Re: How to proceed with work on the spatial ontology task?

Sorry, my message contained two confusing mistakes. I meant to write "Allow
geometry descriptors to be used for datasets *or* geometry collections" and
"..look up GM_Object from *ISO-19107*"

Frans

2016-05-24 11:57 GMT+02:00 Frans Knibbe <frans.knibbe@geodan.nl>:

> Hello Josh,
>
> I am glad you see a way forward that is approaching a satisfactory level
> of elegance. But I wonder if the approach you suggest leaves room for
> broader use of the geometry concept, particularly:
>
>    1. Allow geometry descriptors to be used for datasets of geometry
>    collections (e.g. express that all geometries in a dataset are 3D points
>    and have CRS X).
>    2. Allow geometry to use a non-earth CRS (e.g. Mars, a building, a
>    microscope slide, a piece of paper).
>    3. Allow geometry to exist without a spatial thing (e.g. a drawing I
>    make in Inkscape which does not represent any real world spatial thing).
>
> I also wonder if this improves options for compatibility with basic geo
> and neogeo.
>
> And I would like to note that I expanded the wiki page
> <https://www.w3.org/2015/spatial/wiki/Further_development_of_GeoSPARQL> a
> bit:
>
>    - I wrote that it makes sense to start with semantic foundations for
>    the concept of geometry
>    - I wrote that although not all relevant ISO standards are freely
>    available, the schemas that they define can be viewed at
>    http://www.isotc211.org/hmmg/HTML. It could be helpful that everyone
>    is able to look up GM_Object from ISO-19117, for instance.
>    - I added the current definition of geometry in GeoSPARQL
>    <https://www.w3.org/2015/spatial/wiki/Further_development_of_GeoSPARQL#Definition_of_geometry> (it
>    looks expandable enough)
>
> Regards,
> Frans
>
>
>
> 2016-05-23 15:57 GMT+02:00 Joshua Lieberman <jlieberman@tumblingwalls.com>
> :
>
>> I’ve thought about this a bit more and there doesn’t seem to be any
>> significant problem with realizing GM_Object itself from 19107 as a
>> first-class (Web) object. An identified geometric object with additional
>> properties should also be compatible with GML, although GML also puts a lot
>> of attributes on properties such as geometryPropertyType that would need to
>> be class properties instead in rdf or in json. If the necessary properties
>> can be added to GM_Object for discovery / governance / maintenance, this
>> should simplify the pattern for one-to-many or many-to-many feature -
>> geometry Web links.
>>
>> The general pattern can also be collapsed further to an alternative
>> simple geometry property equivalent to georss Simple, with strict defaults
>> for cases where the simplest sort of positioning expressiveness is
>> sufficient. Not sure how best to define this equivalence, however, beyond
>> descriptively, as in GeoRSS and GML 3.2.1 . Perhaps SPIN would help?.
>>
>> Almost elegant.
>>
>> Example:
>>
>> myFeature a geo:feature ;
>>      rdf:about somefeatureURI
>>      geo:point  "X,Y”
>>      geo:centroid somegeometryURI
>>
>>
>> myGeometry a  geo:point ;
>>               rdf:about somegeometryURI
>>               geo:geomtype “point"
>>               geo:geomCRS <someCRSURL>
>>               geo:geomresolution “someResolution"
>>               geo:asWKT “POINT…”
>>               geo:asJSON “[…]”
>>               geo:asGML “<..>”
>>               geo:centroidFor somefeatureURI
>>
>>
>> where
>>
>> geo:point  "X,Y” is equivalent to
>>
>> geo:geometry [
>>               geo:geomtype “point"
>>               geo:geomCRS CRS84
>>               geo:geomresolution “undefined"
>>               geo:asPos “...”
>> ]
>>
>> Josh
>>
>> On May 20, 2016, at 6:47 PM, Rob Atkinson <rob@metalinkage.com.au> wrote:
>>
>>
>> anyone have an elegant solution? Do we make a wiki page for this specific
>> problem?
>> I think we are at the heart of the issue here - something fairly obvious
>> with lots of bad ways of "solving", that we need expert help find a best
>> practice for
>>
>>
>> On Sat, 21 May 2016 at 08:15 Joshua Lieberman <
>> jlieberman@tumblingwalls.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Really don’t want to go down the reified property route with this and
>>> we’d still have geompropmeta1, geompropmeta2,…but I agree we have not
>>> achieved elegance here yet.
