In almost every GIScience research activity, data and analysis results have to be visualized. The... more In almost every GIScience research activity, data and analysis results have to be visualized. The available means and potential choices for the creation of cartographic visualization are extremely rich, and also very complex. Successful visualization is often limited by available abilities and capacities to utilize complex symbolization and adequately connect visualization to phenomena and processes. Geographic information patterns and processes often cannot be easily represented by 2D representation. In this paper, I propose a new methodology for GIScience visualization centered on a transformational approach to geospatial visualization. It directly addresses theoretical and representational limits in a theoretical framework that considers the diverse roles of visualization in scientific research. The approach is organized around a series of systematic steps that begin with fundamental questions about phenomena, semantics, motivations and transformations then progresses to questions related to data, accuracy, geographical representation, semiotics, and map elements. Finally, details of symbolization are iteratively tested. This approach rests on a pragmatic linkage of Tobler’s transformation concept, Sinton’s forms of geographical representation, Borner’s visualization framework and MacEachren’s visualization variables. The systematic approach supports scientific communication and discovery in today’s research institutions. The paper provides an overview of the foundations and framework at a conceptual level.
To help ethical issues gain traction in geographic information technology education, this article... more To help ethical issues gain traction in geographic information technology education, this article proposes that the education of GIScience and technology professionals go beyond abstract scholarly ethics to applied approaches based on practical wisdom. The main point for educators made in this paper is that applied ethics' focus on values, choices, and responsibilities helps students and professionals understand the significance of knowledge and science, their potential contributions, and possible roles – values, choices, and responsibilities. An interpretation of Aristotle's practical wisdom as moral skills and moral wills provides the foundation for developing pedagogical strategies including Davis' seven-step approach.
International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 2009
The United States is on the cusp of generational change. In the next two decades, the “baby boome... more The United States is on the cusp of generational change. In the next two decades, the “baby boomers” will age out of the workforce and will be replaced by a more ethnic, more foreign-born generation. Dowell Myers considers the fiscal and political challenges that immigration presents for the country in Immigrants and Boomers. In the first half of the book, Myers presents ideas about what generates public opposition to immigration, the purpose being to help find policies to address immigration that the public would be willing to accept. His ...
Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 2007
Just another private^public partnership? Possible constraints on scientific information in virtua... more Just another private^public partnership? Possible constraints on scientific information in virtual map browsers Most academics working with GIS are inclined to hold that Google Earth, Virtual Earth, and similar specialized web browsers for viewing and querying earth imagery and georeferenced data (aka virtual globes or virtual earth browsers), are one of the greatest boons for GIS since the digitizing tablet. Finally any Jane or Joe can experience the visualization and analysis capabilities of GIS that have remained the purview of specialists for years. Finally analysts have an application for producing`sexy' images to communicate`scientifically' and`rationally'. Sure, problems remain for interfacing this rich analytics with consumer-friendly browser environments, but we finally have a possible`killer app' that could well make GIS a household word. This unparalleled ability rests on the integration of the underlying earth imagery and the ability to visualize virtually any dereferenced data in this homogenized environment. Industry, government, and academics are rapt in their praise. Recently, for example, J Luke Blair, a geologist at the US Geological Survey office in Menlo Park, California, encapsulated the potential in an interview with an area newspaper. For Blair, Google Earth means the potential to communicate data in an interesting``and effective'' manner,``You can essentially make your own map ösee where you live in context of the geology of the Bay Area'' (Lyons, 2006). The article goes on to discuss the appeal of Google Earth for the over 100 million people who have downloaded the software as well as the broadening availability of software (including similar applications from Microsoft and NASA). Examples ranging from work at the Jane Goodall Institute on rainforest conservation to the NOAA Coral Reef Watch suggest that the appeal has been particularly strong in the scientific community and that there is more potential still to be realised. With this appeal, what is the price to be paid for this ability, which goes hand-inhand with corporate access to data and corporate control of the specifications for adding data in the browser? As Michael Wegener and Ian Masser (1996) wrote in their article``Brave new GIS worlds'' about a possible scenario for the future of geoinformation that involved increasing control of information by corporations, the price paid for the sugared pill may be beyond our wildest imagination. Academics may forever lose the possibility to access and publish data without corporate consent. What Faustian bargain do we enter into when we use these amazing possibilities offered by virtual earth software? In most places GIS users have been part of similar relationships with government data providers, who charge significant amounts for the access and use of data. It bears mentioning that even the mythologized access to public domain data in the United States is often limited by state, tribal, regional, and local governments. Only data collected by civilian federal government agencies can be considered public domain, and even then there are restrictions. Data collected by the military, which includes the Army Corps of Engineers öthe government agency responsible for commercial waterways in the US and many, if not all, navigable waterwaysöare excluded. Every state has its own`open-record' laws which determine which data are available and what state and local governments may charge or request for the provision of their data. For example, in Kentucky the laws allow governments to charge for cost recovery, and this Commentary
Some of the most significant social, political, ethical, and economic implications of GIS-based t... more Some of the most significant social, political, ethical, and economic implications of GIS-based technologies show themselves in changing modes of governance. Administrative geographies in the United States, with some peculiarities resulting from their historical development, are analyzed in this paper as boundary objects that loosely organize local practices. Boundary objects bring together technologies, people, institutions, programs, and policies in an infrastructure that simultaneously enables and constrains governance. The introduction of geo-spatial technologies destabilizes the existing local infrastructure, but only temporally. A process of re-stabilization usually follows that involves the modification and creation of boundary objects to fit the changed social and political relationships. This paper looks in particular at the impacts arising from the implementation of geo-spatial technologies in US local governments and conflicts between neighboring governmental bodies. This...
