GEO Label Web Services for Dynamic and Effective Communication of Geospatial Metadata Quality

We present demonstrations of the GEO label Web services and their integration into a prototype extension of the GEOSS portal (http://scgeoviqua.sapienzaconsulting.com/web/guest/geo_home), the GMU portal (http://gis.csiss.gmu.edu/GADMFS/) and a GeoNetwork catalog application (http://uncertdata.aston.ac.uk:8080/geonetwork/srv/eng/main.home). The GEO label is designed to communicate, and facilitate interrogation of, geospatial quality information with a view to supporting efficient and effective dataset selection on the basis of quality, trustworthiness and fitness for use. The GEO label which we propose was developed and evaluated according to a user-centred design (UCD) approach in order to maximise the likelihood of user acceptance once deployed. The resulting label is dynamically generated from producer metadata in ISO or FDGC format, and incorporates user feedback on dataset usage, ratings and discovered issues, in order to supply a highly informative summary of metadata completeness and quality. The label was easily incorporated into a community portal as part of the GEO Architecture Implementation Programme (AIP-6) and has been successfully integrated into a prototype extension of the GEOSS portal, as well as the popular metadata catalog and editor, GeoNetwork. The design of the GEO label was based on 4 user studies conducted to: (1) elicit initial user requirements; (2) investigate initial user views on the concept of a GEO label and its potential role; (3) evaluate prototype label visualizations; and (4) evaluate and validate physical GEO label prototypes. The results of these studies indicated that users and producers support the concept of a label with drill-down interrogation facility, combining eight geospatial data informational aspects, namely: producer profile, producer comments, lineage information, standards compliance, quality information, user feedback, expert reviews, and citations information. These are delivered as eight facets of a wheel-like label, which are coloured according to metadata availability and are clickable to allow a user to engage with the original metadata and explore specific aspects in more detail. To support this graphical representation and allow for wider deployment architectures we have implemented two Web services, a PHP and a Java implementation, that generate GEO label representations by combining producer metadata (from standard catalogues or other published locations) with structured user feedback. Both services accept encoded URLs of publicly available metadata documents or metadata XML files as HTTP POST and GET requests and apply XPath and XSLT mappings to transform producer and feedback XML documents into clickable SVG GEO label representations. The label and services are underpinned by two XML-based quality models. The first is a producer model that extends ISO 19115 and 19157 to allow fuller citation of reference data, presentation of pixel- and dataset- level statistical quality information, and encoding of 'traceability' information on the lineage of an actual quality assessment. The second is a user quality model (realised as a feedback server and client) which allows reporting and query of ratings, usage reports, citations, comments and other domain knowledge. Both services are Open Source and are available on GitHub at https://github.com/lushv/geolabel-service and https://github.com/52North/GEO-label-java. The functionality of these services can be tested using our GEO label generation demos, available online at http://www.geolabel.net/demo.html and http://geoviqua.dev.52north.org/glbservice/index.jsf

What Difference Do Guidelines Make? An Observational Study of Online-Questionnaire Design Guidelines Put to Practical Use

As a new medium for questionnaire delivery, the internet has the potential to revolutionize the survey process. Online-questionnaires can provide many capabilities not found in traditional paper-based questionnaires. Despite this, and the introduction of a plethora of tools to support online-questionnaire creation, current electronic survey design typically replicates the look-and-feel of paper-based questionnaires, thus failing to harness the full power of the electronic delivery medium. A recent environmental scan of online-questionnaire design tools found that little, if any, support is incorporated within these tools to guide questionnaire designers according to best-practice (Lumsden and Morgan, 2005). This paper briefly introduces a comprehensive set of guidelines for the design of online-questionnaires. Drawn from relevant disparate sources, all the guidelines incorporated within the set are proven in their own right; as an initial assessment of the value of the set of guidelines as a practical reference guide, we undertook an informal study to observe the effect of introducing the guidelines into the design process of a complex online-questionnaire. The paper discusses the qualitative findings - which are encouraging for the role of the guidelines in the \u201cbigger picture\u201d of online survey delivery across many domains such as e-Government, e-Business, and e-Health - of this case study.\uc0 titre de nouveau m\ue9dium en mati\ue8re de pr\ue9sentation des questionnaires, Internet a la capacit\ue9 de r\ue9volutionner le processus de r\ue9alisation des sondages. Les questionnaires en ligne peuvent offrir de nombreuses fonctionnalit\ue9s que l'on ne retrouve pas dans les questionnaires imprim\ue9s traditionnels. Malgr\ue9 cela et nonobstant la mise en place d'une multitude d'outils appuyant la cr\ue9ation de questionnaires en ligne, la conception actuelle des sondages \ue9lectroniques reproduit, de mani\ue8re g\ue9n\ue9rale, la richesse fonctionnelle des questionnaires traditionnels imprim\ue9s, omettant ainsi de tirer le meilleur parti possible du support d'ex\ue9cution \ue9lectronique. Une r\ue9cente analyse de la conjoncture des outils de conception des questionnaires en ligne en est venue \ue0 la conclusion que ces outils int\ue9graient tr\ue8s peu de m\ue9canismes de soutien, voire aucun de ceux-ci, pour orienter les concepteurs des questionnaires en tenant compte des pratiques exemplaires (Lumsden et Morgan, 2005). Le pr\ue9sent article pr\ue9sente bri\ue8vement un ensemble exhaustif de lignes directrices applicables \ue0 la conception des questionnaires en ligne. Tir\ue9es de sources pertinentes distinctes, toutes les lignes directrices int\ue9gr\ue9es \ue0 cet ensemble ont individuellement fait leurs preuves. En guise d'\ue9valuation initiale de la valeur de cet ensemble de lignes directrices \ue0 titre de guide de r\ue9f\ue9rence pratique, nous avons r\ue9alis\ue9 une \ue9tude informelle visant \ue0 observer les r\ue9percussions de l'application des lignes directrices au processus de conception d'un questionnaire en ligne complexe. L'article commente les conclusions qualitatives, lesquelles sont encourageantes s'agissant du r\uf4le des lignes directrices dans le \uab\ua0contexte plus g\ue9n\ue9ral\ua0\ubb de l'ex\ue9cution de sondages en ligne, dans de nombreux domaines tels que le gouvernement \ue9lectronique, le commerce \ue9lectronique ainsi que les soins de sant\ue9 en ligne, de la pr\ue9sente \ue9tude de cas.NRC publication: Ye

