The language of location and location data
As Oasis never said, some might say that R (and/or python) is the language of geospatial, or at least languages for geospatial scripting, applications, data processing, analysis and modelling.
But to misquote Chris Tarrant, well Quiz has been on, I don't want to give you that.
Instead, in these harrowing times, what is the language that both goes to the very heart of the world of 'geographic information' and effectively engages the widest audience. The AGI bears that name and over 30 years we (am currently Vice Chair myself) have borne witness to the challenge our own nomenclature, our own domain, represents whilst simultaneously proclaiming that "everything happens somewhere".
it does, even out there
This post is in part rooted in that history and posits that finding a common argot with which to talk about that "somewhere", that location - location data, location analysis, location intelligence and its manifestation, typically in visualisations that show change and difference and enable comparison across space and time - is vital. Vital for understanding, vital for collaborating, vital for sharing, vital for communicating.
Just as we were collectively coming to a point as a community where we acknowledged this (again) 2 years ago, who should blind-side us (and a lot of other people) but UK Govt, with the launch of the Geospatial Commission! Here was a word we'd actively been shying away from suddenly front and centre of the community if not the wider conversation. It is in that wider conversation that the language of geospatial needs to resonate and connect.
The increasing prominence of the climate emergency and the rise and ruin wrought by COVID-19 are so self-evidently spatial challenges on a global scale that a common language is essential to coherent messaging, questioning, policy making, planning and delivery, monitoring and assessment. The media, NGOs, international organisations, policy makers, supply chains, the BERTHA sectors (bookings, entertainment, retail and restaurant, travel, hospitality and accommodation - OK so I made it up having seen a variant BEACH) urgently need a mechanism to frame the conversation, an identity that connects with the widest possible audience.
Thanks to 15 years of Google Maps amongst others, our own location has become a feature of our individual identities. This makes the idea of location a pretty easy one to both grasp and by which to channel messaging and communications. That doesn't mean, in the short term at least, that policy makers will any better understand the global nature of supply chains, transport networks etc or even the basis for data collection and analysis aka (census (and related) geographies). It will also mean that terms like location tracking will be used when of course it is the person or asset that is being tracked by its location but we will all know (and possibly worry about) what it means. A quick foray through posts on this blog speak to my own interest in location and the surveillance state, a separate, larger topic for another time.
World Standards Day (yes, there is one) 2020 is themed Protecting the Planet with Standards. In 2015 the theme was The World's Common Language. Don't expect to see "location data" become a de jure standard any time soon (or ever), but perhaps there is just a chance that we can all, old skool GIS specialists, EO analysts, AI/data science communities, BIM practitioners, statisticians, economists, industry and yes even the political classes, gather round location and location data as the de facto mechanisms for understanding our planet, our place and our impact on it.
But to misquote Chris Tarrant, well Quiz has been on, I don't want to give you that.
Instead, in these harrowing times, what is the language that both goes to the very heart of the world of 'geographic information' and effectively engages the widest audience. The AGI bears that name and over 30 years we (am currently Vice Chair myself) have borne witness to the challenge our own nomenclature, our own domain, represents whilst simultaneously proclaiming that "everything happens somewhere".
it does, even out there
This post is in part rooted in that history and posits that finding a common argot with which to talk about that "somewhere", that location - location data, location analysis, location intelligence and its manifestation, typically in visualisations that show change and difference and enable comparison across space and time - is vital. Vital for understanding, vital for collaborating, vital for sharing, vital for communicating.
Just as we were collectively coming to a point as a community where we acknowledged this (again) 2 years ago, who should blind-side us (and a lot of other people) but UK Govt, with the launch of the Geospatial Commission! Here was a word we'd actively been shying away from suddenly front and centre of the community if not the wider conversation. It is in that wider conversation that the language of geospatial needs to resonate and connect.
The increasing prominence of the climate emergency and the rise and ruin wrought by COVID-19 are so self-evidently spatial challenges on a global scale that a common language is essential to coherent messaging, questioning, policy making, planning and delivery, monitoring and assessment. The media, NGOs, international organisations, policy makers, supply chains, the BERTHA sectors (bookings, entertainment, retail and restaurant, travel, hospitality and accommodation - OK so I made it up having seen a variant BEACH) urgently need a mechanism to frame the conversation, an identity that connects with the widest possible audience.
Thanks to 15 years of Google Maps amongst others, our own location has become a feature of our individual identities. This makes the idea of location a pretty easy one to both grasp and by which to channel messaging and communications. That doesn't mean, in the short term at least, that policy makers will any better understand the global nature of supply chains, transport networks etc or even the basis for data collection and analysis aka (census (and related) geographies). It will also mean that terms like location tracking will be used when of course it is the person or asset that is being tracked by its location but we will all know (and possibly worry about) what it means. A quick foray through posts on this blog speak to my own interest in location and the surveillance state, a separate, larger topic for another time.
World Standards Day (yes, there is one) 2020 is themed Protecting the Planet with Standards. In 2015 the theme was The World's Common Language. Don't expect to see "location data" become a de jure standard any time soon (or ever), but perhaps there is just a chance that we can all, old skool GIS specialists, EO analysts, AI/data science communities, BIM practitioners, statisticians, economists, industry and yes even the political classes, gather round location and location data as the de facto mechanisms for understanding our planet, our place and our impact on it.
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