The “Open Government” workshop will bring together speakers from across industry, research and academia to contribute towards some of the fundamental theoretical and technical questions emerging in the Open Data space (i.e., how to mark up and release open data; licensing models for governments; conflicts between data protection and transparency and structuring access to data by different groups). The session will be a series of presented papers with a lively explorative session which will inform, provoke and encourage discussion.

Proceedings of the Seattle and Nottingham workshops and selected longer papers will be published in a special issue of the open-access International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructure Research published by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.

Registration for the OSGIS and workshop will commence shortly.  If you require any further information regarding the workshop please contact either Dr. Hanif Rahemtulla, Horizon Digital Economy Research at the University of Nottingham (hanif.rahemtulla[AT]nottingham.ac.uk) or Puneet Kishor, Creative Commons (punkish[AT]creative commons.org].

Sessions may take the form of presented papers, panels, practitioner forums, discussions or workshops. Innovative sessions and formats are encouraged. Sessions are 1 hour 40 minutes long. Most sessions will contain five 20-minute presentations, which includes time for questions, or four 20-minute presentations with discussion and questions at the end. Interactive short papers sessions (5 to 10 min presentations with plenary discussion at the end) usually accommodate up to 8 papers.

To apply for a GIScRG sponsored session, please send your session proposal (max 500 words), the name of the session convenor(s) and the session format (e.g. panel, paper session, discussion) to Yi Gong (Yi.gong[AT]manchester.ac.uk) by 24th November 2010.

More about the conference theme:

“Visualisation, mapping, environmental reconstruction, landscape symbolism, terrain modelling, place picturing, virtual worlds, visionary worlds, cultural ecologies,  climatic scenarios, patterned ground, sites of representation, image making, theory building, field observation…so many subjects and methods, topics and technologies, across the broad spectrum of geography, are powerfully shaped by a geographical imagination.�
The conference will explore many dimensions of the geographical imagination, including its histories and futures, meanings and materials, pleasures and politics, practices and effects.  We welcome sessions and papers on the place of the imagination in geography’s many fields of enquiry, including multi-disciplinary fields within and beyond geography, and those which engage with a wider public.�
Contributors are invited to address both traditional and experimental aspects of the geographical imagination, its down to earthness as well as its sense of adventure, its role in creating factual, measurable and practical knowledge as well as conjectural and speculative findings.  We also welcome contributions that explore the geographical imagination as a medium of communication and dissemination, crossing communities within and beyond geography, and its role in making an impact in a wider world.”

Further details about the conference can be found here.

emerging issues and possible futures

An international conference

Cardiff University, 2^nd – 4^th August 2010

Qualitative GIS is an emerging, mixed-method and interdisciplinary research approach that is attracting interest across a range of disciplines. The early literature has highlighted the innovative nature of the Qualitative GIS approach to combining ‘qualitative’ and ‘quantitative’ spatial data and encouraging multiple epistemological approaches to spatial research. The emerging body of Qualitative GIS research calls for further methodological, theoretical and empirical development of this research approach. In August 2010, WISERD will be holding an international conference to consider the emerging issues and possible futures of qualitative GIS.

WISERD (Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods) is a National Research Centre for interdisciplinary social science research. WISERD draws together and builds upon existing expertise and research across Wales in quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods, methodologies and analyses and has embarked upon a programme of data integration, primary research and capacity building.

This conference will bring together interested people from a wide variety of disciplines in order to:

• discuss some of the theoretical and methodological challenges in moving Qualitative GIS forward;
• consider the possibility of an international and collaborative research agenda and working group for Qualitative GIS;
• work towards new and shared outputs related to this research agenda.

The conference will take the form of a series of presentations; round-table discussions; break-out groups and networking sessions through which the group will consider the challenges to progressing qualitative GIS and identify how to move forward in collaboration with one other.

Keynote speakers

Mei-Po Kwan, Distinguished Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences,

Department of Geography, The Ohio State University

Marianna Pavlovskaya, Associate Professor, Department of Geography,

Hunter College, CUNY

Registration details

Registration is opens now.  Places are limited to 60 people.

To register your interest, and receive further details, please contact us using the details below.

WISERD,

Cardiff University, 46 Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3VB

Email: wiserd@cardiff.ac.uk (Tel: +44 (0) 2920 879338)    (Fax: +44 (0) 2920 874520)

http://www.wiserd.ac.uk/training-events-2/conferences/qualgisconference/

Convenors: Dr. Hanif Rahemtulla (hanif.rahemtulla@mail.mcgill.ca) and Dr. Muki Haklay (m.haklay@ucl.ac.uk)

This session will examine the participatory governance potential of the Geoweb and, in particular, its capacity to enable a two-way dialogue between government officials and the public. From a practical perspective, we will explore how different levels of governments can use the Geoweb as a platform that could build upon current PPGIS/PGIS practices and broaden public engagement. From a theoretical standpoint, we propose to address the scientific, technical, and participatory issues that challenge the accomplishment of this vision.

