Introducing GEMMA: A Geospatial Engine for Mass Mapping Applications

GEMMA is the latest in a series of geospatial projects from the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, here at University College London.

We are experiencing a massive explosion of online geospatial data from many new and unconventional sources from mobile devices to crowd-sourcing tools. Combined with newly released public sector information, we desperately need to integrate our tools for unlocking, exploiting, understanding and sharing these new data sets so that users can be provided with an accessible gateway to their display, mapping and spatial analysis.  Funded by JISC, GEMMA aims to produce a single workflow for the collection, mapping, preservation, sharing and visualisation of the geospatial datasets.

The Aim of GEMMA

What does that mean in short? The ability to create a map without knowing anything about mapping. Simple as, for too long creating a map has been too complicated, there is now a vast amount of geographically tagged information available online, yet to map it you still have to have a considerable amount of computer related knowledge. Not any more, and we are not talking standard pin type maps, we will enable complex spatial mapping to be carried out at the click of mouse and a point at a file.

This is what geospatial mapping should be, GEMMA aims to  bring 'geo' to the masses and not in a 'neogeo' type way, simply find some data, make, mix and display a map, that's GEMMA in a nutshell.

With applications as wide ranging as community participation, social simulation, economic analysis, urban modelling and beyond, the collection, visualisation, analysis and ultimately understanding of these datasets requires new software organised around a new series of workflows which integrate an array of tools.

Over the next 8 months we aim to produce a one stop shop for any user who wishes to take public sector, crowd-sourced, mobile and related online data with geospatial reference which enables them to display and overlay this information in non-proprietary or freely available mapping services on the web such as Google Maps or Open Street Map, building on several tools that CASA has developed such as, MapTube and SurveyMapper.

What to Expect?

In typical CASA style, we will have frequent updates, beta releases and online apps. GEMMA will be integrated with various crowd sourced and open data sources complete with both iPhone and Android applications for viewing and collecting data in the field.

GEMMA kicks off March 1st, 2011, its time to make geo easy....

Data Mash-Ups and the Future of Mapping: JISC Report

Over the past few months we have been working with colleagues here at CASA, University College London and at the University of Nottingham, in association with the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) to write a report on Data mash-ups and the future of mapping. We are pleased to say the report has just been released and is available to download.

Report by Suchith Anand, Michael Batty, Andrew Crooks, Andrew Hudson-Smith, Mike Jackson, Richard Milton, Jeremy Morley

Data Mash-Ups and the Future of Mapping

Executive Summary

The term 'mash-up' refers to websites that weave data from different sources into new Web services. The key to a successful Web service is to gather and use large datasets and harness the scale of the Internet through what is known as network effects. This means that data sources are just as important as the software that 'mashes' them, and one of the most profound pieces of data that a user has at any one time is his or her location. In the past this was a somewhat fuzzy concept, perhaps as vague as a verbal reference to being in a particular shop or café or an actual street address. Recent events, however, have changed this. In the 1990s, President Bill Clinton's policy decision to open up military GPS satellite technology for 'dual-use' (military and civilian) resulted in a whole new generation of location-aware devices.Around the same time, cartography and GIScience were also undergoing dramatic, Internet-induced changes.

Traditional, resource intensive processes and established organizations, in both the public and private sectors, were being challenged by new, lightweight methods. The upshot has been that map making, geospatial analysis and related activities are undergoing a process of profound change. New players have entered established markets and disrupted routes to knowledge and, as we have already seen with Web 2.0, newly empowered amateurs are part of these processes. Volunteers are quite literally grabbing a GPS unit and hitting the streets of their local town to help create crowdsourced datasets that are uploaded to both open source and proprietary databases.

The upshot is an evolving landscape which Tim O'Reilly, proponent of Web 2.0 and always ready with a handy moniker, has labelled Where 2.0. Others prefer the GeoWeb, Spatial Data Infrastructure, Location Infrastructure, or perhaps just location based services. Whatever one might call it, there are a number of reasons why its development should be of interest to those in higher and further education. Firstly, since a person's location is such a profound unit of information and of such value to, for example, the process of targeting advertising, there has been considerable investment in Web 2.0-style services that make use of it. Understanding these developments may provide useful insights for how other forms of data might be used. Secondly, education, particularly research, is beginning to realize the huge potential of the data mash-up concept. As Government, too, begins to get involved, it is likely that education will be expected to take advantage of, and indeed come to relish, the new opportunities for working with data.

This TechWatch report describes the context for the changes that are taking place and explains why the education community needs to understand the issues around how to open up data, how to create mash-ups that do not compromise accuracy and quality and how to deal with issues such as privacy and working with commercial and non-profit third parties. It also shows how data mash-ups in education and research are part of an emerging, richer information environment with greater integration of mobile applications, sensor platforms, e-science, mixed reality, and semantic, machine-computable data and speculates on how this is likely to develop in the future.

