Geospatial Semantic Web Blog

After reading this blog entry, a reader asks the following:

The definition [of geospatial semantics] is convincing. However, could you tell the difference between the “Geospatial semantics” and Egenhofer and Mark (1995)s’ “Naive Geography” which defines as : “The body of knowledge that people have about the surrounding geographic world.”

In this post, I will try to answer Andrea’s question.

I believe there are similarities and differences between the studies of Naive Geography and Geospatial Semantics.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the past, when the term “geospatial” is mentioned, people immediately think digitial maps. Today most people think Google Maps and Google Earth when the same term is mentioned. To me, seeing mapping technology as the sole component of geospatial technology is a nearsighted vision.

Geospatial technology is more than just pretty maps. A recent IDC study shows that the spatial information management industry is undergoing radical technology changes, which is likely to impact many IT ecosystems.

Fundamental shifts in the spatial information management industry
include basic changes in the nature of geospatial work, and transitions
in the broad IT environment toward easier integration and support for
business processes.

The study finds that geospatial data, and not the map, has
become the raw resource for creating location-specific information.
Therefore, efforts to convert paper maps to digital data have been
replaced as geospatial data is used to generate new maps, decisions,
and automated processes.

Let me take things one step further. I think a wide adoption of geospatial technology in IT is only the begnning. Some of the most exiciting applications in the future will be the ones that exploit geospatial semantics, not just geospatial data.