thesis defense1

Public Commons for Geospatial Data:

A Conceptual ModelA Thesis Defense by

Narnindi Sharad

Advisory Committee:

Dr. Harlan J. OnsrudDr.Kate Beard

Dr. Anthony Stefanidis

Overview

Introduction Objectives of Public Commons Model Conceptual Design of Public Commons Operational Aspects of Public Commons Demo Conclusions Future Work

Introduction

National level spatial data collection efforts – In many cases similar or duplicative.

FGDC, NSDI, Geospatial One-Stop – facilitate the availability and access to spatial data to all levels of government, private and public.

Key Premise – National governments are unable to gather and maintain geographic data.

SPATIAL DATA SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURESINFRASTRUCTURES

Local Local GovernmentsGovernments

Regional Regional agenciesagencies

Universities & Universities & ResearchersResearchers

Non-profit Non-profit organizationsorganizations

Federal Federal AgenciesAgencies

Commercial sectorCommercial sector

Introduction

Introduction

Common Wisdom – Intellectual Property laws and the markets they protect create the environment for producing and sharing.

Profit Motivations Credit and recognition

As individuals, Most of our conduct in daily life is not driven by profit motives.

What are the impediments to widespread data-sharing?

ObjectivesMany creators have indicated they would be more than

willing to share their spatial data sets with SDI’s or geo-libraries, if-

it was easier to do,

Efficient Search and Data access mechanisms Interactive Web Interfaces Minimized Metadata Transcripts Upload Mechanisms

ObjectivesMany creators have indicated they would be more than

willing to share their spatial data sets with SDI’s or geo-libraries, if-

they can retain credit and recognition for their contributions,

Visible Credit in their works and also derivatives Linking Author information to the datasets Multiple contributions – maintaining hierarchy of contributors

ObjectivesMany creators have indicated they would be more than

willing to share their spatial data sets with SDI’s or geo-libraries, if-

they get increased liability protection from use of the data they make available to the public, and

Open Access LicensingDisplay Liability information and Disclaimer upfront

ObjectivesMany creators have indicated they would be more than

willing to share their spatial data sets with SDI’s or geo-libraries, if-

they could obtain other non-monetary benefits.

Permanent Archival servicesTagging and Identification servicesIncreased search and retrieval capabilitiesIncreased visibility for contributions

ObjectivesMany creators have indicated they would be more than

willing to share their spatial data sets with SDI’s or geo-libraries, if-

it was easier to do, they can retain credit and recognition for their

contributions, they get increased liability protection from use of the data

they make available to the public, and they could obtain other non-monetary benefits.

Conceptual Design of Public Commons

Combined technological & legal model for at least partially accommodating these impediments.

Enable and entice Non-Expert GIS user contributions (University researchers, students, professionals in other fields).

Archiving services – indexing, access and search mechanisms.

One-Stop approach (upload and download of datasets at single location)

Develop technical methods which can support previously discussed objectives.

GIS data producer enters metadata for his dataset at Public Commons website

Submits GIS data to SFIPCA

Data producer creates a GIS dataset

SFIPCA

Use Steganography for embedding an Identifying number

Generate machine readable Open access licenses

Centralized GIS data server

Store GIS data distrubed by bounding coordinates

Data indexing &Search Mechanisms

Conceptual Design of Public Commons

Advanced User-Friendly Web-Interface - metadata creation and data upload mechanisms

Open Access/ Copyleft licensing approach - enable credit recognition and free distribution

Enhanced Metadata Model - allow indexing, rapid access and search of data

Embedding Copyright Information into the data - enable identification and documenting contributor lineage

Conceptual Design of Public Commons

Public Commons for Geo-Spatial data

What is Public Commons?

Online Digital GeoSpatial library-like data repository

Napster-like data-sharing facility that

automatically supports user friendly metadata creation, open access licenses, and documents parent lineage of any newly submitted data set.

Advanced User-Friendly Web-Interface - metadata creation and data upload mechanisms

Pull down Menus for Metadata fields Intelligent from previous responses and saved profiles Upload datasets directly from folders Minimized web transcripts

Conceptual Design of Public Commons

Metadata Elements File reference ID Details of the originator Title of the content Presentation form Abstract or Extensive information Time period of the content Status of the work? Information about maintenance work. Spatial Extent Info [ North, East, West, South bounding Coordinates or

interactive map ] Data Theme Info Keywords for the content and place of work Spatial Data Info:(1) Data type: Raster / Vector (2) Data format . Access Constraints: Use Constraints: Open Access Licensing Liability Information

Comparison of Metadata Templates

Metadata Templates of Organizations

Number of MandatoryMetadata elements (approx.)

FGDC CSDGM 165

NOAA 86

FGDC Metadata Lite 41

Geography Network 35

Public Commons 23

Open Access/ Copyleft licensing approach - enable credit recognition and free distribution

Guard against liability exposure Linking Liability information to the

datasets as a part of the metadata creation process.

Conceptual Design of Public Commons

Open Access Licensing (OAL)PUBLIC COMMONS OPEN ACCESS COPYRIGHT NOTICE

This copyrighted work permits unrestricted redistribution and modification of a work, provided that all copies and derivatives retain

the same permission and the author is properly acknowledged and cited.

Not conforming to any of these conditions will be considered a violation of this Copyright and are punishable by Law.

