NEOGEOGRAPHY

Alex SingletonUniversity College LondonDepartment of Geography and Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis

Spatial is Special! – www.spatial-literacy.org

Google Trends“GIS" 

Google Trends“Google Maps" 

Google Trends

Google Maps GIS Google Earth

Linear Scale (y)Searches by keyword relative to all searchesDemonstrates order of magnitude

Neogeography is part of Web 2.0

• Web 2.0 is the “business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform” (O’Reilly, 2006)

• Perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis, and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users.

Neogeography has...

• Transformed prevailing view of what GIS is…– For better or worse– For many Google is now GIS

• Pushed the development of...– Pervasive GIS– “Wikification” of GIS (Sui, 2008)

It is important to remember...

• Neogeography is GIS not GISc– GIScience is about the deeper conceptual grounding of

successful applications the bigger questions about how the world works an applications-led technology is useful for exploring the world

around us

NEOGEOGRAPHY?So what is

Geoweb = Geographic Internet

• “The Geoweb 2.0 is the geographic content and application services of the ‘new’ web. It describes the way people will publish, find and use geographic information” David Maguire – ESRI (2006)

http://gismatters.blogspot.com/2006/06/geoweb-20.html

http://www.esri.com/library/whitepapers/pdfs/geoweb.pdf

Typical Geoweb (interface)

Typical Geoweb (interface)

Google

Yahoo

Live Local

Google Earth

So what are visual differences between geoweb and geoweb 2.0 websites?

Merge – Nokia (Q1 2008)Deal worth $8.1 billion

Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Local Live, and MapQuest.

2007 Bidding War – TomTom and GarminTomTom - €2.9 billion

Under the hood: Data

Under the hood: API

3rd Party Application

Builder

Data :

•Open Formats•Geo-RSS•KML•XML•“Tiles”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TomTom

Other elements of Neogeography...Mobile mapping

Other elements of Neogeography... names

• Map Mash-ups, Map Hacks, Crowd Sourcing, API’s, Neogeography, geostack, tags, geospatial, geotechnologies and folksonomies

• Nothing new – internet has always invented terms– ‘new economy’, ’cyberspace’, ‘dot.com’, ‘ecommerce’,

’information superhighway’

API?So what can you do with an

CASE STUDY - Environment: Emergency Evacuation

• Major natural and human-induced events may necessitate area evacuations

• GIS can be used to create effective evacuation vulnerability maps based on– Distribution of population– Street map

• Model demand and impact of bottlenecks on speed of evacuation using standard GIS network tools – Adjacency, connectivity, shortest path network calculation

• Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)– set of standards for Web mapping– Standards tested: Hurricane Response

• Meteorological (remote sensing satellites)• Demographic• Terrain

CASE STUDY - Environment: Emergency Evacuation

Why Google and not OGC

• Bottom up V Top Down– Community building their own inteligence

• Simple to use / build• Immediate• Scalable

– The Cloud

The case of The case of BrangelinaBrangelina

“The process of opening online content to allow for collaboration from users”WordSpy.

http://googlesightseeing.com/2007/05/24/angelina-jolies-geocache-tattoo/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mathowie/8496262/

http://bbc.blueghost.co.uk/travel_data/).

http://www.openstreetmap.org/

Volunteered Geographic Information

NEOGEOGRAPHY?All very interesting Alex, but why are YOU talking about

2004

2006

Name Mapping

National Trust Names - Goodchild1881 1998

National Trust Names - Goodchild

Outreach: Media exposure

And then some more!

Initial Impact~210k Unique Daily Users~150k Unique Daily Users

Peak 1: Migration (Australia, NZ)

Peak 2: Wealth

Peak 2: Wealth

http://www.spatial-literacy.org/?page_id=62

Initial Coverage

• UK Centric• Some limited coverage in NZ, Australia, North America• What next?

• www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames• Track international migration flows• Develop a classification of names

– Links cultural, ethnic, linguistic roots of names

• 26 countries in America, Europe, Asia and Oceania• Individual level data for 300 million people (full name

and address)• 10.8 million unique surnames• 6.5 million unique forenames• Statistics at postcode level

Singleton

www.onomap.org

Surnames

UK Electoral Roll

Forenames

PabloMateos

Garcia

Pérez

...

Juan

Rosa

Marta

...

Sánchez

Rodríguez

...• Several iterations until self-contained cluster is exhausted• Cluster assigned an Onomap type

Mateos et al (2007) CASA Working Paper 116

Forename : ALEX - SCOTTISH

Surname : SINGLETON - ENGLISH            Overall Classification of this Person - ENGLISH

Desktop Software

Welsh Names “aim was to establish a Welsh colony which would preserve the Welsh language and culture”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimosa_(ship)

Mimosa (1865)185 Welsh

Awoke to find “Singleton”Name discussed on Radio4

Un

iqu

e U

ser

s

Traffic mainly UK media – Similar to previous press releasesSome coverage in EuropeSome International – Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand

Picked up by large French news (20minutes.fr) website – spawned a lot of EU traffic- No additional press release!

Also on

Build your own Neogeography

• What are the problems– Can’t share easily– Static– No context (e.g. built

environment) ....• Easy solution...

– Convert to KML and display on google maps?

– NO!Traditional choropleth map

Why “NO”!

• KML Vector Format– Large maps – lots complex vector data– Google maps API – KML limit ~ 2meg

• 2 Possible solutions– Limit complexity of the data shown – keep as vector

• E.g. London MET Police Crime– Use Raster

• Slippy Maps - Tiles

KML (Vector)

Raster - with Gmap Creator

Overlay & Transparency

100%

50%

London Profiler

London Profiler – IMD

London Profiler – Multicultural Atlas

London Profiler – Multicultural Atlas

London Profiler –

SHARING?Isn’t Neogeography all about

Maptube

MaptubeSelect Multiple Layers•Tiles•Remotely Hosted

Fade Control

Close Legend

http://digitalurban.blogspot.com

NEOGEOGRAPHYA word of caution about

Profiling for Public Engagement

• The e-Society• 1990s – Technology Use – “Haves” & “Have-nots”

– Digital Divide• 2007 things are radically different

– Usage & Engagement increasingly more complex• Created a classification which consisted of 8 Groups &

23 Types. – Links to Postcode.

Profiling for Public Engagement

Members of this Group often acquire their competence in the use of information technology at work, since many of them are young people working in junior white collar occupations in modern offices. They are keen to become more expert in the use of new technologies and to use them for new applications. Many spend time browsing the Internet but without necessarily making many transactions. Many members of this Group work in large cities and may be starting a life in a house that they own, typically in one of the cheaper inner suburbs. Their use of the Internet at work may be a practice that their employers may be keen to control or reduce.

Group C : Becoming engaged

SE6 4XD

Location MapLocation Map

Similarity Chart

Similarity Chart

= District Level (SE6)

ANY QUESTIONS?Thanks...