>>>
>>> Josh
>>>
>>>
>>> On May 20, 2016, at 5:52 PM, Rob Atkinson <rob@metalinkage.com.au>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Josh
>>>
>>> leaving the meta-meta-meta complexity dimension aside for the moment :-)
>>>
>>>
>>> it sounds to me like you are making the case for reified geometry
>>> properties - with a convention that a simple property can have further
>>> properties declared against it with a reified property
>>>
>>> something like:
>>>
>>> myFeature a geo:feature ;
>>>      foo:point  "X,Y"
>>>      foo:geompropmeta [
>>>          foo:geomprop <foo:point>
>>>          foo:geomfunction <foovoc:Centroid>
>>>          foo:geomCRS <someCRSURL>
>>>     ]
>>>
>>> this is limited to one value of a property per feature.
>>> Or maybe there is a more elegant way of doing this?
>>>
>>> R
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, 21 May 2016 at 02:07 Joshua Lieberman <
>>> jlieberman@tumblingwalls.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> We actually need to go up a level potential complexity here and then
>>>> figure out how to make it as simple as possible. ISO 19107 was concerned
>>>> with mathematically valid geometries. 19109 is concerned with making the
>>>> separation between features and geometries by defining geometric properties
>>>> of features. All good so far, but the step of creating a first-class
>>>> geometric representation object (identifiable and linkable with its own
>>>> properties) was not really considered either in the ISO specs or in the GML
>>>> realization. We’ve had linked data schemes where data properties can be
>>>> appended to reference features with their characteristic geometry, but not
>>>> interchangeability of geometries for a given feature (or distributed
>>>> recognition of features by linking data properties with independent
>>>> geometric representations.
>>>>
>>>> This means going from feature <- geometry to feature <->
>>>> gm_representation <- geometry where gm_representation carries searchable
>>>> properties such as geometry type, scale, crs, etc. and geometry can include
>>>> alternate serializations such as SVG that require being combined with those
>>>> properties.
>>>>
>>>> Once such a feature realization is developed, one can certainly
>>>> collapse it to convenience formulations for simpler cases, even point(lon,
>>>> lat) as long as the equivalence is well defined. Not sure what ontology
>>>> “dimension” this represents, or perhaps it’s a projection along the
>>>> complexity dimension.
>>>>
>>>> Josh
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On May 20, 2016, at 5:04 AM, Frans Knibbe <frans.knibbe@geodan.nl>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi Rob,
>>>>
>>>> Have I understood correctly that you would like to see a prioritization
>>>> of options for improvement? My thought was to first collect all possible
>>>> ideas for improvement, and then refine or prioritize them. But we could add
>>>> a section about priority of suggested changes now. I agree that the
>>>> semantic foundations have high priority. Especially the definition of
>>>> geometry, which is the core concept. When geometry is defined, geometry
>>>> descriptors would follow from that more or less automatically. In other
>>>> words - when building something, it makes perfect sense to start with the
>>>> foundations.
>>>>
>>>> It will be interesting to see if it possible to have a definition of
>>>> geometry that is not exclusively geographic, that allows geometry to exist
>>>> without a related spatial thing, and that does not clash with existing
>>>> definitions.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Frans
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> 2016-05-20 8:39 GMT+02:00 Rob Atkinson <rob@metalinkage.com.au>:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi - I looked at the page and I see the "first step" I was wondering
>>>>> about in the middle : under Semantic foundations.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm not sure where to put my input as a result.
>>>>>
>>>>> The thread has highlighted that one issue is how geometries are bound
>>>>> to a feature - what are they are named (what property to use) and how those
>>>>> properties themselves are modelled.
>>>>>
>>>>> We also have many possible encodings, levels of detail, crs for each
>>>>> geometry - where is that information present in the binding - in the
>>>>> property definition, the datatype of the subject - e.g. skos:notation
>>>>> "GBP"^^a-uri-representing-the-set-of-currency-codes" or by reification of
>>>>> the property.
>>>>>
>>>>> I suspect the "flat" model where we put an out-of-band set of
>>>>> assertions about the equivalence of property names is going to be the
>>>>> easiest way to justify something as an actual "Practice" - but its still an
>>>>> open question IMHO about the best way to make it simple for clients.
>>>>> Finding and interpreting OWL to understand a random property name is quite
>>>>> a burden for the user - but easy for the publisher - even easier if they
>>>>> neglect to publish the definitions :-) This provider-centric pattern is I
>>>>> suspect a major reason Linked Data has had low levels of perceived value
>>>>> and adoption.
>>>>>
>>>>> To me establishing a well known binding of geometry to features is
>>>>> more important than standardisation amongst the many competing encodings -
>>>>> and has the beneift that we dont need to resolve the best way to encode now
>>>>> - even though we could make recommendations.
>>>>>
>>>>> So perhaps it comes down to testing whether geosparql geo:feature
>>>>> allows us to implement all we need, without introducing things we dont need
>>>>> - or if we need to define something else and somehow define an alignment
>>>>> with geosparql.