There are two versions for download: the first is an optimised version (900Kb) and the second is the one with full resolution graphics (14Mb)

flutter: Realtime Social Media Mapping

We are always wary of any description text that states 'one of the most interesting things you'll watch all day' but it is actually a really neat movie and product, so we'll let the marketing department off this time - flutter:



Written in Adobe Flex, the application mashes up ESRI's ArcGIS Online mapping services with some of the most popular media feeds available today: Twitter, Flickr, & YouTube. The music leaves us waiting to see 'Matt' as it seems to the same track used in http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/ which kind of takes the focus away just a little bit.

See http://www.dbmediastudio.com/samples/mashup/ to see it running live, its quite hypnotic to watch.

Paper: Mapping for the Masses Accessing Web 2.0 Through Crowdsourcing

Continuing the publication online via Issuu of our papers we include our recent paper written with Andrew Crooks, Michael Batty, and Richard Milton from CASA entitled "Mapping for the Masses Accessing Web 2.0 Through Crowdsourcing" as published in Social Science Computer Review.

"The authors describe how we are harnessing the power of web 2.0 technologies to create new approaches to collecting, mapping, and sharing geocoded data. The authors begin with GMapCreator that lets users fashion new maps using Google Maps as a base. Click the right arrow to turn the page:


The authors then describe MapTube that enables users to archive maps and demonstrate how it can be used in a variety of contexts to share map information, to put existing maps into a form that can be shared, and to create new maps from the bottom-up using a combination of crowdcasting, crowdsourcing, and traditional broadcasting. The authors conclude by arguing that such tools are helping to define a neogeography that is essentially ‘‘mapping for the masses,’’ while noting that there are many issues of quality, accuracy, copyright, and trust that will influence the impact of these tools on map-based communication."

Keywords: network economies; neogeography; web-based services; map mashups; crowdsourcing; crowdcasting; online GIS.

The paper can be downloaded from here (pdf link).

Mashups: A Literature Review and Classification Framework

Future Internet continues the tradition of publishing online high quality peer reviewed papers. The latest paper byBrandon Beemer and Dawn Gregg entitled 'Mashups: A Literature Review and Classification Framework' is a timely and indeed useful reference for anyone working in the field.

The papers abstract is as follows:

The evolution of the Web over the past few years has fostered the growth of a handful of new technologies (e.g. Blogs, Wiki’s, Web Services). Recently web mashups have emerged as the newest Web technology and have gained lots of momentum and attention from both academic and industry communities. Current mashup literature focuses on a wide array of issues, which can be partially explained by how new the topic is. However, to date, mashup literature lacks an articulation of the different subtopics of web mashup research. This study presents a broad review of mashup literature to help frame the 1subtopics in mashup research.

What better on a snowy Christmas Eve than to download the latest paper from Future Internet?

3D Mash-Up Maps let you 'Edit' the World

This weeks NewScientist has a good article entilted '3D mash-up maps let you 'edit' the world. Written by Colin Barras it notes that armchair explorers who soar over 3D cityscapes on their computer may be used to the idea of maps with an extra dimension. But they are now getting accurate enough to offer much more than a preview of your next holiday destination. Accurate, large-scale 3D maps could soon change the way we design, manage and relate to our urban environments.'

Colin dropped us a email here at digital urban, our thoughts are included in the article - you can read the online version via the NewScientist website.

Mapping for the Masses Accessing Web 2.0 Through Crowdsourcing: Download the Paper

Our latest paper written with Andrew Crooks, Michael Batty, and Richard Milton from CASA entitled "Mapping for the Masses Accessing Web 2.0 Through Crowdsourcing" is now available online via Social Science Computer Review. The print version comes out later in the year.

For those interested the abstract is as follows:

"The authors describe how we are harnessing the power of web 2.0 technologies to create new approaches to collecting, mapping, and sharing geocoded data. The authors begin with GMapCreator that lets users fashion new maps using Google Maps as a base. The authors then describe MapTube that enables users to archive maps and demonstrate how it can be used in a variety of contexts to share map information, to put existing maps into a form that can be shared, and to create new maps from the bottom-up using a combination of crowdcasting, crowdsourcing, and traditional broadcasting. The authors conclude by arguing that such tools are helping to define a neogeography that is essentially ‘‘mapping for the masses,’’ while noting that there are many issues of quality, accuracy, copyright, and trust that will influence the impact of these tools on map-based communication."

Keywords: network economies; web-based services; map mashups; crowdsourcing; crowdcasting; online GIS.

The paper can be downloaded from here (pdf link).