University Consortium for
Geographic Information Science
www.ucgis.org

The intent of the workshop is to develop a pre-proposal that will be used to develop a coordinated research effort to a federal agency for the benefit of several UCGIS members willing to participate in the larger team effort.

Applications are due on June 10, 2003. More information can be found at http://www.ucgis.org/temp_homeland_rfp.htm.

GeoMedia Research Grant Opportunity for UCGIS Members

by Nina Lam

Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions, in collaboration with the University
Consortium of Geographic Information Science (UCGIS), has announced a GeoMedia research grant opportunity exclusively for members of UCGIS. The research grant will award $5,000 (U.S.) cash funding and a $50,000 software donation in recognition of an exceptional and innovative applied research proposal submitted by a UCGIS member in an effort to further the implementation and evolution of GIS.

The grant opportunity is open to any member using, or intending to use, Intergraph's GeoMedia technology as the foundation for geographic information systems (GIS) research. Applications will be reviewed against the following criteria:

• How the research proposal relates to the UCGIS research agenda.
   
• The overall value of the expected results of the research project.
   
• The potential impact the research results would have relating to the GIScience field in the US and the rest of the world.

More details will be on the UCGIS web site soon. The Research Projects Committee, headed by Dr. Nina Lam, will review the applications and award the grant.

To be considered for the grant, UCGIS members are encouraged to submit a detailed research proposal and resume to Dr. Lam. The deadline to submit an application is Monday, September 1, 2003.

The award recipient will be announced on September 15, 2003.

Visualization and Data Mining Workshop
Fall 2003

by Lynn Usery

UCGIS has received a grant from the Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to host a three-day Geospatial Data Mining and Visualization Workshop in the fall of 2003. The workshop will be include two separate sessions: a briefing for federal agency personnel on current research efforts; and, an invited conference for academic researchers and government to discuss areas of promising collaborative research and development of these intersecting areas.

The multi-disciplinary briefing will open discussion between the academic community and funding agencies. It will inform federal agency representative on state of the art and state of knowledge in emerging methods of visualization for knowledge discovery and point to research frontiers in several areas such as:

• Improvements in both database and visual representation in geospatial knowledge discovery, to recognize complex geometry and to incorporate spatial relationships (non-Euclidean distances, direction, connectivity and interaction)
   
• Development of interactive and proactive visualization tools, incorporating dynamic graphics, data brushing, and other multimedia techniques to fully integrate time into geospatial representations, to support identification of spatiotemporal clusters
   
• Visual tools for uncertainty representation in data mining outcomes
   
• Graphical user interfaces for geographic knowledge discovery and usability measures based in known cognitive principles for visual thinking
   
• Visualization, information transformation, and content-based searching (spatialization)
   
• Proof of concepts and benchmarking to illustrate the power and usefulness of data mining and visualization to discover unexpected and surprising geographic knowledge. One goal of the workshop might be to collaborate on provision of a common data testbed incorporating multiple data types and levels of data quality for initiation of comparative research.

The multi-disciplinary workshop will involve 25 invited UCGIS researchers and a number of government personnel. It will span three days, with the first 2 days devoted to an exchange of knowledge and information organized as panel discussions among UCGIS and government researchers and briefings on the current state of the art and state of knowledge. The final day will be devoted to breakout and plenary discussion and prioritization of research issues common to data mining and visualization and government needs in this area.

An initial UCGIS Steering Committee has been formed. Members are: Barbara Buttenfield (University of Colorado), Harvey Miller (University of Utah), E. Lynn Usery (University of Georgia), Carolyn Merry (The Ohio State University), Suzy Jampoler (UCGIS), Mark Gahegan (Pennsylvania State University), May Yuan (University of Oklahoma), Dawn Wright (Oregon State University), John Wilson (University of Southern California), Arnold Landvoigt (National Security Agency) John Dale (National Imagery and Mapping Agency), and Doug Muchoney (U.S. Geological Survey).

The Steering Committee will be responsible for the workshop format, and identifying the speakers and participant list. If you are interested in this workshop, please contact Suzy Jampoler at execdir@ucgis.org.

HUD Grant Update

George Mason University has been granted a sub-award under the UCGIS HUD grant Phase II, Global Urban Quality: An Analysis of Urban Indicators Using Geographic Information Science. The grant is to:

• Lead an evaluation effort and design workshop materials. The team will compare the original approaches and methods of the Phase I research, and work toward a common look and feel of training materials, while at the same time allowing for unique features needed for different types of analyses and differing local needs.

• Design workshop training materials to include application to communities along the United States southern border. Participants from these communities will be included in the workshops.

• Provide training at two UCGIS sponsored workshops. The exercises developed by the original UCGIS universities will form the foundation for this training, and training will include web-based materials.

• Prepare a final report that will provide an evaluation of the existing training materials, and suggestions for further dissemination.

• Work with the Oversight Committee identified by the UCGIS Board of Directors to ensure the quality of all evaluation and training materials.

For more information, contact Suzy Jampoler, execdir@ucgis.org.

FGDC Grant Update

Building the NSDI at the Base: Establishing Best Sharing and Coordination Practices among Local Governments

Dr. Francis Harvey
Department of Geography
University of Minnesota
fharvey@umn.edu 

Dr. David Tulloch
Department of Landscape Architecture
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
dtulloch@crssa.rutgers.edu 

Based on previous research that indicated local governments have little awareness of the NSDI and a very limited understanding of how the NSDI could assist local governments, this research project set out to establish what are best practices for data sharing among local governments.

Complementary to the problem of relevance an underlying issue identified in this research is the importance of existing political, institutional, professional, and legislative relationships. These relationships largely determine the geographic information activities at local government agencies. Sharing and coordination are to a large extent informal activities that correspond to these relationships. Formal arrangements are taken only at the final stages of establishing sharing or cooperation agreements, basically they manifest themselves at the conclusion to satisfy internal procedures and/or legal requirements. This discovery poses an interesting conundrum for developing local government participation in the NSDI. One of the key aims of this project is deepening our understanding of this issue and formulate data sharing and coordination best-practices for local governments around the country.

Best practices of data sharing and coordination involve many aspects of administrative and political activities. The best practices for any particular locality at any particular time are contingent on a number of factors and characteristics. Of all the practices we have identified in this research, key best practices seem to lie in the approach towards data and colleagues. If data sharing and coordination is just about the data, it will be very difficult at best, and may likely not work at all, or for any length of time. Data sharing and coordination are best understood as part of other activities. Some of these activities require interaction, many others are assisted and promoted by data sharing. Establishing and supporting a social network among colleagues, citizens, and elected officials that supports their interests seems to be critical in all cases.