RE: BP Principles- more added [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

In agreement with Jeremy and Josh...

Spatial data can be complex and require spatial expertise to use, but I’m keen that the Best Practise document shouldn’t be!
I think we should include non-spatial web folk in the target audience, make them at least aware of the potential complications and limitations in using spatial data, whilst enabling them to recognize and handle the simple activities with confidence.

Rachel


From: Jeremy Tandy [mailto:jeremy.tandy@gmail.com]
Sent: 15 June 2015 08:18
To: Joshua Lieberman; Ed Parsons
Cc: Frans Knibbe; Bruce Bannerman; SDW WG Public List
Subject: Re: BP Principles- more added [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Hi. When I said "let's not make [spatial data] special" what I was implying was that there needs to be a low barrier to usage. So if someone is trying to do something simple, then it should be easy to do. Of course, that means that we experts need to make sure that the best practices we provide steer non-experts well away from pitfalls for those simple activities.

Jeremy
On Fri, 12 Jun 2015 at 13:01, Joshua Lieberman <jlieberman@tumblingwalls.com<mailto:jlieberman@tumblingwalls.com>> wrote:
I don't think there necessarily is a conflict here. The "specialness" means that ease of use requires well documented spatial parameters and well chosen defaults. A Web developer may still need to know, however, that her WGS84 data is getting projected for display in a browser app and that measuring things requires some care. Worse than needing to know some basic principles is not knowing.

Josh

On Jun 12, 2015, at 06:51, Ed Parsons <eparsons@google.com<mailto:eparsons@google.com>> wrote:
I tend to agree with the point that spatial data can be special, but for many applications we over complicate matters.. Many of the geospatial services we use today are based on just WGS84 coordinates and very simple encodings (GeoJSON, Proto-buffers etc) without problems.

Ed

On Thu, 11 Jun 2015 at 17:09 Frans Knibbe <frans.knibbe@geodan.nl<mailto:frans.knibbe@geodan.nl>> wrote:
Hello Bruce,

Isn't misuse of spatial data always traceable to data somehow being taken out of context, or metadata being ignored or not being available?
And isn't that true for any type of data?

Regards,
Frans

2015-06-11 13:59 GMT+02:00 Bruce Bannerman <B.Bannerman@bom.gov.au<mailto:B.Bannerman@bom.gov.au>>:
Sorry Jeremy,

I disagree with this ‘principle’.

I have never bought the argument that spatial data is not ‘special’.

There are many cases of domain data that is special where we would not throw it out there for anyone to use and misuse as they see fit.

A good example is medical data. Most people would dream of opening up medical data for unfettered use by the uninformed.

Some types of data demand domain knowledge to use appropriately and effectively.

In many cases, spatial data is one of these. Do a search on ‘misuse of spatial data’ and you’ll get an appreciation of the issues.

Bruce


From: Jeremy Tandy <jeremy.tandy@gmail.com<mailto:jeremy.tandy@gmail.com>>
Date: Thursday, 11 June 2015 21:19
To: SDW WG Public List <public-sdw-wg@w3.org<mailto:public-sdw-wg@w3.org>>
Subject: BP Principles- more added
Resent-From: <public-sdw-wg@w3.org<mailto:public-sdw-wg@w3.org>>
Resent-Date: Thursday, 11 June 2015 21:20

·         The Best Practices must be actionable by web application developers who just (!) want to use spatial data not become GIS experts; spatial data is just one facet of the information space they work with, so let's not make it special by requiring up front knowledge.



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Ed Parsons
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