Turning Big Data into Change You Can See GIS, Decision Support, Monitoring and Evaluation

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Building GIS, Decision Support, and Location Intelligence Applications Using

Open Source Tools

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Turning Data into Actionable Information

Where the Industry was Yesterday

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Where the Industry is Today

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Where the Industry is Headed

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Where the Industry is Headed

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How to build Location Intelligence Applications

Open source now allows us to build industry specific geospatial applications with: • Enhanced spatial analytics • Intelligently aggregate and analyze data from

multiple sources – NO DATA SILOS!

Improve information exchange! TerraFrame 2013© 7

Commercial vs. Open Source GIS Software Commercial GIS Software • Is powerful, mature, but, generic (one size fits all) • Requires a GIS professional to use • Is difficult to build industry specific applications • Is very expensive

Commercial vendors cannot meet the wide demand for industry specific GIS applications

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Commercial vs. Open Source GIS Software Open Source Tools • Have traditionally been software developer toolkits and

not standalone applications • Require software developers to heavily customize • Are more modular for building industry specific

applications Open source software enables us to build industry specific applications for less cost than commercial tools and without any reoccurring licensing fees

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Open Source Tool Landscape

• PostGIS – Geospatial database • GeoServer – Mapping server • OpenLayers – Web mapping front end

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The Case for Open Source • Open standards historically:

– Lead to breakthroughs in information exchange

– Encourage technological innovation – Enrich the masses

• Closed standards historically: – Are understood by an educated elite – Hinder information exchange – Enrich an elite class

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Critical Components to Interoperability

• Compatible

– Data Format – Data Structure – Content Semantics

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Phaistos Disc – 1,700 BC

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Compatible Phaistos Chinese Gutenberg

Data Format Yes Yes Yes

Data Structure/Language

No Not Quite Yes

Semantics No No No

Comparing Movable Type Technologies

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Compatible Commercial Tools

Open Source

Data Format Yes Yes

Data Structure/Language

No No

Semantics No No

GIS Tools

Introduction to Ontologies

• Formally represents knowledge as a set of concepts within a domain

• Used in artificial intelligence • Allows software to make human-like inferences from

data • Ideal for semantic conflict resolution • Can enhance spatial reasoning

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Ontologies

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Subject Object Predicate

Ontologies

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Nathan Person Is a Living

Being Is a

Name Coordinates Nathan POINT <X,Y>

Person Record

Ontologies

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Mapping Attributes with the Ontology

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Mapping Values with the Ontology

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Ontologies

• Describes a domain (e.g. medical)

• Stores relationships – e.g. “is-a”, “has-a”

• Provides knowledge representation about the domain

• Captures human knowledge into machine representation, enables automated reasoning

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Ontologies

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Compatible

Commercial Tools

Open Source Ontologies

Data Format Yes Yes No

Data Structure No No Yes

Semantics No No Yes

Architecting a Location Intelligence Application

It’s the Metadata, Stupid!

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Geo-Universals – Boundary Classifications

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State Country City Is Allowed In Is Allowed In

Geo-Ontologies

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Colorado

USA

Is Located In Name Coordinates USA MULTI POLYGON<….> Colorado POLYGON <….>

Geoentity

Geo-Universals GeoEntities

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Geo-Ontologies

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Geo-Ontology

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Enhance spatial reasoning by representing locations as an object node graph

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Creating Multi-Thematic Maps with Open Source Tools

Traditional Architecture

Application/Data Source

•Custom Application

•Web Service •MS Access, SQL

Server, PostGIS

Data Conversion

•Shapefile •Excel •CSV •KML, GeoJSON,

etc.

GIS Stack

•ESRI software suite

•GeoServer •Map Server •Quantum GIS

Integrated Architecture

Application Stack

Client

Server

GIS Stack

OpenLayers

GeoServer

PostGIS

The GIS Stack (OpenLayers + GeoServer + PostGIS)

OpenLayers

PostGIS

GeoServer

Client/Browser

JavaScript

HTTP Image

SQL Result Set

Render

Example: A WMS request for a layer defined in PostGIS

The Map Structure

Map

Layer 1

Layer 2

Layer N

A Standard Layer

Layer Data

Geometry

Attribute* Style

A Thematic Layer

Layer

Data

Style

Thematic Attribute Style

Modeling the Style

Style

• Polygon Fill • Polygon Width • Polygon Stroke • Polygon Opacity

• Point Size • Point Stroke • Point Opacity

• Label Size • Label Font • Label Opacity

• Layer Opacity • Text Placement

Generate the style from an intermediary object

SLD

KML

Carto

Automated Map Cycle

Initial Map Request

Generate the SQL and SLD

Create a new layer in GeoServer

Serialize the layer into JSON

Convert the layer JSON into JavaScript

Invoke OpenLayers and request the

layer

GeoServer renders an image (WMS)

OpenLayers places the image in the

DOM

*transactional

Runway SDKtm

• Open source enterprise data management platform – Dynamic type creation – Role based access control – Support for mobile

• Integrated ontology engine

Available now on GitHub under LGPL

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Runway GIStm

• Manages: – PostGIS – Geospatial database – GeoServer – Mapping server – OpenLayers – Web mapping front end

• Integrated GIS and location intelligence

Available soon on GitHub under LGPL

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Runway GeoDashboardtm

Available in early 2014 under LGPL TerraFrame 2013© 44

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Existing Closed Platforms