To validate the research on spatial questions, we design a generic Application Programming Interface (API) for computations on spatial information. Its methods map to various existing spatial computing environments and are made accessible as web services. The longer-term goal is to first map from domain APIÕs to this generic spatial computing interface and then to GIS and other computational platforms.
Linked data and related semantic web technologies have the potential to break up and connect information silos. We build infrastructures for searching and linking scientific data spatially and semantically. The results are tested in projects on, for example, energy, public health, and urban history. The LIFE project at the University of Mnster develops pilot services and applications that inform a follow-up effort starting with the UCSB Library and its Faculty Collaboration Laboratory. The emphasis in all these projects is on developing and testing tools for researchers and other library users, pursuing the broader vision of interconnecting scientific knowledge.
Questions about what is happening, has happened, or will happen are important for individuals, organizations, and society. Sensors everywhere help answer them, but only record what is, not what is happening. Interpreting sensor data in terms of events that make sense for certain users has become a key research challenge. This project attempts to scale up early results from a prototype architecture and engine to infer events from massive sensor data in industrial environments.
The scientific communities engaged in studies of spatial thinking and computing are rapidly loosing some of their early or even later documents. Examples are pre-digital conference proceedings, unpublished manuscripts of interest, proposal solicitations, software, and videos. It is time to start preserving these contents digitally and provide easy-to-use access to and search in them. The Spatial Archives at UCSB will start with local resources like those on spatial demography and population science (http://gispopsci.org), spatial concepts (http://teachspatial.org), classics in spatially integrated social sciences (http://csiss.org) as well as the complete NCGIA resources (http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu). Subsequently, proceedings and related materials related to spatial thinking and information will be integrated or linked to, in the framework of http://spatial.linkedscience.org.