I had the amazing opportunity recently to attend the , California. The Esri 鈥楿C鈥 as it鈥檚 known is an annual event that showcases what鈥檚 new and hot in the Esri GIS world, and provides a chance for over 16,000 GIS and map nerds to get together, learn from each other, and generally celebrate everything geospatial.
I鈥檝e recently been successful with obtaining five years of funding from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation鈥檚 Early Researcher Award (ERA). This generous funding will allow me to measure the value and impact of open data initiatives, assessing how open data is accessed, used, and exploited.
This is a guest post by graduate student Qing (Lucy) Liu about her team鈥檚 experience at the Esri Canada App Challenge:
is a coding completion held by Esri Canada. Started in February 27, 2015, teams of participants were given one week to develop an innovative app using open data and Esri software. The apps to be developed should be on some aspect of government services in Canada, for any of the following themes:
As part of Geography 187: Problem Solving in Geomatics, I鈥檝e started using as a tool for students to gain experience collecting in-situ field data. Fulcrum is both a mobile app (for iOS and Android) and a data management/survey design backend.
I'm currently leading a research project that looks to compare two first-year Geomatics courses (GEOG 181 and the new GEOG 187).
I鈥檝e recently been awarded funding from the and the . I鈥檇 like to thank both of these government funding agencies for their support of a new research and training initiative that I call the 鈥楪eospatial Mobility Lab鈥. This effort is also co-sponsored through direct contributions of equipment and services from and .
It鈥檚 no secret 鈥 I鈥檝e got a real love for do-it-yourself (DIY) and small-scale data collection methods.
Yes indeed, after one of the longest, snowiest winters in recent memory, I鈥檓 eagerly anticipating the upcoming in sunny Tampa, Florida. I鈥檓 going to be presenting in two venues, first the alt.conference on Big Data where I will be discussing (quickly 鈥 like lightning) different models of government adoption of crowdsourced data. Second, I鈥檓 doing a more conventional presentation on the challenges of jurisdictionality in government adoption of the Geoweb. See a trend here?
Recently I鈥檝e been fortunate enough to be part of a team that has been awarded a for a 5-year study of 鈥淗ow the Geospatial Web 2.0 is reshaping government-citizen interactions鈥, also called . This is an unparalleled opportunity to make a long-term impact on emerging research themes of open data, citizen digital participation, and to trace the changing nature of geospatial data creation and use.
The relationship between Open Data and Open Government is one that fascinates me. I鈥檓 curious as to how Open Data 鈥 that is, data that is easily accessible with a minimum of restrictions governing use or reuse, can be used as a conversation or focus point to increase the involvement of citizens in government. If government data is being collected to support decision-making, shouldn鈥檛 that data be shared with citizens?