This work is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT

ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

View Full License

Advantages of OAL

liability exposure may be substantially reduced through the license provisions,

the originator and all value-adders have a legally enforceable right to credit for their work,

the license can prevent the efforts of the originator and value-adders from being captured by a company with a large market share or otherwise being removed from an open sharing arrangement, and

Commons Identification software - can provide instant access to the detailed licensing language through an Internet link.

Enhanced Metadata Model

- allows rapid indexing, access and search of data

Metadata search models Alexandria Digital Library Approach Data Clearinghouse Approach Public Commons Hierarchical approach

Public Commons for Geo-Spatial data

Alexandria Digital Library Approach

MetadataDatabase

GIS Web user

Digital Library Web Client

Query: Spatial LocationCentralized

FGDC Data Clearinghouse approach

MetadataDatabase

Alaska GDC ESRIClearinghouse

NOAAClearinghouse

NRCSClearinghouse

FGDC Entry PointZ39.50 Gateway

GIS Web user

MetadataDatabase

MetadataDatabase

MetadataDatabase

Query: MaineDecentralized &Distributed

Search Results for Clearinghouse Approach

Disadvantages

FGDC places all distributed clearing nodes on the same level without any classification.

the results of a metadata query are retrieved by individual clearing house servers and not an integrated list ranked by their suitability of content.

duplicate metadata records - data suppliers register with many clearinghouses.

Too many results – too much to evaluate. Too many clearinghouses - too much confusions.

Query: Spatial Location

Roads Metadata

LandParcel

Census Roads Metadata

LandParcel

Census

GIS Web user

Digital Library Web Client

boundary info(N E W S Coor)

boundary info(N E W S Coor)

boundary info(N E W S Coor)

Roads Metadata

LandParcel

Census

Query: Theme

Prioritized Search Results

Public Commons Metadata Model

Centralized by Themes &Distributed by Location

60 W120 W30 N

60 N57 54

63 66

Hierarchical Metadata Search

Advantages of Public Commons Metadata Search Approach

Meaningful Metadata archive structure. Enhanced search mechanism. Duplicate metadata registrations can be eliminated on

multiple server locations. each lower level metadata repository can function

independently while sharing the same database with the upper level.

Results sent back for a query are listed by their ranks.

Embedding Copyright Information into the data - enable identification and documenting contributor lineage

Attaching an Identification Number to Standard GIS format files Using Steganography for raster and vector datasets Embedding an ID in polygonal sides of vector datasets

Spatial File Identification System (SFIPCA) Link author information and open access licenses Link Metadata Document parent lineage Permanently mark information directly into the dataset

Conceptual Design of Public Commons

Raster Images - Steganography encoding extra info into least

significant bits of raster images.

Hide text as well as Small Images in raster datasets (JPG, GIF, DRG’s TIFF etc).

Combined with cryptography makes even tough for code breakers.

Limited solutions exist for raster datasets (e.g. Invisible Secrets, DigiMarc)

Embedding ID into header of datasets

Tagging Vector Spatial datasets Hand Writing Technique [Bill Theon’s Vector Steganography, Directions Magazine]

Tagging Vector Spatial datasets Embedding Technique [Bill Theon’s Vector Steganography, Directions Magazine]

0

1

00

0

00

0

00

1

Reference Length (rl)

> rl – 1< rl – 0

Spatial dataset of Road network

AA101234AA101234AA101235AA101235

Maine water

Penobscot water

Harlan Onsrud

SharadSpatial dataset contributed to

SFIPCA

The identification number is extracted from the dataset and checked for a match in a database that is placed at a remote location on the Internet.

A database of linked machine readable licensed to patrons

A database of metadata placed at a centralized location

A database of identifier numbers

SFIPCA Controlled Databases

Identification & Verification

Operational Aspects of Public Commons

Operational Aspects of Public Commons

Spatial File Identification System

Demo Demo

Demo

Demonstrating the metadata access mechanism, contributor hierarchy etc.

Demo

Demo Demo

Conclusions Identifier system need not be fool proof since goal is to provide

evidence that a file is in public commons rather than in private ownership.

Little incentive to strip unobtrusive ID’s since everyone can use file for free anyway.

Only potential thief tempted to strip ID’s might be business trying to capture past contributions of others…. Yet similar earlier files would exist in archives…. And 90% credit is good enough.

Greatest challenge is to counter unintentional stripping of ID’s.

Conclusions

Public DomainGIS Data

Federal GovernmentGIS data Commercial

GISData

Value-added products&

Services

Upon Copyright expiration

Share-a-likePublic Commons

+

Growing and evolving resource of public domain and public commons licensed spatial datasets

continuous loopof growth in GIS data

Conclusions

Public DomainGIS Data

Federal GovernmentGIS data Commercial

GISData

Value-added products&

Services

Upon Copyright expiration

Share-a-likePublic Commons

+

Growing and evolving resource of public domain and public commons licensed spatial datasets

continuous loopof growth in GIS data

ConclusionsWould the Tens of thousands of individuals

creating GIS datasets make use of such capabilities to make their datasets available with others?

Our Hypothesis: YES

Future Work

Integrated search mechanisms based on spatial location and ontologies?

Provide further software tools at one place such that people can produce maps on their own.

Investigate Geospatial One-Stop Internet Portal architecture relative to Public Commons.

How can we accommodate people who would like to share databases?

Alternatives to steganographic techniques to embed extra information.

Alternative search and access mechanisms.

Thank You

Questions