[GSDI Legal Socioecon] Users as essential contributors to spatial cyberinfrastructures

[Francis Harvey]

Isn't that getting into the specializations of consultants? 

But that could be part of an SME orientated project with academics on board for the other parts, no?

Francis 

On 12 Dec 2011, at 15:31, Roger Longhorn wrote:

> Even more useful to some of us - the non-academics who have to deal with governments to try to get SDIs implemented! - would be a study that related 'understanding of usage (what are the best terms and terminology) that secures SDI implementation funding'! I know an awful lot of people in different government bodies around the EU who would be interested in that one!
> 
> :>)
> 
> Roger
> ral at alum.mit.edu
> 
> On 12/12/2011 21:47, Francis Harvey wrote:
>> I believe the semantic field associated with cyberinfrastructure mainly marks academic and research domains' usage, in contrast to the other terms (Roger's list) that circulate, often fulsomely, more in government and private sectors.
>> 
>> This exchange turns to the central question of the names we use and who we speak too. An interesting research project would be to analyze terminological usage and map it in time and space. Even more interesting would be to relate usage to research awards and contracts.
>> 
>> Best,
>> Francis
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On 12 Dec 2011, at 14:30, Yola Georgiadou wrote:
>> 
>>> Roger, thanks for the as always thoughtful comments.
>>> 
>>> It is intriguing that after 20 years we have not stabilized to one term, instead we still have GII, SII, SDI, GDI etc.On the contrary, the term GIS has never been contested. Why? I don't know.
>>> 
>>> What I think is cool about mainstreaming ourselves into the cyberinfrastructure discourse, is first, that we avoid the data/information/knowledge conundrum and retain the spatial as a qualifier for cyberinfrastructure. They are BULL we are REDBULL, and that is easy to remember for all parties. Second, cyberinfrastructures are about science and not government. We as scientists have implicit and tacit knowledge of science, we have always been science's producers and users, and thus may be more successful in understanding/modelling/designing cyberinfrastructures, than SDIs which are government infrastructures and have logics and dynamics that are different to science's logics and dynamics.
>>> 
>>> Regards
>>> Yola
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Roger Longhorn [mailto:ral at alum.mit.edu]
>>> Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 1:41 PM
>>> To: Yola Georgiadou
>>> Cc: SDI-legal-socioecon
>>> Subject: Re: [GSDI Legal Socioecon] Users as essential contributors to spatial cyberinfrastructures
>>> 
>>> Hi Yola,
>>> 
>>> Yes, perhaps a clever move for the research community - but having dealt with government officials in an EU member state (not to be named!) in the past week, they still focus on either "geographic information infrastructure (GII)" (remember that!) or "geospatial data infrastructure (GDI)" (and that?) and maybe (still not universally
>>> accepted) "spatial data infrastructure (SDI)" or maybe "geospatial data infrastructure" (another 'GDI' - confusingly!), not even considering official appearance of "location information infrastructure" (LII?) (in national strategies and statutory instruments). I think we need to remember for which target audiences we use which terms! Especially as the 'older' terminology is now embedded in numerous national and regional (transnational) legal frameworks.
>>> 
>>> However, I agree that anything we can do to help re-focus attention on spatial/location data as an integral part of the wider global cyber infrastructure is a 'good thing'. For example in the 'privacy debate' - location privacy is only one aspect of privacy, now easily breached using existing technologies in the location-aware cyber infrastructure in which we live - while the other, non-spatial/locational data that can be gleaned from the ether (Twitter? Facebook? LinkedIn?) is just as important in relation to personal privacy, protecting and preventing abuse of identity information, etc.
>>> 
>>> Best regards
>>> 
>>> Roger Longhorn
>>> ral at alum.mit.edu
>>> Editor, SDI Magazine
>>> roger at sdimag.com
>>> 
>>> On 12/12/2011 11:48, Yola Georgiadou wrote:
>>>> The renaming of sdi to spatial cyberinfrastructure is a clever and
>>>> timely move.  The relabeling integrates our community to other larger
>>>> efforts in other disciplines, including the humanities.  The entire
>>>> special  issue of PNAS (April 5, 2011) is worth reading.
>>>> 
>>>> Yola
>>>> 
>>>> *From:*legal-socioecon-bounces at lists.gsdi.org
>>>> [mailto:legal-socioecon-bounces at lists.gsdi.org] *On Behalf Of *Kate
>>>> Lance
>>>> *Sent:* Saturday, December 10, 2011 1:39 PM
>>>> *To:* SDI-legal-socioecon
>>>> *Subject:* [GSDI Legal Socioecon] Users as essential contributors to
>>>> spatial cyberinfrastructures
>>>> 
>>>> http://www.pnas.org/content/108/14/5510.full.pdf+html
>>>> 
>>>> Users as essential contributors to spatial cyberinfrastructures
>>>> 
>>>> Barbara S. Poore. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 108(14): 5510-5515
>>>> 
>>>> Current accounts of spatial cyberinfrastructure development tend to
>>>> overemphasize technologies to the neglect of critical social and
>>>> cultural issues on which adoption depends. Spatial
>>>> cyberinfrastructures will have a higher chance of success if users of
>>>> many types, including nonprofessionals, are made central to the
>>>> development process. Recent studies in the history of infrastructures
>>>> reveal key turning points and issues that should be considered in the
>>>> development of spatial cyberinfrastructure projects. These studies
>>>> highlight the importance of adopting qualitative research methods to
>>>> learn how users work with data and digital tools, and how user
>>>> communities form. The author's empirical research on data sharing
>>>> networks in the Pacific Northwest salmon crisis at the turn of the
>>>> 21st century demonstrates that ordinary citizens can contribute
>>>> critical local knowledge to global databases and should be considered
>>>> in the design and construction of spatial cyberinfrastructures.
>>>> 
>>>> "The designers of spatial CIs should give serious consideration to
>>>> involving critical human geographers and other social scientists in
>>>> projects from the beginning.
>>>> These researchers, using qualitative tools, can contribute a number of
>>>> insights to a developing CI. Knowing the histories of infrastructures,
>>>> and in particular of SDIs, can counteract the utopian visions that
>>>> frequently accompany the rollout of new systems, making these systems
>>>> more effective in the long run. The focus in user studies in GIScience
>>>> has traditionally been on the individual user and his or her response
>>>> to the map interface, but this emphasis may be misplaced. Usability
>>>> must take account of previously unappreciated work practices and
>>>> articulations that the user has to make, and the tacit knowledge
>>>> required. Uncovering these knowledges can only be attained by
>>>> ethnographic methods."
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> -- Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC)
>>>> University of Twente Chamber of Commerce: 501305360000
>>>> 
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>>> Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC)
>>> University of Twente
>>> Chamber of Commerce: 501305360000
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