Posts Tagged ‘data’

Metadata matters but does that really matter?

Tuesday, November 18th, 2014

This article written by S.C. Guptill seems to be a well-established introductory article for anyone who has barely any background knowledge in metadata. It contains basic definition and context where metadata is required and also explains the content and its importance thoroughly. In addition, it explains how one can collect metadata and smoothly brings up the issues and importance concerning the standardization of metadata. At this point, it is possible that for those who are completely naïve in the domain of computer science may struggle with couple of terms, but it is not impossible to understand as long as Google and Wikipedia are there, just like they were for me. As the article treats the data clearinghouse, it underlines the importance of standardization and quality of the metadata once again, with the example of ‘ice and Colorado’ and the pretty interface used by the Master Environmental Library of the US Department of Defense (MEL). This part of article display how a user can specify the desired content in detail to minimize the noise in its query results. However, such a pretty looking interface would be useless if the metadata is not well structured and lacks in content.

The metadata and its issue of standardization is prominent as the amount of data, especially geospatial data, are vastly expanding on daily basis. As the technology advances, it is expected that the processing time for anything is to be reduced with increasing efficiency. To do so, the quality of and capacity for one to find the appropriate data are likely to have an increasing importance. However, no matter how it is obvious looking or “logical” to act in a way, it won’t make any progress unless someone comes up with an idea to produce capital out of it.

ESRI

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Time and GIS

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

We’ve heard how the cyberinfrastructure handles temporal and spatial data separately, but must be developed in such a manner that allows for users/researchers to utilize both sets of variables when interacting with a GISystem. Now Gail Langran and Nicholas Chrisman provide an interesting overview of the topological similarities between time and space, and how best to design a GIS system which can accurately display temporal elements.

I find the authors’ notions of time and its important elements to be a overly simple in a way that helps to lend credence to their subject. In particular, they characterize cartographic time as “punctuated by ‘events,’ or changes” (4). Furthermore, they do a nice job contrasting GIS algorithms based on questions concerning space (what are its neighbors? what are its boundaries? what encloses it? what does it enclose?) with the similar questions one might ask for time (what was the previous state or version? what has changed? what is the periodicity of change? what trends are evident) (7). Such examples help to define this paper not just as a discussion of temporal data, but also of temporal data based closely to its application in geographic space. Such an added dimension can be incredibly important when we begin to think about all of the geographic phenomenon that occur over differing timelines. It’s also an element we should try to remember more in our own research efforts.

I do wonder about the distinction the authors draw between real world time and database time. Since many GIS databases are headed toward real time, streaming data – as was pointed out in previous lectures – why make this distinction? Perhaps I’m not technically inclined enough to understand the importance of the difference in programming or maybe it’s just a matter of how the system might store information. Anyone have thoughts on why real time data can’t be used in a manner that equates it to database time?
–ClimateNYC

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Posted in 506, geographic information systems | 1 Comment »