| Inter-Agency Committee
on Geomatics Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure Report of Workshop #2 on Data Access Ottawa, Prepared by |
|
| 1.
Participants:
Botan Brodaric Natural Resources
Canada  2. Introduction: This Data Access workshop is the second of several workshops and meetings organized in response to the new focus of the Inter-Agency Committee on Geomatics (IACG) to create a Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI). The first workshop dealt with Framework Data and proposed the creation of a core data set that could be made freely available and used without copyright restrictions (Reference 1). As indicated in the CGDI Model shown in Figure 1, the focus under Data Access is to make it easier for users in Canada, and elsewhere, to find what geospatial data is available, what are its properties, and how to access it? The goals of this one-half day workshop were: A. Publicize Data Access Activities
B. Explore Data Access Activities
3. Presentations: 1. Mark Corey: The CGDI - Progress Report: Mark reviewed the five thrusts that are driving the creation of the CGDI. He stressed the importance of the soft leadership approach in which, no one is taking the lead, but IACG members and CCOG agencies are working together, to provide access to geospatial data via the Internet. Canada has been slower in comparison to the US in setting up a data-clearing house, but activities in Canada are now growing. A goal of the initiative is to enable to users to easily find and obtain Canadian data. The IACG thrust of more supportive policies will, he is confident, make it easier to buy and use Canadian geospatial data. The recommendations and actions resulting from the Framework Data workshop will provide a core data set. It should establish a useful and practical data framework, and the growing interest of agencies at all levels of government to discuss partnerships to share or to collect data are positive signs that this the time to create the CGDI. Further information may be found in the CGDI Progress Report (Reference 4). 2. Robert O'Neil: Contributions to the Canadian Geospatial data Infrastructure (CGDI): Bob's presentation, (Attachment 2) described the major projects within his GeoAccess Division, namely CEONET, which provides the framework for accessing Earth Observation Data including international linkages, and LINC, which is the vehicle for putting Geomatics Canada's data on line. Bob stressed that this system is intended for all uses of Geomatics Canada's data and includes a number of important services, which will gradually increase. Currently two of these services are access to the Atlas of Canada, and to GeoCommerce - an engine for commercial Internet transactions in the context of the CGDI. Bob described the Catalogue System, which his division has implemented, and which is reproduced in Figure 2. An important component of finding data within CEO Net is the adoption of the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) standard for describing Meta-data. Used at both the directory and inventory levels of the Catalogue, shown in Figure 2, it provides many searchable fields that allow geospatial data to be described quite well. The FGDC Meta-data Standard will be also compatible with the ISO standard when that is finalized and both are a superset of GILS . Free software for implementing the FGDC standard is available and was used to implement CEONet. Bob then stepped through description of CEONet and GeoCommerce. By October distributed searches for geospatial data across 60 servers is expected. Bob invited other agencies to participate in CEONet. Through relatively simple means data producing agencies can host their own server of meta-data information (FGDC compliant) or they may utilize the services provided by the CEONet development. More information on CEONet and LINC are available from the IACG's CGDI Web Page: http://www.geoconnections.org 3. Jean-Claude Henein: Public Access to the CGDI for Sustainable Development Applications: Jean-Claude stepped through his slides (Attachment 3) and showed twenty examples of web linkages that have been established in GeoExpress which offers: Linkages: to other geospatial
sites in the Federal and Provincial, and Territorial Governments
He stressed the strength of the search approach provided by CEONet, but noted that there are other ways of finding information. Many people are accustomed to a complimentary method which Jean-Claude called the "silo" approach, where instead of using a search engine to carry out broad searches and return references, which may or may not be useful, users would search sites on their own. Using a selection of screen captures from GeoExpress Jean-Claude demonstrated the value of his system, which can also be accessed from: http://www.geoconnections.org 4. Dave McKellar: Global Geospatial Infrastructure - A Canadian Perspective: As evident in Dave's definition of Geospatial Data Infrastructure: "The Collection of people, processes and enabling technologies that provides geospatial information as the basis for a multi-source, dynamic view of the world" It is clear that he has a very broad and far-reaching vision of the CGDI. His presentation illustrated how pro-active National Defence has been, in defining the military requirements and in and developing solutions in satisfying them. He also noted that within the larger global geomatics community, a Global Geospatial Information Structure was emerging with many agencies and nations developing different aspects of the infrastructure. His massage was that Canada should remain compatible and consistent with other Global Developments. Dave's slides are included as Attachment 4 and also illustrate the following important points:
