MacEachren and Kraak’s paper on geovisualization provides a concise and critical look at the challenges facing geovisualiation’s advancement, and how they might be overcome. One thing that stuck out to me in the article was the issue of interoperability and how its absence may hamper collaboration. This is briefly mentioned at a point discussing the challenges and potential of multidisciplinary research.
The question of interoperability is certainly not simple and is based in spatial and temporal contexts, however, it is important to interrogate how lack of interoperability works in the interests of competition, both economic and academic. And how In doing so, it may in fact impede progress in the production of geovisualisation toolmaking. By producing separate technologies with different access levels, interfaces, and availabilities, interested parties may be able to develop a competitive research edge or to gain funding. When in universities today, funding is often highly competitive, the logic behind exclusivity (at least initiatially) is understandable. However, by being on the cutting edge, you leave out many potential collaborators who may be able to contribute to the geovisualization tool itself, or to its applications and theoretical development.
A question then becomes: how do we reconcile the inherently competitive nature of academia with the goals its projects purport to serve?
Wyatt
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