In almost every GIScience research activity, data and analysis results have to be visualized. The... more In almost every GIScience research activity, data and analysis results have to be visualized. The available means and potential choices for the creation of cartographic visualization are extremely rich, and also very complex. Successful visualization is often limited by available abilities and capacities to utilize complex symbolization and adequately connect visualization to phenomena and processes. Geographic information patterns and processes often cannot be easily represented by 2D representation. In this paper, I propose a new methodology for GIScience visualization centered on a transformational approach to geospatial visualization. It directly addresses theoretical and representational limits in a theoretical framework that considers the diverse roles of visualization in scientific research. The approach is organized around a series of systematic steps that begin with fundamental questions about phenomena, semantics, motivations and transformations then progresses to questions related to data, accuracy, geographical representation, semiotics, and map elements. Finally, details of symbolization are iteratively tested. This approach rests on a pragmatic linkage of Tobler’s transformation concept, Sinton’s forms of geographical representation, Borner’s visualization framework and MacEachren’s visualization variables. The systematic approach supports scientific communication and discovery in today’s research institutions. The paper provides an overview of the foundations and framework at a conceptual level.
To help ethical issues gain traction in geographic information technology education, this article... more To help ethical issues gain traction in geographic information technology education, this article proposes that the education of GIScience and technology professionals go beyond abstract scholarly ethics to applied approaches based on practical wisdom. The main point for educators made in this paper is that applied ethics' focus on values, choices, and responsibilities helps students and professionals understand the significance of knowledge and science, their potential contributions, and possible roles – values, choices, and responsibilities. An interpretation of Aristotle's practical wisdom as moral skills and moral wills provides the foundation for developing pedagogical strategies including Davis' seven-step approach.
International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 2009
The United States is on the cusp of generational change. In the next two decades, the “baby boome... more The United States is on the cusp of generational change. In the next two decades, the “baby boomers” will age out of the workforce and will be replaced by a more ethnic, more foreign-born generation. Dowell Myers considers the fiscal and political challenges that immigration presents for the country in Immigrants and Boomers. In the first half of the book, Myers presents ideas about what generates public opposition to immigration, the purpose being to help find policies to address immigration that the public would be willing to accept. His ...
Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 2007
Just another private^public partnership? Possible constraints on scientific information in virtua... more Just another private^public partnership? Possible constraints on scientific information in virtual map browsers Most academics working with GIS are inclined to hold that Google Earth, Virtual Earth, and similar specialized web browsers for viewing and querying earth imagery and georeferenced data (aka virtual globes or virtual earth browsers), are one of the greatest boons for GIS since the digitizing tablet. Finally any Jane or Joe can experience the visualization and analysis capabilities of GIS that have remained the purview of specialists for years. Finally analysts have an application for producing`sexy' images to communicate`scientifically' and`rationally'. Sure, problems remain for interfacing this rich analytics with consumer-friendly browser environments, but we finally have a possible`killer app' that could well make GIS a household word. This unparalleled ability rests on the integration of the underlying earth imagery and the ability to visualize virtually any dereferenced data in this homogenized environment. Industry, government, and academics are rapt in their praise. Recently, for example, J Luke Blair, a geologist at the US Geological Survey office in Menlo Park, California, encapsulated the potential in an interview with an area newspaper. For Blair, Google Earth means the potential to communicate data in an interesting``and effective'' manner,``You can essentially make your own map ösee where you live in context of the geology of the Bay Area'' (Lyons, 2006). The article goes on to discuss the appeal of Google Earth for the over 100 million people who have downloaded the software as well as the broadening availability of software (including similar applications from Microsoft and NASA). Examples ranging from work at the Jane Goodall Institute on rainforest conservation to the NOAA Coral Reef Watch suggest that the appeal has been particularly strong in the scientific community and that there is more potential still to be realised. With this appeal, what is the price to be paid for this ability, which goes hand-inhand with corporate access to data and corporate control of the specifications for adding data in the browser? As Michael Wegener and Ian Masser (1996) wrote in their article``Brave new GIS worlds'' about a possible scenario for the future of geoinformation that involved increasing control of information by corporations, the price paid for the sugared pill may be beyond our wildest imagination. Academics may forever lose the possibility to access and publish data without corporate consent. What Faustian bargain do we enter into when we use these amazing possibilities offered by virtual earth software? In most places GIS users have been part of similar relationships with government data providers, who charge significant amounts for the access and use of data. It bears mentioning that even the mythologized access to public domain data in the United States is often limited by state, tribal, regional, and local governments. Only data collected by civilian federal government agencies can be considered public domain, and even then there are restrictions. Data collected by the military, which includes the Army Corps of Engineers öthe government agency responsible for commercial waterways in the US and many, if not all, navigable waterwaysöare excluded. Every state has its own`open-record' laws which determine which data are available and what state and local governments may charge or request for the provision of their data. For example, in Kentucky the laws allow governments to charge for cost recovery, and this Commentary
Some of the most significant social, political, ethical, and economic implications of GIS-based t... more Some of the most significant social, political, ethical, and economic implications of GIS-based technologies show themselves in changing modes of governance. Administrative geographies in the United States, with some peculiarities resulting from their historical development, are analyzed in this paper as boundary objects that loosely organize local practices. Boundary objects bring together technologies, people, institutions, programs, and policies in an infrastructure that simultaneously enables and constrains governance. The introduction of geo-spatial technologies destabilizes the existing local infrastructure, but only temporally. A process of re-stabilization usually follows that involves the modification and creation of boundary objects to fit the changed social and political relationships. This paper looks in particular at the impacts arising from the implementation of geo-spatial technologies in US local governments and conflicts between neighboring governmental bodies. This...
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Papers by Francis Harvey