The second part of his talk described the successful developments accomplished under the Mercator Alliance, such as the Open Geospatial Datastore Interface (OGDI), and the Geospatial Information Gateway. Dave stressed that no one sector of the world has all the answers and the Alliance is playing an important role in bringing industry, government and academia together to provide better tools and solutions for the CGDI. Further information is available at the DND and Mercator web sites: Defence Geomatics: http://www.j2geo.ndhq.dnd.ca
5. Danny Wall - Data Access Activities at Statistics Canada: At Statistics Canada, the Information on Products and Services System (IPS) has been developed to guide users to the products they need using the meta-data that has been recorded on each product. It is currently limited to internal users only. Another important project that Statistics Canada is leading is the Data Liberation Initiative (DLI), to allow academic researcher greater access to StatsCan data, while protecting existing cost recovery programs. Currently many researches will use US data since it is freely available as opposed to more costly Canadian data. Other federal and provincial agencies have show interest in this project and an IACG Workshop on DLI is planned for September 1997. Statistics Canada is also reviewing their data licensing policies and has had discussions with other agencies such as Canada Post, Elections Canada, Natural Resources Canada and others in the provinces. The intent is to harmonize the policies and make it easier for Canadians to access and use information. This work has also led to an IACG sponsored workshop scheduled for July 15, 1997 at Statistics Canada in Tunney's Pasture. Statistics Canada has been highly proactive in collaborating and sharing data with other agencies and establishing partnerships with those agencies that are "closest to the source" data. Finally Statistics Canada on embarked on projects to redesign their databases and the associated procedures to enable easier access and more sharing of information. 6. Dick MacDougall: ChartNet: The alliance that built "ChartNet" was the precursor to the Mercator Alliance and enabled the CHS to work with several commercial firms, and the University of New Brunswick, to develop Internet tools to allow users to browse CHS catalogues, get sample charts, and to order navigational data. The project was lead by Nautical Data International. Software originally designed for the Ice Service (EC) to manage files over the Internet, was extended in the ChartNet project, and has now become an important component of CEONet. 4. Discussions: CEONet/GeoExpress: One of the main discussion points was how do the various data access projects fit together into the CGDI? Participants agreed that users should see a single entry point when looking for or accessing database. From this aspect the relationship between CEONet and GeoExpress was not clear and was discussed at some length. Although there were perceptions of overlap between the two projects participants also felt that that was a requirement for both approaches. CEONet was perceived as a strong tool for searching for data, and for direct access to data in certain sectors, whereas GeoExpress was seen as bringing some order to the burgeoning number of web sites containing geospatial information. Someone compared it to looking at a library catalogue (CEONet) for information on a book, and requesting it, or browsing among the stacks using a knowledge of where the books are shelved in the library (GeoExpress). It was agreed that the relationship between the various systems such as CEONet and GeoExpress needed clarification, and it was recommended that the Workshop Chair convene a smaller group to discuss them further, and to develop a Data Access Model for the CGDI. As Phyllis Charlesworth expressed it "the key is to leverage cooperation and not get hung up on names." OGDI: Providing access to geospatial data, across all levels of government in Canada, is one of the highest priorities in building the CGDI. It is accepted that, initially, this would be access to the catalogues or meta-data about the information that is available. In the US, FGDC, have made major advances in providing access at the meta-data level, but several participants at the workshop wished to move beyond the meta-data, and