprisingly large was the interest in the session and the audience was about 90-100 people during Paul Wessel's talk about the Generic Mapping Tools. The apprehension that the audience would disperse in the break due to the cancelled talks did not become true and a lively discussion developed about free and open source geospatial software in general and its utilization for geology in particular. The relatively good attendance and a poll to the audience which indicated that only about 20% of the attendees were activily using free and open source software shows that session has been successful and our intention has been achieved.

Pre-Congress Information below:

Geoscience Information Super-Session at the 33rd IGC Geoscience World Congress 2008

The Geoscience Information Super-Session has been proposed to and accepted by the organizers of the 33rd Geoscience World Congress 2008 (IGC 2008) http://www.33igc.org/ (6th to 14th August 2008 in Oslo, Norway). This symposium is intended to cover all aspects of geoscience information in four parallel sessions which will last three days.

Two OSGeo-related sessions have been proposed to the topical symposium. One has been included in the framework of the symposium, the other is a possible amendment if interest (number of submitted abstracts) is large enough. The success of both sessions is strongly dependent on participation from the OSGeo community. The IGC will bring together 8000+ geoscientists from all over the world and be an outstanding opportunity to present your OSGeo related work.

For up-to-date details about the congress and abstract submission see http://www.33igc.org/). Don't forget to specify the OSGeo sessions (IEI-20) on your abstract submission :)

Postponed abstract deadline Friday 7th March 2008!

GFOSS Session

Included as 4.3 in the framework (see below).

Title: Free and open-source geospatial software: applications in Earth Sciences and recent development.

Description: An immense amount of spatial data is collected by earth-scientists every year, including information collected during field-work, geophysical and remotely sensed data, maps, etc. This information has to be stored, interpreted and, ideally, published and shared within the Earth Sciences community. To tackle this challenge without the help of dedicated geospatial software and networks is unthinkable. Unfortunately, proprietary software-solutions tend to be expensive or downright unaffordable for scientific institutions, particularly in less developed countries. However, during the last two decades several alternative software packages were developed in the open-source community and are now available for free. The functionality of these highly flexible software solutions includes, amongst others, classical GIS and remote sensing task, virtual reality and geospatial databases.

This symposium attempts to provide a forum to present and discuss all aspects of scientific work in Earth Sciences which utilises and/or is related to free and open-source geospatial software.

Convenors (preliminary):

     Henning Lorenz 
     Department of Earth Sciences 
     Uppsala University 
     Villavägen 16 
     752 36 Uppsala 
     Sweden 
     e-mail: henning.lorenz AT geo.uu.se

and

     Markus Neteler 
     Fondazione Mach - Centro di Ecologia Alpina
     38040 Viote del Monte Bondone (Trento)
     Italy
     http://www.cealp.it
     e-mail: neteler AT osgeo.org

Contact: Henning Lorenz

Public Geodata Session (not implemented)

Title: The necessity of public geodata in research co-operation

Notes: Open access to geographic data - information available to use, re-use and redistribute without legal or financial constraints - is growing in importance in scientific and research communities. Open source software and open standards for data exchange and query are rapidly accelerating what can be achieved by sharing and recombining data more openly.

Within the Open Source Geospatial development community, simple protocols for data exchange, discovery and reuse are developed iteratively through the best practise of experts. Collaborative production of metadata models and ontology maps for different domains enable kinds of re-use and discovery that restore a spirit of research to data investigation. Academics and scientists may find striking new realisations once their data can be combined in as many different ways with as many different data sets as possible.

Public geodata is largely that whose collection and maintenance is paid for by the state. New technologies allow for a more distributed data truthing and gathering process by locals familiar with the terrain. Between the public domain model whose financial support is being threatened in the US; and the European model which has largely featured a proprietary, "cost-recovery" attitude towards data maintenance; there is a middle way. This symposium will look at methods for practically avoiding the negative effects on data availability and reuse that a proprietary, protective licensing policy towards geographic data may cause. It provides a forum to explore the barriers and facilitators around reuse of geographic information.

The symposium also effects to gauge interest within the geomatics community in establishing an precedent for Earth Sciences interoperability of data and standards across Europe. In the US, the Conservation Commons ( http://conservationcommons.org ) and Information Commons for Science ( http://informationcommonsforscience.org/ ) may be strong models to look forward to.

Framework for a Geoscience Information Super-Session

Overall coordination: Ian Jackson, John Broome and Udo Strauss

OP Opening Plenary Session (half day) Overall coordinators to Chair

Talk Number	Talks	By	Duration (minutes)
GIS-S- OP.0.1	Opening keynote	TBA	45
OP.0.2	Keynote on data capture and acquisition	TBA	30
OP.0.3	Keynote on information management	TBA	30
OP.0.4	Keynote on information dissemination and delivery	TBA	30
OP.0.5	Keynote on Information technology and systems	TBA	30
OP.0.6	Keynote on 3 and 4D modelling and visualisation	TBA	30

GIS-S-CP Closing Wrap-up Plenary Session (quarter day) Session coordinators to facilitate

GIS-S-CP

Two hour open discussion to conclude the Super-session. Discussion items will include hot topics and cross-cutting issues raised in the Sub-Sessions, plus actions, plans and networking opportunities for the future and a post mortem on the Super-Session itself and how it may be improved for IGC34. The Session coordinators will form a panel to facilitate discussion and throughout the whole Super-Session attendees will be encouraged to submit written questions in advance to provide material for the discussion.