>>>>>
>>>>> thats the architect's viewpoint - how to make this work for users. We
>>>>> need the semantacists input in how best to achieve it.
>>>>>
>>>>> Left to my own devices - on the wiki page i'd put this the semantic
>>>>> foundations at the top of the list and push all the geometry-centric
>>>>> details into a set of options for implementation choices. I felt i should
>>>>> get feedback before going that far.
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers
>>>>> Rob
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, 19 May 2016 at 23:08 Joshua Lieberman <
>>>>> jlieberman@tumblingwalls.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> One of the rabbit holes we will need to skirt is that everyone is an
>>>>>> expert. While we may have good reason in theory and practice to separate
>>>>>> feature - geometry - crs -serialization, many Semantic Web representers of
>>>>>> space have seen no need for it for the application at hand and just
>>>>>> collapse everything into one concept. This is one of the reasons that
>>>>>> GeoRSS set up multiple formulations with assertions of equivalence - geo,
>>>>>> simple, and GML. Then one could use a simple form and someone else could
>>>>>> unpack it to do more with.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Btw, using crs to enforce a serialization format has always been a
>>>>>> terrible idea. Better to let geodesists and computer scientists each do
>>>>>> what they do best and document it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Joshua Lieberman, Ph.D.
>>>>>> Principal, Tumbling Walls Consultancy
>>>>>> Tel/Direct: +1 617-431-6431
>>>>>> jlieberman@tumblingwalls.com
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On May 19, 2016, at 08:51, Frans Knibbe <frans.knibbe@geodan.nl>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks Andrea, I will add those ideas (I did already add GeoShape).
>>>>>> If you come up with more ideas, please feel free to edit the wiki page.
>>>>>> Everyone can use it as a scratch pad.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>> Frans
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 2016-05-19 14:39 GMT+02:00 Andrea Perego <
>>>>>> andrea.perego@jrc.ec.europa.eu>:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks, Frans.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> My two cents:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 1. Geometry serialisations / datatypes
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Other examples to be taken into account include:
>>>>>>> - Geohash (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geohash)
>>>>>>> - The geo: URI scheme (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geo_URI_scheme)
>>>>>>> - The serialisation used in Schema.org <http://schema.org/> - see,
>>>>>>> e.g., http://schema.org/GeoShape
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On the other hand, I'm not sure the way NeoGeo models geometries can
>>>>>>> be considered a serialisation:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> http://geovocab.org/doc/neogeo.html#vocabulary
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 2. Geometry descriptors
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I think we should include also the axis order. This should be
>>>>>>> implicitly specified by the CRS, but needs to be made explicit. Also, some
>>>>>>> platforms may use a default axis order irrespective of the CRS - if I'm not
>>>>>>> mistaken this is the case in PostGIS, where the default axis order is lon /
>>>>>>> lat.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Andrea
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 19/05/2016 13:12, Frans Knibbe wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> OK, I have just made a new wiki page
>>>>>>>> <
>>>>>>>> https://www.w3.org/2015/spatial/wiki/Further_development_of_GeoSPARQL
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> that links from the existing wiki page about the agreed spatial
>>>>>>>> ontology
>>>>>>>> <https://www.w3.org/2015/spatial/wiki/An_agreed_spatial_ontology>.
