geocoding news at the source
TRANSCRIPT
Geocoding news at the sourceGerd Kamp
dpa-infocom GmbH
© 2008 Gerd Kamp 2
Overview
Motivation
# News always happen in a spatio-temporal context
# you want to attach that context as metadata to the news
# The illustration of news via maps is common practice since ages
# but typically different from putting pins into maps
Current Status
# started evangelizing within dpa in Q2/06
# geocoding our regional wires since 11/07
# geocoding places of stories as well as places in stories
# manual process
# with support systems integrated into the editorial systems
© 2008 Gerd Kamp
Locations of news stories / Semantics (current status)
A scope of a news story
# is a geoname that is part of a (official administrative) hierarchical partition of a defined geographic extent,
# representing the largest area wrt. the above hierarchy where this story is deemed relevant (by an editor)
A variant of scopes are legal scopes
Assigning geographic areas of relevance is something editors have been doing for ages
# National wire vs. regional wire
# Front section vs. local section
3
© 2008 Gerd Kamp
Locations of news stories / Semantics (current status)
A locus of a news story
# is a geoname that is part of a set of geonames for a defined geographic extent
# representing the smallest area wrt. the above set where (the) events of this story are happening / have happened / are going to happen
A place of production of a news story
# is either a geoname or address or lat/lon
4
© 2008 Gerd Kamp
Location within news
A location in a (news) story is a location directly or indirectly mentioned in the news story itself
# typically not geographic names but rather addresses, street segments, blocks, or POIs
# not all geographic entities are necessarily identified# relevance# ranking
5
© 2008 Gerd Kamp
Geonames
A geographic name
# is a name applied to a geographic feature. It is the proper name, specific term, or expression by which a particular geographic entity is, or was, known. A geographic entity is any relatively permanent part of the natural or manmade landscape or seascape that has recognizable identity within a particular cultural context.
# A geographic name, then, may refer to any place, feature, or area on the Earth's surface, or to a related group of similar places, features, or areas.
# Typically there are national bodies defining geonames
# U.S. Board for Geographic Names
# Ständiger Ausschuss für Geographische Namen
# New players are entering the game (e.g. Geonames, YahooLocation Platform)
6
© 2008 Gerd Kamp
Hierarchical partition (current draft definition)
A hierarchical partition of scopes of a geographic extent e is a directed acyclic graph (DAG) with the following properties:
# There is a single source s_top (the top level scope) with a geographic extent being coterminous with the geographic extent (using coterminous as having matching boundaries interpretation
# every scope has a property denoting its level in the hierarchy with the top level scope having the level 1
# for any given point p in e there is at least one corresponding scope s_point at some level in the DAG
# for every scope that has more than one successor the geographic extent of set of successors is coterminous with the geographic extent of this scope
# for every scope that has more than one predecessor the geographic extent of set of predecessors is coterminous with the geographic extent of this scope
7
© 2008 Gerd Kamp
Example
A story about legislation in a state is assigned a statewide scope (although the dateline is the state capitol)
8
© 2008 Gerd Kamp
Example
A story about an accident within A with a driver coming from B
9
© 2008 Gerd Kamp
Example (News Industry Text Format - NITF)
<nitf xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss"><head><title>Bayern München II schlägt Karlsruhe 3:1</title><location class="scope"><region region-code="09184000" code-source="AGS">München <georss:point>11.5725580365 48.1379548096</georss:point></region><state state-code="09000000" code-source="AGS">Bayern <georss:point>11.5725580365 48.1379548096</georss:point></state><country iso-cc="DEU">Deutschland</country></location><location class="scope"><city city-code="09162000" code-source="AGS">München <georss:point>11.5725580365 48.1379548096</georss:point></city><state state-code="09000000" code-source="AGS">Bayern <georss:point>11.5725580365 48.1379548096</georss:point></state><country iso-cc="DEU">Deutschland</country></location><location class="scope"><city city-code="08212000" code-source="AGS">Karlsruhe <georss:point>8.40437796821 49.0092142029</georss:point></city><state state-code="08000000" code-source="AGS">Baden-Württemberg <georss:point>9.17871582656 48.7750805322</georss:point></state><country iso-cc="DEU">Deutschland</country>
10
© 2008 Gerd Kamp
Example NITF (cont‘d)
<location class="address"> Grünwalder Stadion, Grünwalder Straße, München, Germany <georss:point>11.566936 48.101078</georss:point><city>München</city><region>München</region><state>Bayern</state><country iso-cc="DEU">Deutschland</country></location>
11
© 2008 Gerd Kamp
Next steps / To Do
Gathering feedback
Evangelizing within main stream media organizations
How to represent best in GeoRSS , KML, ...
# multiple locations
# locations of different types and classes
Working toward a generally available ontology of geonames / a framework for describing ontology
Investigatiing connections to /applications from
# computational geometry
# qualitative spatial reasoning
to geoname based graphs / ontologies
12
© 2008 Gerd Kamp
More Info
http://relations.ka2.de/tag/goingplaces
13