The designing of a collaborative decision support system with non-hierarchical systems of information flow
Jayewardene A.S.
Sri Lanka
Introduction to Hardware for Multimedia GIS
This project is to be a first step towards a more integrated spatial data infrastructure for the Knuckles in community outreach, research and education.
The most cost effective way to monitor and evaluate trends in the degradation of the habitats of the Knuckles region is to gather credible data through the schools of the area and have the universities collate the data into comprehensible marketing standards that are species specific, eventually networking a collective conversion to organic principles of agriculture.
The issues pertinent to conservation need to be discussed on the field so that remotely located farmers understand the importance of safeguarding a particular species not only for conservation’s sake but also for economic reasons as well.
The Knuckles Range is a threatened ecosystem that will benefit with the deployment of the next generation Geographic Information Systems (GIS) that promises to be out of the way, so that genuine stakeholder collaboration can take place under the guidance of environmental and ecological expertise from throughout the world. This approach leaves some hardware and financial issues to be thoroughly reviewed and the best long-term solutions sought.
Until SGI (Silicon Graphics, Inc) developed Visual Area Networking (VAN), one of the most powerful tools for increasing understanding and insight into difficult problems— advanced visualization—was not readily sharable. To share visual data for collaboration, either all collaborators had to travel to the same location or each collaborator had to have a local copy of the data set and access to a visualization system. Of course, having multiple copies of data increased the difficulty of ensuring data integrity, data security, and, in some cases, protection of intellectual property.
VAN is an operational concept whereby data, computing, and graphic resources are maintained in a single or a few logical locations and where resulting application control and visualizations are streamed between end-user client devices using existing network infrastructures. Its purpose is to increase collaboration among groups and to accelerate workflows in current technical environments.
The objective of Peoples Participation in Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) has led to the resolution of many usually intractable land use and land management issues elsewhere in the world.
Large data sets create requirements to present results in a form that can be easily understood, manipulated and visualized by scientists, providing a mechanism to match the performance of the computer with the performance of the human mind.
VAN allows virtually any desktop, laptop, or wireless system to access increased capabilities so users receive the benefits without leaving their current locations. This increases the impact of domain experts by allowing them to work with multiple remote teams during a single day. Shared visualization becomes part of a user’s standard environment. As a result, users are free to focus on creativity and insight in a collaborative setting rather than on the technical details of computing, visualization, and data management. VAN provides an immediate increase in problem-solving capabilities available to any user, anywhere, and at any time.
WHY ?
MODELS FOR MAKING GIS AVAILABLE TO COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS:
DIMENSIONS OF DIFFERENCE AND APPROPRIATENESS
Helga Leitner*,Robert McMaster*,Sarah Elwood*,Susanna McMaster**,Eric Sheppard*
*Department of Geography-University of Minnesota
**Department of Geography-Macalester College
Paper presented to the NCGIA specialist meeting on Empowerment, Marginalization and
GIS, Santa Barbara CA, October 1998.
http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/varenius/ppgis/papers/leitner.pdf
Empowerment, Marginalization, and Public Participation in Community-Based Biodiversity Conservation: Mexican and Canadian case studies of spatial information management.Thomas C. Meredith, Department of Geography-McGill University, Montreal, Canada
http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/varenius/ppgis/papers/meredith.html
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