"Computational Geography: The Grid, the Un-grid, and Their Wedding in the Chapel of Collaborative Tools"
Marc Armstrong, Department of Geography, University of Iowa

The focus of this workshop will be placed on developing ideas about three areas of emergent work in geographic information science, and how linkages among these three areas can be established to promote research and instruction. The first area is widely referred to as "grid computing" because of its reliance on the use of a computational network that is metaphorically akin to the electric grid: users need not be concerned about the computational resources that they are using any more than they need to care about the source of the electricity that powers their refrigerator. We will focus on how the grid came to be, how it can be accessed and what potential it holds for GIScience. The second area, which I will refer to here as the “un-grid”, concerns rapidly changing developments in wireless computing with a particular emphasis placed on their implications for GIScience (and geographic) education. Next, we will delve into the use of grid (and un-grid) computing by groups of individuals who may be required to collaborate in order to achieve one or more objectives. GIS tools at present are not well-designed for group use and we will work towards the specification of a typology of group tool needs. Finally, we will consider how grid and wireless computing can support group use of GIS tools. Participants will be asked to read several articles as background to the material that will be covered in this workshop.

PDF files of papers presented

• Distance Visualization: Data Exploration on the Grid
• The Anatomy of the Grid- Enabling Scalable Virtual Organizations
• A Quadtree Approach to Domain Decomposition for Spatial Interpolation in Grid Computing Environments
• What is the Grid? A Three Point Checklist