provide on-line access to the data itself, and the discussion moved on to that topic. Dave McKellar explained how the Open Geospatial Datastore Interface (OGDI) could help provide actual access to geospatial databases by simply building an OGDI driver to that data. This was seen as an important step but the next question was - after extracting the geospatial data through the OGDI, what would the client do with the data, besides view it? Dave's response was the user would have to store the data locally, which may require a translation to the database/GIS that is being used. Meta-Data: Grace Welch then moved the discussion over to the issue of searching for data and the fact that many data collectors often neglect to provide adequate meta-data, which makes it much harder to find that data, even with powerful search engines. This led to a discussion of two different aspects of collecting meta-data. Firstly, adhering to a meta-data standard such as the FGDC/ISO specification, and secondly, as Phyllis pointed out - collecting and entering meta-data is a time consuming and costly task, and generally since users will only do what is important to them personally, adequate meta-data will not necessarily be available. Meta-Data Standards: As Bob O'Neil mentioned in his presentation, CEONet adheres to the FGDC Meta-Data Standard; this is a superset of the CGSB standard - a development led by Varlerie Hume - and is also the basis of the ISO - TC211 standard, which is under development. Compliance with the standard is important or else search engines may not recognize the information. However, filling in the any of the data fields in the FGDC standard is optional, and it is up to the implementor of the standard in any particular installation to decide which fields will be completed. Meta-Data Cost: Phyllis feels that people will not invest in meta-data unless there is a benefit for them. They need resources and a commitment to the vision of the CGDI. Mark Corey responded by suggesting we look at the things that have made the FGDC Clearinghouse grow. Although not perfect, FGDC have been successful by keeping the task relatively simple and making it advantageous for people to commit to it. In Canada, it is important to get all the provinces involved, and this is happening through the CCOG, and to build partnerships to share the labour of collecting the appropriate meta-data. Further Mark stressed that we must publicize the importance of the CGDI and raise the status of the IACG in the federal government. As the value of the CGDI is recognized more resources will become available. Information Services Enterprise Pilot: For the information of other participants, Ed Buchinski described some related information infrastructure activities that Treasury Board is involved in. Of particular interest is the Information Services Enterprise Pilot (ISE), in which many IACG agencies participated, and which demonstrated the need to include geographic coordinates and place names in GILS records using a controlled vocabulary to select the terms that are entered in the GILS records. The FGDC/ISO Meta-Data Standard is a superset of GILS, and GILS could serve as a pointer to geomatic information and perhaps provide a single window to publications and data with a geographic component. Ed agreed to work with Valerie Hume on the preparation of a short analysis of GILS and FGDC/ISO to suggest what the common vocabulary should be. 5. Conclusions, Recommendations and Actions: Until the workshop was forced to end at noon, discussions and views on many different aspects of data access continued, and relatively few things could be resolved in that short time available. This was not unexpected since the workshop was intended to explore data access and develop plans for further work. Several items were identified for further action: 1. It was clear that an overall
model of Data Access as might be envisioned in the CGDI is required, and
It was recommended that Tim Evangelatos convene a smaller meeting of "experts'
to figure out how the various pieces fit together, and then develop a
Data Access Model. This model should also illustrate how the CGDI data
access thrust links to other government initiatives. As the CGDI is implemented there will be growing requirements for application support but discussion on how this is to be provided was deferred. 6. References: 1. "Workshop on Framework Data,"
A meeting sponsored by the Inter-Angency Committee on Geomatics, Ottawa,
May 12, 1997. Report prepared by Timothy V. Evangelatos 7. Attachments: 1. Agenda Attachment #1 IACG Workshop #2 Proposed Agenda This is a formative workshop to begin to look at the activities of IACG members in providing access to geospatial data, and to develop a strategy for the IACG in providing this aspect of the CGDI. Further meetings will be held to deal with the issues identified, refine the strategy, and to demonstrate and provide more details of these and related activities. 09:00 Introduction and Welcome:
Tim Evangelatos Coffee Break Discussion: | |||||||||||||||
