Open-Source Geography

Even though I made Wednesdays “no-blogging days” so that I can get some rest, the SP Gass at Low Tech Times has an interesting article called There’s No Substitute for Looking At A Real Map.  Open Source Geography (dot org, FYI), soon to be moving to its own site, fully endorses this notion of looking at a Real Map.

I am interested in SP Gass’s view on the accuracy of the AAA TripTic.  SP Gass is talking about reference maps and how one’s on paper are much more usable.  Beyond portability of a paper map, paper allows one to come up with their own route.    SP Gass knows what he means when he is choosing a route.  But without expert knowledge or human behavior factored in as a determinant in the route choice algorithm, the computer can never approximate what means, his geographic semantics.  Dr. Martin Raubal at University of California-Santa Barbara teaches a course in Geographic Semantics.

Anyway, flexibility in route choice using online mapping software would greatly improve the service.  As a Geographic Information Scientist, by training, I would suggest to Google that they open their street network dataset to allow a local crowd to suggest alternate routes.  Another option would be to generate a sample of automobiles and collect GPS points along their chosen routes, rather than the predictive routes.

I am still imaging the algorithm and/or data-structure required to enable a sample link on a chosen route be chosen to improve the predictive path.  Especially considering that the data would need to be split into nodes and links.  Not to mention, the process of formatting.  Unless of course, you are generating an cloud-enabled database with a G-Phone Android Program in which these points are collected real-time.

Is this possible?  It seems like it should be considering bluetooth tracking and cell-phone tracking would be a great medium for updating Google Maps.

Also, check out Google’s Newest Feature:  GoogleWalking.  Its still in Beta, but there is a smattering of commentary around the web.

Google Walking Maps by Daily Wireless

Google Maps Walks the Long Way Around by Google Maps Mania.

And this list of 100 Google Earth Mashups isn’t particularly about GoogleWalking, but it is still useful information for improving the semantic web rich with digitized human knowledge.

So some GIS Specialist at Yale has figured out how to produce standardized areal units based on the geographic, latitude/longitude grid and how to produce it on a global scale.   It is GIS of a sort.  Definitely not an ESRI product, but could be converted.

The site is called G-CON, Geographically Based Economic Data.  Note the release of their data for you use and visualization.  Creating a grid in ArcGIS to thier specifications is a relatively simple process.  They also provide fully detailed documentation.

Letter of Motivation

The term geographic relevance is new, but is still a familiar concept. With my Master of Science in the Geographic and Cartographic Science and ten years of work experience, I can offer a wide range of real-world contexts in which mobile computing could be studied. I have worked in the geographies of disease, elections, census gathering, business and local urban planning. I can imagine geographic informational relevant applications for each of these and other more popular activities.

To reiterate my understanding of the funded PhD Research Assistant position at the University of Zurich, Department of Geography, Geographic Information Visualization and Analysis Group, the goal of this project is to:

1. Develop methodologies for evaluating the human response to geographic relevance in mobile contexts, starting with activity theory as the research framework.
2. Development of mobile geographic informational applications using Java and data source Mash-Ups
3. Prepare a dissertation

I am interested in this research project as I seek to specialize in the Geography of ubiquitous computing and the energy, infrastructure, policy and locational requirements. I have been looking for a PhD program in this area as they relate to Educational Technologies in Geography. This funded PhD opportunity would enable full development of my ideas, while in direct synergy with the requirements for this project.

My strength would be in the development of the models for human subjects. I was responsible for handling confidential patient data and accountable for adhering to the University Research Protocol Regarding Experimentation with Human Subjects at the University of Virginia. And I was introduced to Activity Theory in my University of Virginia Graduate-level Theories of Learning course. In regards to application development in java, I have a vested interest in strengthening my programming skills. In my spare time, I tinker with the Internet and my latest project is working with the Android programming environment. Android is an open-source java-based programming language on which the GooglePhone (G-Phone) is compiled.

The Low-Tech Times hopes that the volunteer army of GIS agents will not be using their hi-tech methods to help a political campaign target households with annoying uninvited campaign visits and unsolicited mailings. I believe web entrepreneur Jason Calacanis would consider efforts like those as counterproductive to the war on spam.

However, I must admit that technology is playing a larger role in presidential politics this year. For example, the McCain campaign just utilized a web spider to sting Obama: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/07/mccain-campaign.html

I sometimes forget that ESRI is not the only thought leader in the world of Geographic Information Systems. The curators over at Open Source GIS , Ubuntu Users and that whole linux-based crowd of innovators have a lot to say on the matter of Geographic Thought. And to all the subsidiary mapping companies that Google wisely acquired, thank you for Google Earth and all your map-based mashable services!