Please contact convenors for more information.

Session 1

Title: MEME: An Integrated Tool For Advanced Computational Experiments
Author(s): Rajmund Bocsi (AITIA International Inc) Gabor Ferschl (AITIA International Inc) László Gulyás (AITIA International Inc / Loránd Eötvös University) Attila Szabó (AITIA International Inc / Loránd Eötvös University, Hungary)
Presenter: László Gulyás (Loránd Eötvös University, Hungary)
[slideshare id=1935727&doc=gulys-1-090901014728-phpapp02]

Title: Creating an Agent-Based Model of Consumer Behaviour
Author(s): Alison Heppenstall (University of Leeds) and Kirk Harland (University of Leeds)
Presenter: Kirk Harland (University of Leeds)
[slideshare id=1935797&doc=harland-2-090901015835-phpapp02]

Title: An agent-based framework for modelling social activities and travel
Author(s): Nicole Ronald (Einhoven University of Technology, Holland), Theo Arentze (Einhoven University of Technology, Holland), Harry Timmermans (Eindhoven University of Technology, Holland)
Presenter: Nicole Ronald (Eindhoven University of Technology, Holland)
[slideshare id=1935798&doc=ronald-3-090901015831-phpapp02]

Title: Impacts of Network Topology on Tax Evasion in a Complex Artificial Social System
Author(s): Attila Szabó (AITIA International Inc / Loránd Eötvös University, Hungary), László Gulyás (AITIA International Inc / Loránd Eötvös University, Hungary), István János Tóth (Hungarian Chamber of Commerce)
Presenter: Atilla Szabo (AITIA International Inc / Loránd Eötvös University, Hungary)
[slideshare id=1935815&doc=aszabo-4-090901020250-phpapp01]

Title:Agent-based simulation of the spatial evolution of the historical population in China
Author(s): Jing Wu (Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Zheng Wang (Chinese Academy of Sciences)
Presenter: Jing Wu (Chinese Academy of Sciences)
[slideshare id=1935796&doc=wu-5-090901015825-phpapp01]

Session 2

Title: Modelling the role of neighbourhood support in regional climate change adaptation
Author(s): Friedrich Krebs (University of Kassel, Germany), Sascha Holzhauer (University of Kassel, Germany) and Andreas Ernst (University of Kassel, Germany)
Presenter: Friedrich Krebs (University of Kassel, Germany)
[slideshare id=1935839&doc=krebs-s21-090901021407-phpapp02]

Title: Validation of an Agent-based Model of Shifting Agriculture
Author(s): The An Ngo (University of Leeds), Linda See (University of Leeds), Frances Drake (University of Leeds)
Presenter: The An Ngo (University of Leeds)
[slideshare id=1935842&doc=ngo-2-090901021441-phpapp01]

Title: Cellular automata with non-linear transition rules for simulating land cover change
Author(s): Katarzyna Ostapowicz (Jagiellonian University, Poland)
Presenter: Katarzyna Ostapowicz (Jagiellonian University, Poland)
[slideshare id=1935871&doc=ostapowicz-3-090901022102-phpapp01]

Title: Waves of Change – Modelling the Nicobars in the after-math of the 2004 Tsunami and beyond
Author(s): Martin Wildenberg (University of Klagenfurt, Austria)Simron Singh (University of Klagenfurt, Austria)
Presenter: Martin Wildenberg ( University of Klagenfurt, Austria)
[slideshare id=1935832&doc=wildenberg-4-090901021029-phpapp02]

UCL’s research mission as a global university is based around a series of Grand Challenges that affect us all, and these will be accommodated in GISRUK 2010. We are also, of course, a university based in London and so want to represent the challenges of a global city and the diversity of GI research problems the city poses.

Our overarching theme this year will therefore be “Global Challenges”. As is usual with GISRUK we welcome papers across the range of contemporary GIS research but we will particularly welcome papers in the following themes:

• Crime and Place
• Environmental Change
• Migration and Identity
• Intelligent Transport
• Public Health and Epidemiology
• Simulation and Modelling
• London as a global city
• The geoweb and neo-geography
• Open GIS and Volunteered Geographic Information

The Call for Papers is open and will close at the end of November 2009.

Click here for the GISRUK 2010 Website