>>>>>>>> The
>>>>>>>> page is about a specfic approach to how to achieve the spatial
>>>>>>>> ontology
>>>>>>>> - we start with GeoSPARQL 1.0. That choice marks a significant
>>>>>>>> narrowing
>>>>>>>> of scope, and I hope the scope can be narrowed even further. The new
>>>>>>>> wiki page is for collecting ideas on how we could further develop
>>>>>>>> GeoSPARQL. Hopefully some people with good ideas can contribute and
>>>>>>>> hopefully we can eventually align all ideas. Josh and Rob: Do you
>>>>>>>> think
>>>>>>>> the new wiki page can be a good way forward, and if so, can you
>>>>>>>> manage
>>>>>>>> to incorporate your ideas and information? If you agree this is a
>>>>>>>> step
>>>>>>>> in the right direction we could the take some action to involve more
>>>>>>>> people in thinking along.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>>>> Frans
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> 2016-05-19 2:56 GMT+02:00 Rob Atkinson <rob@metalinkage.com.au
>>>>>>>> <mailto:rob@metalinkage.com.au>>:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>     Having a very lightweight ontology that defines a "feature"
>>>>>>>> would be
>>>>>>>>     a great start.  As a test case, I'd like to explore defining an
>>>>>>>>     RDF-Datacube dimension using such an ontology - the
>>>>>>>>     observation:featureOfInterest ontology. Personally, I dont think
>>>>>>>>     importing the full ISO 19150 ontology is a workable strategy -
>>>>>>>> but
>>>>>>>>     one could have annotation properties (or an additional module)
>>>>>>>> that
>>>>>>>>     handles the alignment to 19150.  At the moment I see many
>>>>>>>> attempts -
>>>>>>>>     but nothing accepted by the community at large.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>     simply, one ought to be able to look at a dimension defined
>>>>>>>> against
>>>>>>>>     a datatype, and/or set of objects, and discover that such
>>>>>>>> objects a
>>>>>>>>     spatial features and thus the dimension supports operations
>>>>>>>> relevant
>>>>>>>>     to spatial features - such as find the properties of such
>>>>>>>> features
>>>>>>>>     and running a filter on them.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>     I'm happy to help shepherd this Use Case through the emerging
>>>>>>>> plan -
>>>>>>>>     and verify the solution is implementable. I need this in the
>>>>>>>> context
>>>>>>>>     of other BP work OGC is involved in.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>     Rob
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>     On Thu, 19 May 2016 at 02:03 Joshua Lieberman
>>>>>>>>     <jlieberman@tumblingwalls.com <mailto:
>>>>>>>> jlieberman@tumblingwalls.com>>
>>>>>>>>     wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>         This is probably a type locality for W3C - OGC
>>>>>>>> collaboration, as
>>>>>>>>         we should develop a GeoSPARQL change request and SWG charter
>>>>>>>>         that contains a proposed update to the feature data ontology
>>>>>>>>         part at least, that the SDWWG can then reference in BP. The
>>>>>>>>         charter could be considered at the OGC June meeting. The
>>>>>>>>         technical challenge (besides the usual simplicity vs
>>>>>>>> capability)
>>>>>>>>           is that there is pretty good consensus on the concepts and
>>>>>>>>         principles, but we’re divided by the way those materialize
>>>>>>>> in
>>>>>>>>         different encodings.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>         Josh
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>         On May 18, 2016, at 11:54 AM, Ed Parsons <
>>>>>>>>> eparsons@google.com
>>>>>>>>>         <mailto:eparsons@google.com>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>         Frans I think it is up to you and Josh to suggest a way
>>>>>>>>>         forward, I would suggest you focus on a very strict scope
>>>>>>>>> of
>>>>>>>>>         documenting an ontology based on that used by GeoSPARQL,
>>>>>>>>>         perhaps just start with a shared document/wiki for comment
>>>>>>>>> ?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>         Ed
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>         On Wed, 18 May 2016 at 10:42 Frans Knibbe
>>>>>>>>>         <frans.knibbe@geodan.nl <mailto:frans.knibbe@geodan.nl>>
>>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>             Dear chairpeople, Josh,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>             In the teleconference of 2016-04-27
>>>>>>>>>             <https://www.w3.org/2016/04/27-sdw-minutes> we
>>>>>>>>> discussed
>>>>>>>>>             the spatial ontology mentioned in the charter as a
>>>>>>>>> part of
>>>>>>>>>             the BP deliverable. Although no official actions or
>>>>>>>>>             resolutions were recorded, we did agree that working on
>>>>>>>>>             this topic was needed, that the work would be separate
>>>>>>>>>             from work on the BP document, that Josh and I would
>>>>>>>>> try to
>>>>>>>>>             take point and that we would take the current GeoSPARQL
>>>>>>>>>             standard as a starting point.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>             How can we take this forward? Should we first try to
>>>>>>>>> form
>>>>>>>>>             a group of interested people? Or should we just start
>>>>>>>>>             somewhere, for example by making a wish list for a next
>>>>>>>>>             version of GeoSPARQL, and making that interesting
>>>>>>>>> enough
>>>>>>>>>             for many people to get involved?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>             Regards,
>>>>>>>>>             Frans
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>         --
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>         *Ed Parsons *FRGS
>>>>>>>>>         Geospatial Technologist, Google
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>         Google Voice +44 (0)20 7881 4501
>>>>>>>>>         <tel:%2B44%20%280%2920%207881%204501
>>>>>>>>> <%2B44%20%280%2920%207881%204501>>
>>>>>>>>>         www.edparsons.com <http://www.edparsons.com/> @edparsons
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> Andrea Perego, Ph.D.
>>>>>>> Scientific / Technical Project Officer
>>>>>>> European Commission DG JRC
>>>>>>> Institute for Environment & Sustainability
>>>>>>> Unit H06 - Digital Earth & Reference Data
>>>>>>> Via E. Fermi, 2749 - TP 262
>>>>>>> 21027 Ispra VA, Italy
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>

Received on Tuesday, 24 May 2016 10:01:30 UTC