Here is the European Vision in a 6 minute YouTube video worthy of the World’s Fair 2012. It has value as an introduction to the GIS section and the Globalization section of my up-coming lecture series about Geography for Virginia International University.

This visionary piece describes an interconnected European Supranationalistic State that rests on a Geographic Data Infrastructure. Those Europeans and their traditions of turning pure science as a means for controlling space while economizing their energy needs.

Harper’s Bazaar’s publication of Ginger Strand’s, “Keyword: Evil - Google’s Addiction to Cheap Energy,” refers to the electricity-hungry Internet and uses Google’s new data center on the Dalles, OR as its primary example. With some variation in energy management practices, “addiction to cheap energy” would be an applicable term for any of the Industry Giants employing server farms.

Critique #1: The thesis of her argument is that Google is evil for cutting energy costs and explains with a series of interesting statistics. Its a good read, you should check it out. I am going to bring it as required reading for my Geography class. I believe that renewable energy sources, as a mode of economic sustanence, should be exploited and harvested like our other dirtier energy sources. I see this story as indicative of Google as an energy leader. leading the way. What does that say about the American Energy System if if has actually become more cost-effective to heavily invest in an alternative energy infrastructure rather than rely on existing electrical grid indefinitely?

Critique #2: There was a brief mention of how much energy was created, but a key piece seemed missing. That is, by unintended implication, it makes those of us who are loyal Google users, evil as well. Collectively, it is our clicks that generate the significant amount of energy usage. I see no evil in cutting your costs while demonstrating the economic feasibility of alternative energy sources.

Critique #3: The Blueprints depicting Google’s Data Center…are the proof that the Web is no ethereal store of ideas.

While I believe the Internet as a commerce of ideas is solid, it is still dependent on Energy as any other heavy Industry. Strand desccribes it as a “a new heavy industry, a glutton….” Consider for a moment, Treehugger’s story that the average avatar in Second Life uses as much energy as the average person in Brazil. Perhaps “gluttons” is apt, but there is little doubt that these Giants provide a service unique to human history. Having energy needs does not contradict the service they provide and believe that these companies form the current infrastructure of the Commerce of Ideas.

Google is a propenent of renewable energy projects from a purely capitalist position, to cut future costs. If the economics of renewable energy works for them, why call them evil for participating in such a revolution?

In Geography is Dead, Warwick E. Murray’s revisits the economic geography theory that Globalization is the end of Geography. Using Amazon as an example, he claimed brick-and-mortar book sales losses would collapse the bookstore industry. We know they adapted and survived and his thesis is deftly countered by Kevin Morgan’s “Exaggerated Death of Geography.”

As a PhD applicant actively seeking Graduate Funding, any one of these topics is a viable PhD dissertation topic. There are observable geographic patterns of Internet Activity that can be measured and statistically modelled within commonly understood models of Industrial Location.

• Mutually Beneficial Economic Development as Optimization Variable in Industrial Location: A Google, Government and Energy Management Case Study
• Patterns of Starbuck Store Closure: A Correlation with the Commercial and Residential Development Market.
• Geographic Patterns of Crowdsourced Loans: A Prosper.com Case Study (for Academic purposes, Prosper offers a download of its entire dataset).
• The Economics the Pioneer Fringe: An Empirical Revisit to Isaiah Bowman
• Pre-Revolutionary Land Use Patterns and Concepts of Ownership
• Open-Source Micro-Franchising: A Distributed Distribution Method for Incubating Crowdsourced Content
• The Geography of Long Tail Economics-(Perhaps this one actually is killing the record store).

This is cross-posted at Robot in the Woods

As a former Geography professor, I still think of interesting projects to work on. I have one here that I think you could Wow a Geography professor with. That is, what is Science Fiction like in developing countries. Does it exist? And the same for Robotics. How do the following nations (the United Nation’s Group of 77 developing nation) participate in Robotics and/or science fiction. What are the economic and social factors that lead to this participation (or lack thereof). What themes emerge in their writing. If you take on this project, please send me your results.

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I am currently applying for Geography Adjunct Teaching positions in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area. For more information about my teaching philosophy, please my recent blogpost about building an effective student-professor relationship.

Open-Source Geography is a new concept in education in which a class of students write their own Geography textbook. This idea is in accordance with my belief that a student’s work has value beyond the classroom and uses a blog as an Instructional Technology. Consider for the following reasons: (more…)

So, I found a teaching gig I am interested in at Virginia International University in Fairfax, VA. They are a recently accredited academic program and I am interested in learning more about them. Their emphasis on collegiate level ESL would indicate an international student body of international students. It would be an exciting if that assumption is correct; what a perfect academic demographic for a Geography Course. Wish me luck, I submitted the application today. If interested, I attached a copy of my cover letter and resume here. (more…)