Cruising the geoweb

 

Easing back into the workaday world after vacation is never easy, so here’s a good idea: spend a little time cruising the geoweb.

It’s interesting and – because the geoweb is where the Internet is heading – it even qualifies as a work-related activity.

The term “geoweb” refers to the incorporation of geographical or location-based information into the standard Web we know and love. The value add is that information or places can be searched, referenced and categorized based on location instead of just by keyword, as we do today.

This promises to revolutionize just about any use of the Internet and computing in general, including city planning, disaster relief, retail operations, navigation, gaming and which restaurant you take that date to next weekend.

“There isn’t a business today which would not have a Web site. It will be the same for [Geographic Information Systems],” said Ron Lake, a geospatial expert and the inventor of the Geography Markup Language.

If you want to see this in real-world use, here are a few suggestions.

District of North Vancouver GIS 
Click on Property Information Explorer and then enter a house address to view detailed satellite images and information on property type, lease status, the build date, lot size, and even scanned engineering drawings.

If you don’t know an address in the area, try 3045 Highland Blvd. It’s a library.

This type of functionality is useful for anyone planning a purchase, but it’s not exactly a barrel of monkeys. For a more fun idea, try:

Microsoft Live Search Maps
This requires the install of a small application, but once that’s done you can look up maps and other standard information or, under the Explore Canada banner, take a virtual tour of some of this country’s greatest locations. Destinations include the CN Tower, Niagara Falls, Banff, Whistler and the Pengrowth Saddledome.

Whistler is a little disappointing, with blurry images and not much else. However, the views of Niagara Falls are spectacular. Play around with the 2D Aerial map and then switch to 3D and finally to Bird’s Eye.

Microsoft Virtual Earth
This is GIS for the business folks, with Microsoft saying retailers are using Virtual Earth to: reach customers on the Web and drive them to store locations; engage shoppers by enabling social networking and posting product reviews; and gain insight by showing how stores are performing by location and region.

It would probably be more accurate to say that retailers “will” do these things someday soon, but in any case the potential is clear.

City8
This site provides fascinating interactive street-level views of Chinese cities including – as far as I can gather – Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Jinan and Wenzhou. The site is in Mandarin but if you speak the language you can browse by restaurants, tourist spots, shopping, etc.

Clicking on the four-way arrow icon enables full-screen mode.

WorldWind
A free open-source virtual globe, developed by NASA, WorldWind uses NASA and US Geological Survey satellite imagery, aerial photography, topographic maps and GIS data to model the Earth and other planets.

Google Earth
Google Earth offers gorgeous visuals but it also does a particularly good job of incorporating the data aspect of the geoweb through featured views such as the UNESCO sites of Germany and Alaska's Juneau Icefield research.

Google is also reportedly working on Google Ocean, an interactive 3D map of the world’s bathymetry (underwater topography).

For a good geoweb overview, there’s a nifty video here.

Peter Wolchak
Backbone magazine   

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