Effect of Neo-Geography on Professional GIS

Effect of Neo-Geography on Professional GIS Will Neo-geography cause the end of professional GIS Almost everything that happens, happens somewhere (Longley et al. 2005) meaning that everything happens in geographic space. It can be of critical importance to know not only what happened and when but where something happened as well. A GIS is a computer-based system that provides for the storage and representation of geographic data. GIS data are most commonly stored in a relational database format, from which they can be analysed, combined and displayed as maps or in other data formats. In recent years there has been a large increase in the use of neo-geography, that is the use of applications such as Google Earth, Google Maps, Bing Maps etc. to create maps. These maps usually use a base map from one of the above applications with spatial data collected and displayed over it. The large increase in people using neo-geography has led to discussions as to whether neo-geography will cause the end of professional GIS. GIS GIS is a tool that allows users to visualise data (generally on a map) in order to see patterns and relationships in a given area or subject. (Kemp (ed.) 2008) defines GIS as â€Å"fundamentally concerned with building shared understandings of the world in ways that are robust, transparent and, above all, usable in a range of real world settings.† According to ESRI a GIS â€Å"lets us visualise, question, analyse, interpret, and understand data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts.† (GIS DEMYSTIFIED) however claims that this is too general a definition for such a complex and wide ranging set of tools and says that: â€Å"GIS is, in essence, a central repository of and analytical tool for geographic data collected from various sources. The developer can overlay the information from these various sources by means of themes and layers, perform comprehensive analysis of the data, and portray it graphically for the user.† It is a computer application designed to perform a wide range of operations on geographic information. Geographic information is defined as information about locations on or near the surface of the Earth, and may be organized in a variety of ways (Goodchild 2009). A GIS includes functions to input, store, visualise, export, and analyse geographic information. With GIStechnology, people can compare the locations of different things in order to discover how they relate to each other. For example, using GIS, the same map could include sites that producepollution, such as gas stations, and sites that are sensitive to pollution, such aswetlands. Such a map would help people determine which wetlands are most at risk. GIS can use any information that includeslocation. The location can be expressed in many different ways, such aslatitudeandlongitude, address, orZIP code. Many different types of information can be compared and contrasted using GIS. The system can include data about people, such as population,income, or education level. It can include information about the land, such as the location of streams, different kinds ofvegetation, and different kinds ofsoil. It can include information about the sites of factories, farms, and schools, orstorm drains, roads, and electricpower lines. Neo-geography Neo-geography is a term that refers to techniques, tools and practices of geography that have been traditionally beyond the scope of professional geographers and geographic information systems (GIS) practitioners (Turner 2006). (Castree, Kitchin Rogers 2013) describe neo-geography as follows: â€Å"The new forms of geographical knowledge enabled by Web 2.0 technologies where in geographical data are sourced through the collective actions of many individuals, and processed and displayed through online resources. Neo-geography produces geographical outputs that have not been produced by professionals, but rather through crowdà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ sourcing. These data range from place tags on virtual globes, to uploaded GPS traces of locations, to georeferenced communication that can be mapped and combined with other data to create large, dynamic, open data sets.† Szott (2006) describes neo-geography as â€Å"a diverse set of practices that operate outside, or alongside, or in the manner of, the practices of professional geographers.† He goes on to explain that rather than being scientifically based, methods used in neo-geography tend to be based on more personal and artistic tendencies that are â€Å"idiosyncratic applications of ‘real’ geographic techniques† which can be of value to the cartographic and geographic sciences but don’t conform to professional practice. As mentioned in the above quote from Castree et al. (2013) neo-geography has been enabled by Web 2.0 technologies. Web 2.0 is a term that was introduced in 2004 and refers to the second generation of theWorld Wide Web (TechTerms 2008). While it suggests new version of the World Wide Web the term actually refers to technological improvements in software and changes in how software developers and end users use the web (Fu Sun 2011). These improvements and changes lead to the introduction of services such as Google Maps, Google Earth, Bing Maps and MapQuest among others. These services are referred to as WebGIS. WebGIS is any GIS that uses Web technologies (Fu Sun 2011). As these services became more popular developers such as Google started to release an application programming interface (API) for their programs. An application programming interface is a set of programming instructions and standards for accessing a Web-based software application orWeb tool (Roos 2007). Releasing APIà ¢â‚¬â„¢s to the public allowed software developers to design products powered by WebGIS. The term ‘neo-geography’ was coined by one of the founders of platial.com, Di-Ann Eisner (Maguire 2007). She used neo-geography to describe the ‘new’ geography of overlaying or ‘mashing up’ two or more sources of geographic information. The release of API’s allowed developers and users to quickly and easily show geographically based data on shareable maps creating what has become known as a ‘mashup’ (Turner 2006). This could, for instance, be a Google Maps base layer overlaid with mobile phone coverage. Using the Google Maps API a software developer was able to take the original application (Google Maps) and overlay content (the mobile phone coverage over it) effectively ‘mashing’ the two together. Web 2.0 has resulted in a rise in user-generated content (UGC) of which volunteered geographic content (VGI) is UGC of a geographic nature (WEBGIS pg250). VGI is digital spatial data that is created voluntarily by citizens rather than by formal data producers (webgis pg279 goodchild 2007a). â€Å"The availability of mapping APIs like Google’s has facilitated the concept of a ‘mashup’ as the ideal presentation vehicle for VGI by providing a geographical backdrop† (Learning From the Crowd: The Role of Volunteered Geographic Information in Realising a Spatially Enabled Society). VGI has become a hugely important channel through which geographic data is collected. The table below taken from WEBGIS (XXXX) shows the geographic information collected from popular websites. Example websites and essential geospatial questions asked Use cases Geographic information contributed Wikimapia What places do you know? Users draw a rectangle and describe the place with a few sentences Constructing a comprehensive global gazetteer database Picasa, Panoramio, and Flickr online albums (geotagging) What photos can you share about places you have been? Users upload geotagged photos or upload and geotag the photos by zooming to a location on a map Recording and reporting the past and present conditions of places or events with the use of photos OpenStreetMap What GPS data do you have for the roads you bike, walk or drive? Users upload the track logs of their personal GPS receivers Constructing street and highway data layers for many areas SeeClickFix Where and what problems do you see that need to be fixed? Users report problems such as potholes and graffiti by drawing on and annotating maps Identifying problems for local authorities Twitter (GeoTweeting) Whats going on here? Users report personal activities, other events, or incidents at their locations Monitoring and reporting activities Conclusion Neo-geography has caused a large shift in the way people view and use maps. The Conclusion Focus on data quality Focus on analysis that gis’s can carry out, neogeo can’t really do this – only really displys at the mo planning Also focus on fact that most neogeo is built on a gis foundation. These reasons neogeo will not end prof GIS GIS has a huge amount of uses including: Managing business activities Planning Emergency services Land management Transport Utility operations Benefits of GIS include: Fundamentals of GIS (intro to GIS first few pages) GIScience – the professional arm? Introduction Geography (use demystified, use GIS: an introduction, use gis and science)( The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Business PDF) They will explain gis from geography How much gis used now in daily life, business etc (google gis in daily life)( CONCEPTS AND THEORIES OF GIS IN BUSINESS)( The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Business PDF) Mention neogeo; use intro to neogeo try to rehash what it is in a few lines with examples The hardware and software functions of a GIS are as follows: Acquisition and verification Compilation Storage Updating and changing Management and exchange Manipulation Retrieval and presentation Analysis and combination These actions are applied to the data held in the GIS. All of this data is georeferenced i.e. linked to a location on the earth’s surface using a coordinate system. Information can be attached to locations (Heywood, Cornelius Carver 2011) tell us that in general, the definitions of GIS cover three main components: It is a computer system comprising of both hardware and software, It uses spatially referenced or geographical data and, Carries out various management and analysis tasks. Hardware is used to collect and input data. Analysis of the information can then be undertaken using the software. By providing spatial analysis of suitably coded data it is possible to provide striking, visual representations of data. These representations can often reveal patterns and trends that might otherwise have gone unnoticed without the use of GIS techniques.

