Project Overview

Stakeholder workshop, 29 Jan 2003

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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.

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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

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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)

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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

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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

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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”

Statistical Account of Scotland

NUMBER XIII.

PARISH OF CULLEN.

(COUNTY OF BANFF, SYNOD OF ABERDEEN, PRESBYTERY OF FORDYCE.)

By the Rev. Mr. ROBERT GRANT.

Royalty, Extent, Climate, etc.

CULLEN, as appears from old charters, was originallycalled Inverculan, because it stands upon the bank ofthe Burn of Cullen, which, at the N. end of the town, fallsinto the sea: but now it is known by the name of Cullen on-ly. Cullen is a royal burgh, formerly a constabulary, ofwhich the Earl of Findlater was hereditary constable. Theset, as it is called, of the council, consists of 19, in which num-ber are included the Earl of Findlater, hereditary preses, 3bailies, a treasurer, a dean-of-guild, and 13 counsellors. Theparish extends from the sea fouthward, about 2 English milesin length.

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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 considerede.g. teaching needs

e.g. access to resources that for various reasons, e.g. licence agreements, cannot be made available outside UK academia

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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

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Results of scoping study

• a set of documentse.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

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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

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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

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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 [GE:source]

– the NGDF Gateway and its directory services

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Other IEContent Providers

Go-Geo! portal

architectureGeo-data Network(proposed)

NGDF Network

Geo-data Gateway

Metadata or resource servers

Local go-geodatabase

GE:source

Portal

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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

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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...

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Deliverables

• “A functioning scalable demonstrator portal service that has the potential to be integrated into the JISC Information Environment”

• a report

• (an exit strategy...)

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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

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