Project Overview

1
Stakeholder workshop, 29 Jan 2003
Project Overview
2
The context

• increasing amounts of geo-data being created (at
  some cost)
• collected for particular purpose but wide ranging
  can be complex
• existence is not publicised
• need to promote re-use of data
• how many data are lost?
• how many data are preserved?
• demand for geo-data growing
• OS/JISC data deal and Landmap examples of push
  factor
• GIS software easier to use and more ubiquitous
• increasingly institutions have interest in
  publicising their own intellectual assets. This
  includes data.

3
The problem

• how to find out what geo-data already exists
  within (and outwith) UK academia
• having located it, how to ascertain its quality
  and fitness for purpose
• how to access it
• how to use it

4
The vision

• A facility which
• promotes greater awareness of geo-spatial data
  created by HFE within HFE
• promotes greater awareness of these data
  withinthe wider UK GI community
• provides an access point to geographically
  related resources within the JISC IE (and beyond)
  
• less about what, more about where .
• long term - goes beyond discovery to provide
  access to data (in a usable form)

5
The application - Go-Geo! Portal

• Go-Geo! will be
• a resource discovery tool that tells users what
  geo-spatial data exist (for a given geographic
  area)
• a service that provides access to other related
  information resources of use to the user
• these resources can be either local to the portal
  (i.e. quality controlled list of resources)
• OR found by searching the JISC IE and other
  online information services

6
Content

• The content of Go-Geo! comprises
• metadata describing geo-spatial data or
  geographically referenced data
• pointers to related resources
• software, learning resources, courses and
  training, etc.
• guidance about creating geo-spatial data and
  their suitability for onward use and
  preservation?
• BUT ALSO metadata or information about
• studies and projects, articles, reports, personal
  contacts, mailing-lists
• all tied together by location

7
Geo-spatial data data that have some form of
spatial or geo-graphic reference that enables
them to be located in two- or three-dimensional
space
8
Relationship to national initiative

• NGDF established to address issue of geo-spatial
  data discovery on a UK national level
• a loose consortium of organisations
• distributed metadata service GIGateway
• NGDF keen on establishing an academic node for
  access to information with HE/FE
• HE/FE needs a way to participate
• but own requirements also need to be considered
• e.g. teaching needs
• e.g. access to resources that for various
  reasons, e.g. licence agreements, cannot be
  made available outside UK academia

9
Phase I - Scoping study

• 10-month project (Aug 2000 - June 2001), JISC
  funded
• undertaken by EDINA and the History Data Service
• involved other key players e.g. JISC, MIMAS, ADS,
  UKDA
• feasibility study
• understand requirements and demand for a portal
  and browser
• explore options investigate technical and
  organisational issues
• activities included
• undertaking requirements analysis
• reviewing metadata standards v. needs of HE
• identifying geo-spatial resources and assess what
  metadata existed

10
Results of scoping study

• a set of documents
• e.g. requirements, standards, architecture,
  functional specification, a paper directory of
  geo-spatial data resources in HE
• showed demand existed for a Geo-data Portal
• provide a significant productivity gain for users
• allow individuals to publicise data they have
  collected/created
• set out in some detail the requirements
• proposed that the NGDF Discovery Metadata
  Guidelines be used as the metadata standard with
  extensions to meet HE needs
• certain issues remained unclear
• so recommended a small project be funded to build
  a Portal demonstrator

11
Phase II Project

• 1st June 2002 30 May 2003
• JISC funded under 5/99 Programme Strand A
• part of the JISC Portal Programme
• EDINA and the History Data Service (again)
• no direct involvement of other data centres/JISC
  services

12
Project Aims

• develop a geo-spatial portal suitable for
  extension tofull service
• act as a proof of concept - a demonstrator
  project
• promote the possibilities of a fully functioning
  service
• consider how the portal could be integrated into
  the JISC IE

13
Objectives (1)

• build a demonstrator
• focus on the UK in terms of content
• illustrate cross-searching of
• a database local to the portal
• an existing, remote, structured geo-spatial data
  directory service to find geo-spatial data HDS
  database
• an existing resource catalogue containing
  geo-related resources GEsource
• the NGDF Gateway and its directory services

14
Portal
Other IEContent Providers
Geo-data Gateway
NGDF Network
Go-Geo! portal architecture
Metadata or resource servers
Geo-data Network(proposed)
15
Objectives (2)

• Demonstrator should provide
• simple query interfaces
• search by subject, date, resource type and
  geographic location
• support for both structured-controlled vocabulary
  searching and uncontrolled vocabulary searching
• support for the Z39.50 Protocol for searching and
  record retrieval
• output of metadata in various forms using XML as
  the transfer format

16
Objectives (3)

• Investigate
• use of OAI to disclose metadata as an output from
  the portal
• how access could be provided to 'deep'
  geo-spatial resources (data mining)
• how a comprehensive service would include search
  and browse, visualisation, exploitation and
  analysis of geo-spatial data
• More later on this...

17
Deliverables

• A functioning scalable demonstrator portal
  service that has the potential to be integrated
  into the JISC Information Environment
• a report
• (an exit strategy...)

18
Outreach and Evaluation

• important aspect of project which is led by HDS
• Activities
• through focus groups and demonstrations at
  conferences, etc.
• assess the needs of the stakeholders for a full
  service
• promote the possibilities of a full service
• develop relationships with relevant initiatives
  interested in geo-spatial searching
• specifically the NGDF and RDN Geography and
  Environment Hub
• evaluate the demonstrator and the opportunities
  and challenges of turning it into a full national
  service

19
(No Transcript)
20
Some definitions

• Geo-spatial data
• refers to the full spectrum of digital
  geographic data. Examples include digital maps,
  raster image data, point vector, vector data,
  spatial/temporal data etc.
• Geo-data Browser Media Gateway
• a network resource discovery service which
  provides database(s) of geo-data resources and
  created according to specific selection and
  quality criteria
• Geo-data Portal
• a single point of access to information about
  geo-data (the gateway) and related supporting
  resources. The connections between the
  information transforms it into knowledge