GeoXwalk cluster summary
From DigiRepWiki
GeoXwalk
geoXwalk is JISC funded middleware implementing a digital gazetteer service and server for the UK academic Higher and Further Education community. The rationale behind the project is that there is currently no unified entry point to assist in geographic searching within the existing academic network as each information provider/service adopts different geographic coding conventions (some use postcodes, others placenames, some grid references etc.). geoXwalk is designed to make geographic searching transparent by 'crosswalking' these different geographies.
geoXwalk is more than just a simple lookup facility however, as every geographic feature stored in the gazetteer has its detailed geometry stored with it (i.e. a city would be stored as a polygonal footprint (co-ordinate list), a river as a linear footprint etc.). Holding the geometry as an integral attribute of the feature enables complex spatial searching based on relationships between features e.g. is feature A within a distance of feature B?; what features are contained within feature C?; what features does feature D intersect? and so on. Additional tools that assist in the semi-automated creation of geospatial metadata to enhance existing resources have also been developed.
geoXwalk obviates the problem of variable geographic naming by coding geographic features based on a persistent and consistent coding convention - national grid references, thus allowing the 'where' to become as important a search dimension as the 'who' and the 'what'.
Pop Question: - who has used Google Earth/Maps in the last six months?
- What range of geographies do your current services use to assist users in locating resources?
- How do you currently implement geographic searching within the services you use or run?
- How could geoXwalk middleware enable and/or enhance the geopgraphic search capabilities of your services?
- What value can we place on enabling resources to be searched in this way and what would the business model be?