Computer Crime :: essays research papers

Computer Crime Advances in telecommunications and in computer technology have brought us to the information revolution. The rapid advancement of the telephone, cable, satellite and computer networks, combined with the help of technological breakthroughs in computer processing speed, and information storage, has lead us to the latest revolution, and also the newest style of crime, "computer crime". The following information will provide you with evidence that without reasonable doubt, computer crime is on the increase in the following areas: hackers, hardware theft, software piracy and the information highway. This information is gathered from expert sources such as researchers, journalists, and others involved in the field. Computer crimes are often heard a lot about in the news. When you ask someone why he/she robbed banks, they world replied, "Because that's where the money is." Today's criminals have learned where the money is. Instead of settling for a few thousand dollars in a bank robbery, those with enough computer knowledge can walk away from a computer crime with many millions. The National Computer Crimes Squad estimates that between 85 and 97 percent of computer crimes are not even detected. Fewer than 10 percent of all computer crimes are reported this is mainly because organizations fear that their employees, clients, and stockholders will lose faith in them if they admit that their computers have been attacked. And few of the crimes that are reported are ever solved. Hacking was once a term that was used to describe someone with a great deal of knowledge with computers. Since then the definition has seriously changed. In every neighborhood there are criminals, so you could say that hackers are the criminals of the computers around us. There has been a great increase in the number of computer break-ins since the Internet became popular. How serious is hacking? In 1989, the Computer Emergency Response Team, a organization that monitors computer security issues in North America said that they had 132 cases involving computer break-ins. In 1994 alone they had some 2,341 cases, that's almost an 1800% increase in just 5 years. An example is 31 year old computer expert Kevin Mitnick that was arrested by the FBI for stealing more then $1 million worth in data and about 20,000 credit card numbers through the Internet. In Vancouver, the RCMP have arrested a teenager with breaking into a university computer network. There have been many cases of computer hacking, another one took place here in Toronto, when Adam Shiffman was charged with nine counts of fraudulent use of computers and eleven counts of mischief to data, this all carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail.

