TOWARD USABLE SPATIAL INFORMATION
Werner Kuhn
Andrew U. Frank
Technical University Vienna, Dept. of Geoinformation
Gusshausstrasse 27-29/127, A-1040 Wien, Austria
Invited Paper (Extended Abstract)
KEY WORDS: Open GIS, Data, Users, Usability, Economy, Standards
ABSTRACT
Spatial data are being collected at an increasing pace, with photogrammetry and remote sensing serving as
the most productive data collecting disciplines. At the same time, markets for spatial information are
emerging world-wide. Still too often, however, there is a mismatch between the demand and supply of
spatial information: data being collected and offered sometimes do not meet the expectations of potential
buyers.
The malfunctioning of spatial data markets has many reasons, ranging from the fact that users are often
unaware of existing data to the difficulties in interpreting and processing spatial data once they have been
bought, to institutional and legal obstacles. A major technical reason is the lacking usability of data
collections.
The presentation addresses the issue of usability and discusses the widely proposed remedy of metadata.
It concludes that the most effective step toward usable spatial data is not to document data collections, but
to modularise them into small manageable units and packaging them with suitable operations. This vision of
future spatial information services is currently being pursued under the heading of “Open GIS”.
I. MARKET CONCERNS FOR SPATIAL DATA . what can | charge ?
A spatial data market needs to provide answers to Reflecting on the possibilities for market settings
questions of potential data suppliers and to answer such questions reveals several problems
customers. Typical customer questions about data with the current situation:
supply are: . a lack of available and usable data
. where and from whom can they get data? . monopolies distorting supply and demand
. in what form? . unclear copyright and liability situations.
. in what resolution?
. how precise? For businesses operating in the market, these
. how complete? problems can be understood as opportunities if they
. how current? are
. how quickly? . adopting a product and service orientation
. how expensive? . exploiting niches for value adding
. advancing flexible standards.
Typical customer questions about data use are:
. can the data be combined with others?
. what operations do they support? ll. METADATA AS PANACEA?
. what conversions are required?
. how can updates be integrated? Using data for decision making requires an
interpretation of their contents. Metadata have
On the other hand, data suppliers might ask: been proposed as a means to support users in this
° what can | sell ? interpretation task. They are defined as data about
e how can | reach potential customers ? spatial data: "Data that describes the content,
. how can | keep customers ? representation, extent (both geographic and
. who is my competition ? temporal), spatial reference, quality and
° what about copyrights ? administration of a geographic data set" [CEN
* what about liability ? 1995].
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International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B6. Vienna 1996