GIS-S-1 Session One: Data Capture and Acquisition Coordinator: Guy Buller

Possible Sub-Sessions:

Number	Provisional Sub-Session Title	Convenors
GIS-S- 1.1	Advances in digital data capture in geological mapping	Guy Buller and Colm Jordan
1.2	The increasing contribution and opportunities presented by remotely sensed data: geophysics, digital elevation data, and sensor networks	Eric Grunsky and Tom Cudahy
1.3	Putting new life into old data – digital conversion and exploitation of paper records	Mary Carter and Jørgen Tulstrup
1.4	(other sub-sessions may result following abstract submission)	TBA

GIS-S-2 Session Two: Information Management Coordinator: John Broome

Possible Sub-Sessions:

Number	Provisional Sub-Session Title	Convenors
GIS-S- 2.1	If you can’t find the data, why bother collecting and keeping it? - the importance of good metadata	Per Ryghaug and Jerry Giles
2.2	Data models and architectures	Boyan Broderic and John Laxton
2.3	Interoperability and exchange formats – developments in XML, GML, GeoSciML, OGC, ISO and other standards	Simon Cox and Lars-Kristian Stölen
2.4	What should we call that rock? – the critical role of thesauri, vocabularies, ontologies and dictionaries in digital systems	Peter Davenport and Clinton Smyth
2.5	Spatial data infrastructures and strategies for geoscience information	François Robidas and Jan Kooijman
2.6	Data repositories – their role in the information life cycle and the future global information infrastructure	Frank Brassil and ?
2.7	Looking after the ground truth – the problems and opportunities in managing physical collections (paper records, core and fossils etc)	Mike Howe and ?
2.8	Managing the transition from map making to database building	Dave Soller and Staffan Zetterlund
2.9	(other sub-sessions may result following abstract submission)	TBA

GIS-S-3 Session Three: Information Dissemination and Delivery Coordinator: Ian Jackson

Possible Sub-Sessions:

Number	Provisional Sub-Session Title	Convenors
GIS-S- 3.1	Geological maps in the digital era: Quo Vadis?	Kristine Asch and Koji Wakita
3.2	Uncertainty in GIS and 3D modelling – approaches to quantify and represent error in interpreted digital datasets	Gina Ross and Alan Willocks
3.3	Decision support systems: best practice in using GIS and geoscience data to help society’s problems	Robert Tomas and Bobo Nordahl
3.4	Accessing and sharing geoscience information: the problems and issues of disseminating geoscience data in a digital era (including digital rights management, licencing, IPR, copyright, public sector data for free or a fee, and liability)	Ian Jackson and Jarmo Kohonen
3.5	Dynamic delivery of information: harnessing the real time power of the internet	John Broome and Bernhard Wagner
3.6	Geoscience information for the developing world	Anna-Karren Nguno and Max Fernandez
3.7	(other sub-sessions may result following abstract submission)	TBA

GIS-S-4 Session Four: Information Technology and Systems Coordinator: Udo Strauss

Possible Sub-Sessions:

Number	Provisional Sub-Session Title	Convenors
GIS-S- 4.1	How much more space and speed will we need? – issues relating to the current and future provision of digital storage and network performance	Ian Ainslie and Sten Troelstrup
4.2	Digital standards, security and authentication of web-based database	Ryoichi Kouda and Udo Strauss
4.3	Free and open-source geospatial software: applications in Earth Sciences and recent development	Henning Lorenz and Markus Neteler
4.4	The application of high performance computing, GRID and simulation technology in geoscience	Rob Woodcock and Louis Moresi
4.5	(other sub-sessions may result following abstract submission)	TBA

GIS-S-5 Session Five: 3 and 4D modelling and visualisation Coordinator: Andy Howard

Possible Sub-Sessions:

Number	Provisional Sub-Session Title	Convenors
GIS-S- 5.1	From 2D to 3D – moving geological surveys from a mapping to modelling culture	Andy Howard and Harvey Thorleifson
5.2	Visualisation and immersive technologies for model presentation and virtual field reconnaissance	Richard Berg, Andreas Kuehni and Jacques Vairon
5.3	Multi-dimensional modelling in sparse data environments	Eric de Kemp and Patrick Ledru
5.4	Integrating geological and geophysical datasets for 3D modelling	Catherine Truffert and ?
5.5	(other sub-sessions may result following abstract submission)	TBA

GIS-S-6 Session Six: Short-Sharp-Share Coordinator: Harvey Thorleifson

GIS-S- 6

A Special Session lasting no more than 90 minutes, comprising short (5 minute, 2 slide maximum) talks on any topic in geoscience information. The talk time limit will be ruthlessly applied! The talks may be proposed to the Session coordinators after the issue of the final IGC33 programme and at any time during IGC33 before the beginning of Session Six. The aim is to have a rapid, succinct and impromptu sharing of information, which will also provide an opportunity for those who missed the IGC submission deadlines, or want to react to issues, raised elsewhere during the IGC, or not covered in the Super-Session, or who are perhaps making their first talk at a major conference and for whom a short talk will be less daunting.

For up-to-date details about the congress and abstract submission see http://www.33igc.org/). Don't forget to specify the OSGeo sessions on your abstract submission :)

--daoane 14:39, 16 April 2007 (CEST)