Urbanisation

Urbanisation in the world today is an ongoing process that has a profound impact on people's living conditions and health status. The globalisation of markets, the desire for higher education, increased use of communication, and new information technologies are the driving forces behind this process. The urbanisation process has marked effects on the natural and cultural environment, on housing arrangements and social networks, as well as on work and employment patterns, not only in the cities, but also in the rural areas.Access to health care, social services, and cultural activities are in many cases better in the cities, but there the access may not be evenly distributed among the population. Problem of urbanization is manifestation of lopsided urbanization, faulty urban planning, urbanization with poor economic base and without having functional categories . Hence India's urbanization is followed by some basic problems in the field of : 1) housing, 2) slums, 3) transport 4) water supply and sanitation, 5) water pollution and air pollution, 6)inadequate provision for social infrastructure ( school, hospital, etc ).Class I cities such as Calcutta , Bombay, Delhi, Madras etc have reached saturation level of employment generating capacity (Kundu,1997). Since these cities are suffering from of urban poverty, unemployment, housing shortage, crisis in urban infra-structural services these large cities can not absorb these distressed rural migrants i. e poor landless illiterate and unskilled agricultural labourers. Hence this migration to urban class I cities causes urban crisis more acute. 2 Most of these cities using capital intensive technologies can not generate employment for these distress rural poor.So there is transfer of rural poverty to urban poverty. Poverty induced migration of illiterate and unskilled labourer occurs in class I cities addressing urban involution and urban decay. 3 Indian urbanization is involuted not evoluted ( Mukherji, 1995). Poverty induced migration occurs due to rural push . Megacities grow in urban population (Nayak,1962) not in urban prosperity, and culture. Hence it is urbanization without urban functional characteristics.These mega cities are subject to extreme filthy slum and very cruel mega city denying shelter, drinking water, electricity,  sanitation ( Kundu,,Bagchi and Kundu, 1999) to the extreme poor and rural migrants. 4 Urbanisation is degenerating social and economic inequalities ( Kundu and Gupta, 1996) which warrants social conflicts, crimes and anti-social activities. Lopsided and uncontrolled urbanization led to environmental degradation and degradation in the quality of urban life—-pollution in sound, air, water, created by disposal of hazardous waste. Illiterate, low- skill or no-skill migrants from rural areas are absorbed in poor low grade urban informal sector at a very low wage rate and urban informal sector becomes in-efficient and unproductive.

Ebola Virus Outbreak Of West Africa - 1592 Words

Imagine being isolated from your friends and family, suffering from an illness that feels as though something is burning through your body, while watching people around you dying of the same illness and wondering when it will be your turn to proverbially â€Å"kick the bucket†. For many survivors of the Ebola disease, this situation would be far too familiar. In March 2014, the Ebola virus outbreak began in West Africa, mainly in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. According to a recent figure from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been a total of 28616 Ebola cases and 11310 deaths from Ebola in these three countries (2014). There were many unpalatable symptoms of the disease, such as â€Å"fever, headache, joint and muscle pain, widespread bleeding, diarrhea and other physical symptoms leading to high mortality† (Van Bortel). If one is lucky enough to survive this virus, however, there are just as many negative results of the virus as ther e were symptoms. Many West African survivors have to deal with their new negative image, negative lasting health effects, or a decrease in financial stability due to their inability to work or find work after they recover. Now that the West African Ebola epidemic is over, (Liberia) there remains the task of assimilating the survivors back into their societies. Moreover, the best solution to counteract the effects of the Ebola virus on survivors is to expand upon the Ebola-survivor-support organizations already in place.Show MoreRelatedEbola Virus Disease ( Evd )820 Words   |  4 PagesEbola Virus Disease (EVD), formally known as Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever, which is a severe, often fatal illness in humans. This virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spread in human population through human transmission. The Ebola Virus Disease case rate is about 50% and they have varied from 25% to 90% in the past outbreaks. 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