Big Data – a step change for SDI?

Abstract

The globally hyped notion of Big Data has increasingly influenced scientific and technical debates about the handling and management of geospatial information. Accordingly, we see a need to recall what has happened over the past years, to present the recent Big Data landscape from an infrastructural perspective and to outline the major implications for the SDI community. We primarily conclude that it would be too simple and naïve to consider only the technological aspects that are underpinning geospatial (web) services. Instead, we request SDI researchers, engineers, providers and consumers to develop new methodologies and capacities for dealing with (geo)spatial information as part of broader knowledge infrastructures