What Difference Do Guidelines Make? An Observational Study of Online-Questionnaire Design Guidelines Put to Practical Use

As a new medium for questionnaire delivery, the internet has the potential to revolutionize the survey process. Online-questionnaires can provide many capabilities not found in traditional paper-based questionnaires. Despite this, and the introduction of a plethora of tools to support online-questionnaire creation, current electronic survey design typically replicates the look-and-feel of paper-based questionnaires, thus failing to harness the full power of the electronic delivery medium. A recent environmental scan of online-questionnaire design tools found that little, if any, support is incorporated within these tools to guide questionnaire designers according to best-practice (Lumsden and Morgan, 2005). This paper briefly introduces a comprehensive set of guidelines for the design of online-questionnaires. Drawn from relevant disparate sources, all the guidelines incorporated within the set are proven in their own right; as an initial assessment of the value of the set of guidelines as a practical reference guide, we undertook an informal study to observe the effect of introducing the guidelines into the design process of a complex online-questionnaire. The paper discusses the qualitative findings - which are encouraging for the role of the guidelines in the \u201cbigger picture\u201d of online survey delivery across many domains such as e-Government, e-Business, and e-Health - of this case study.\uc0 titre de nouveau m\ue9dium en mati\ue8re de pr\ue9sentation des questionnaires, Internet a la capacit\ue9 de r\ue9volutionner le processus de r\ue9alisation des sondages. Les questionnaires en ligne peuvent offrir de nombreuses fonctionnalit\ue9s que l'on ne retrouve pas dans les questionnaires imprim\ue9s traditionnels. Malgr\ue9 cela et nonobstant la mise en place d'une multitude d'outils appuyant la cr\ue9ation de questionnaires en ligne, la conception actuelle des sondages \ue9lectroniques reproduit, de mani\ue8re g\ue9n\ue9rale, la richesse fonctionnelle des questionnaires traditionnels imprim\ue9s, omettant ainsi de tirer le meilleur parti possible du support d'ex\ue9cution \ue9lectronique. Une r\ue9cente analyse de la conjoncture des outils de conception des questionnaires en ligne en est venue \ue0 la conclusion que ces outils int\ue9graient tr\ue8s peu de m\ue9canismes de soutien, voire aucun de ceux-ci, pour orienter les concepteurs des questionnaires en tenant compte des pratiques exemplaires (Lumsden et Morgan, 2005). Le pr\ue9sent article pr\ue9sente bri\ue8vement un ensemble exhaustif de lignes directrices applicables \ue0 la conception des questionnaires en ligne. Tir\ue9es de sources pertinentes distinctes, toutes les lignes directrices int\ue9gr\ue9es \ue0 cet ensemble ont individuellement fait leurs preuves. En guise d'\ue9valuation initiale de la valeur de cet ensemble de lignes directrices \ue0 titre de guide de r\ue9f\ue9rence pratique, nous avons r\ue9alis\ue9 une \ue9tude informelle visant \ue0 observer les r\ue9percussions de l'application des lignes directrices au processus de conception d'un questionnaire en ligne complexe. L'article commente les conclusions qualitatives, lesquelles sont encourageantes s'agissant du r\uf4le des lignes directrices dans le \uab\ua0contexte plus g\ue9n\ue9ral\ua0\ubb de l'ex\ue9cution de sondages en ligne, dans de nombreux domaines tels que le gouvernement \ue9lectronique, le commerce \ue9lectronique ainsi que les soins de sant\ue9 en ligne, de la pr\ue9sente \ue9tude de cas.NRC publication: Ye