Interoperable Search Mechanisms for Web 2.0 Resources

We are currently witnessing ordinary citizens willing to share geospatial information using friendly and easy-to use tools provided by Web 2.0 platforms. These platforms act as social networks describing events with large social impacts. Social networks are filled with volunteered information before, during, and after events that occur near human settlements and urban areas. The amount of this geolocated information is increasing due to the increase of location-aware devices that allow users in the field to share knowledge about an event’s evolution and impact. In order to retrieve this information one interacts with the different search mechanisms provided by various Web 2.0 services. This paper explores how to improve the interoperability of these various Web 2.0 platforms by providing a single service as a unique entry. This paper demonstrates the utility of the Open Geospatial Consortium’s Open Search Geospatial and Time specification as an interface for a service that searches, retrieves and aggregates information available in different Web 2.0 services. We present how this information is useful in complementing other official and scientific information sources by providing an alternative, contemporary source of information. We demonstrate this with a proof of concept presented in a forest fire scenario. The intrinsic interoperability of the system is reflected in the collaborations shown with different information systems such as those at the biodiversity and forestry units in the Institute of Environment and Sustainability at the Joint Research Centre

Citizen-based sensing of crisis events: sensor web enablement for volunteered geographic information

Thanks to recent convergence of greater access to broadband connections, the availability of Global Positioning Systems in small packages at affordable prices and more participative forms of interaction on the Web (Web 2.0), vast numbers of individuals became able to create and share Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). The potential of up to six billion persons to monitor the state of the environment, validate global models with local knowledge, contribute to crisis situations awareness, and provide information that only humans can capture is vast and has yet to be fully exploited. Integrating VGI into Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) is a major challenge, as it is often regarded as insufficiently structured, documented, or validated according to scientific standards. Early instances of SDIs used to have limited ability to manage and process geosensor-based data (beyond remotely sensed imagery), which tend to arrive in continuous streams of real-time information. The current works on standards for Sensor Web Enablement fill this gap. This paper shows how such standards can be applied to VGI, thus converting it in a timely, cost-effective and valuable source of information for SDIs. By doing so, we extend previous efforts describing a workflow for VGI integration into SDI and further advance an initial set of VGI Sensing and event detection techniques. Examples of how such VGI Sensing techniques can support crisis information system are provided. The presented approach serves central building blocks for a Digital Earth’s nervous system, which is required to develop the next generation of (geospatial) information infrastructures

Un sistema de Realidad Virtual distribuido basado en la gestión de recursos federados

The vast majority of distributed virtual environments use ad-hoc protocols to share resources and synchronize the interaction of multiple users on a shared virtual world. In this scenario, it is difficult to incorporate new interaction devices if they have not been taken into account from the beginning of the design of the virtual environment. This article shows how to manage virtual reality devices as federate resources in a virtual world using the standard architecture HLARTI. This approach has been used as a framework to build simulators for the training of operators in civil engineering.La gran mayoría de los entornos virtuales distribuidos utilizan protocolos ad-hoc para compartir recursos y sincronizar la interacción de varios usuarios sobre un mundo virtual común. En este escenario, es difícil incorporar nuevos dispositivos de interacción si desde el principio del diseño del entorno virtual no se han tenido en cuenta. En este artículo se muestra cómo gestionar dispositivos de Realidad Virtual como recursos federados en un mundo virtual utilizando la arquitectura estándar HLARTI. Esta aproximación se ha utilizado como marco de trabajo para construir simuladores para el entrenamiento de operarios en ingeniería civil

A virtual globe tool for searching and visualizing geo-referenced media resources in social networks

The current collaborative context and resource sharing that drives Web 2.0 is gaining importance within academia and industry, which is stimulating the development of new techniques for content retrieval, sharing and analysis over user-generated media content. This poses new challenges and research opportunities in spatial-based discovery media resources over varied sources, since location context is being increasingly supported in most of these social networks and services. In this paper, we present a virtual globe tool for searching and visualizing geo-referenced media resources. Our approach is based on the integration of search technologies, description languages for annotating collections of geo-referenced media resources and visualization techniques. The combination of these techniques is materialized in a virtual globe-based tool to facilitate searching and presentation of geo-referenced media resources available in different social networks.This work has been partially supported by the “España Virtual” project (ref. CENIT 2008-1030) through the Instituto Geográfico Nacional

Federate resource management in a Distributed Virtual Environment

Most Distributed Virtual Environments use ad hoc protocols to share resources and synchronize interaction over a common virtual world. In this scenario, it is difficult to use new virtual reality devices if they have not been taken into account since the beginning. This paper shows how to manage virtual reality devices as federate resources in a virtual world using the HLA-RTI standard architecture. This approach has been used as a framework to build simulators for training workers in civil engineering. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved