What is special about Geospatial?

The Mobile and Web-based Information Systems Group of Salzburg Research and the Cartography & Engineering Geodesy Research Groups of the Vienna University of Technology are pleased to present the 5th International Symposium on LBS & TeleCartography in cooperation with the ICA Commissions on Maps and the Internet & Ubiquitous Mapping and the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing WG II/5 on Communication and Visualization of Spatial Data to be held from

Wednesday, 26th to Friday, 28th November, 2008 at the Salzburg Residenz, City of Salzburg, Austria.

The symposium will bring together experts from around the world to present the latest research results and developments with focus on Location Based Services in the fields of Cartography, Geoinformation, Computer Sciences, Telecommunication, Geodesy, and Geomedia Techniques.

Organizers

• Mobile and Web-based Information Systems Group, Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH.
• Cartography Research Group, Vienna University of Technology
• Engineering Geodesy Research Group, Vienna University of Technology

Co-Organizers

• ICA Commissions on Maps and the Internet & Ubiquitous Mapping
• ISPRS WG II/5 on Communication and Visualization of Spatial Data
• IAG WG 4.1.2 on Indoor and Pedestrian Navigation
• Centre for Geoinformatics (Z_GIS) at Salzburg University

Call for Contributions

Contributions from the fields of Cartography, Geoinformation, Computer Science, Ubiquitous and Pervasive Computing, Telecommunication, Geodesy, Geomedia Techniques, etc. should address, but are not limited to current topics of

• Location Based Service
• Wayfinding and Navigation
• Smart Environments and Active Landmarks
• Pervasive Technologies for LBS
• Cartographic Theories and Techniques
• TeleCartography (Map based LBS)
• Mobile and Ubiquitous Mapping
• 3D-Mapping, Virtual and Augmented Reality
• Location Based Media Technologies
• Personalization & Adaptive Methods
• Positioning Methods
• Modelling of Spatial Environments for LBS
• Location Based Sensor Networks
• Location Based Collaboration

Extended Abstracts (max 1000 words) can be submitted to present visionary ideas, work in progress and preliminary research results, whereas Full papers (max 6000 words) should present substantial results. Full papers will be reviewed by the members of the scientific committee. Full papers will be published in an upcoming book on Locations Based Services & TeleCartography and/or in a special edition of the Journal on LBS.

NEW: LBS 2008 Showcases

LBS & TeleCartography 2008 should become a live LBS experience for all attendees! Thus, the committee is seeking for real-world showcases of location-based services. Submissions for outdoor as well as indoor LBS Showcases are welcome. Applying organizations or companies should submit an abstract description of the LBS Showcase and the mode of experiencing the showcase (app. 2 pages). The LBS Showcase Committee will select the most innovative showcase submissions for live demonstration. During the symposium the best LBS 2008 Showcase will be elected by the audience.

Official Conference Information

[via lbs2008]

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

Where? This is such a basic and fundamental questions that many or almost any science is related to this question.  And of course it is the base to the science of geography.

Space is what GIS is all about, and business knows the critical importance of the three Ls: location, location, location. (Michael F. Goodchild, UCSB)

I think with this sentence Goodchild wants to emphasis on the importance of location.

Location based Services are about Location!

We are in the midst of an information revolution, in which an endless array of data can be combined and manipulated in ways that tells us amazing things about our surroundings relevant to time, where we are, and what we want most. Traffic, points of interests, satellite imagery, and a variety of user-generated content are being used to create compelling new location-based solutions.

In a recent consumer survey, market research firm C.J. Driscoll & Associates found that one third of U.S. cellular subscribers were strongly interested in location-based mobile applications, including friend and business finder services. On the enterprise side, researcher In-Stat predicts a doubling of workforce LBS end users to more than a million by 2010.

Some interesting questions…

• Is there also LBS 1.0 and LBS 2.0 as we know this term in the web?
• When is the prediced hype for LBSs comming or will it come?
• What makes the map more than just another widget and how it can facilitate innovation in services?
• (How) will the convergence of mobile technology and the demand for location-awareness affect consumers and the service and device choices they make?

[where 2.0, UCSB]

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

The members of the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) have approved version 1.0 of the OpenGIS® Web Processing Service (WPS) Interface Standard.

The WPS standard defines an interface that facilitates the publishing of geospatial processes and makes it easier to write software clients that can discover and bind to those processes. Processes include any algorithm, calculation or model that operates on spatially referenced raster or vector data. Publishing means making available machine-readable binding information as well as human-readable metadata that allows service discovery and use.

A WPS can be used to define calculations as simple as subtracting one set of spatially referenced data from another (e.g., determining the difference in influenza cases between two different seasons), or as complicated as a hydrological model. The data required by the WPS can be delivered across a network or it can be made available at the server. This interface specification provides mechanisms to identify the spatially referenced data required by the calculation, initiate the calculation, and manage the output from the calculation so that the client can access it.

The OGC’s WPS standard will play an important role in automating workflows that involve geospatial data and geoprocessing services.

The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 345 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OpenGIS® Standards support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/.

[opengeospatial]

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

Worldwide subscribers to location-based communications services on mobile devices will increase by nearly 168 per cent in 2008 while revenue will grow by 169 per cent, according to Gartner, Inc.

Figure 1: Current numbers and estimation about subscibers for location based services (LBSs) and revenue in the field of LBSs.

“Location-based service technologies have been around for several years but they have not experienced the rate of success that was anticipated at the beginning,” said Annette Zimmermann, a research analyst at Gartner. However, she said: “The market for location-based services is at a turning point, with indications of mainstream adoption in the next two to five years.” Gartner said the number of subscribers worldwide will rise from 16 million in 2007 to 43.2 million in 2008 and revenue will rise from $485.1 million in 2007 to $1,307.3 million in 2008. The number of subscribers is expected to reach nearly 300 million in 2011 and revenue is forecast to top $8 billion in 2011.

People are familiar with the small, satellite-based, GPS navigation devices in vehicles. Many want the same or similar services outside their vehicles and on their mobile phones. Increasingly, mobile phones are including GPS capabilities to supplement the less precise location sensing that is an integral function of all cellular systems. As the technology has improved, other services become possible, such as navigation for tourists and pedestrians, child location, find-a-friend and local directories and advertising.

Ms Zimmermann said: “Growth now will be stimulated by the arrival of mobile phones with built-in, precise location sensing and the arrival of new service providers, like Google and Nokia with its service offerings, keen to exploit geographic and positioning technologies.” Different forces are driving technical developments and patterns of adoption in different regions. In the United States, the government ruled that mobile phones should always be able to call an emergency number – enhanced 911 or E911 – and this has stimulated accurate positioning facilities. In Europe, the drive has come from consumer demand and the efforts of handset manufacturers and service operators. In the Far East, telecommunications carriers stimulated widespread adoption, particularly in South Korea, at the beginning of the decade and they have been broadening the range of services.

“The potential of this market will drive handset vendors, carriers and other service providers to compete with each other and new entrants will appear. Increased competition will reduce subscription prices,” Ms Zimmermann said. “The value chain is complex and fragmented and vendors will need to form alliances.”

Additional information is available in the Gartner report “Location- Based Services Subscriber and Revenue Forecast, 2006-2011.” The report is available on Gartner’s Web site at www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=590907&subref=advsearch

[gartner, direction magazine]

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.