A keynote presentation given at the Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS) seminar held at the University of York, May 2014

1. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
21st Century
Geospatial #HistEnv
Data Management
Paul Cripps
University of South Wales, Trefforest, UK
• Hypermedia Research Unit
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Research Unit
Archaeogeomancy, Salisbury, UK

2. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Introduction
• Background
• Resources
• Problems
• Potential
• Strategy
• Issues
Earthorama by spdorsey http://flic.kr/p/69C5QD

3. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Background: GSTAR
• GeoSemantic Technologies for Archaeological Resources
• Aims & Objectives:
• To incorporate complex geospatial information into our
ontological models of heritage data
• Vector depictions: lines, polygons
• Place & Location: points
• Investigate advances in geospatial and geosemantic
approaches
• Application of geosemantics and Linked Geospatial Data
approaches to archaeological resources
• Integration of heterogeneous resources via spatial components of
heritage data
• Application of research questions across diverse heritage
resources

4. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Linked Geospatial Data; integrate

5. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Spatial entities
• Vector objects used in database
environments
• Transcriptions
• Aerial Photos
• Historic maps & plans
• Survey data
• Geophysics & Remote Sensing
• Landscape survey
• Sites and Monuments
• Land classifications
• Designations
• Events and Activities
• Interventions
• Surveys
• Excavated features
• Metadata: Scale, Resolution,
Precision, Accuracy, Source

6. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
InterpretationofexcavationdatausingprojectGIS
Wessex Archaeology
Spatial component used to aid interpretation through mapping and spatial analysis

7. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Stonehenge&AveburyWorldHeritageSiteGIS
English Heritage
Wiltshire HER derived data plus aerial imagery

8. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
ColonisationofBritainLinkedData
Wessex Archaeology, Archaeology Data Service
Linked Data resource built using STELLAR Toolkit including Ordnance Survey Open Data

9. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Resources: Local
• Historic Environment Records (HERs)
• Typically within Local Authorities
• MIDAS compliant structures
• Monuments
• Events
• Sources
• Many now use GIS of some type
• Not all…
• Points, lines, polygons
• Spatial and Temporal Scale & Resolution
• Variable
• Primarily to support NPPF

10. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Resources: National
• AMIE – archaeological sites and monuments
• National record maintained by English Heritage
• National Heritage List for England (NHLE)
• National record maintained by English Heritage
• Designated sites only
• Legally protected
• Scheduling: Area based land classification
• Listing: ‘point’ location of buildings
• Scotland
• RCAHMS, CANMORE
• Wales
• Welsh Trusts HER, RCAHMW, Archwilio

11. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Resources: Other
• Planning Authorities
• National Parks
• Tiers of government, shared
services
• Outsourced services
• Commercial companies
• Heritage trusts
• Infrastructure systems
• OASIS, Heritage Gateway
• Heritage and other
organisations
• National Trust
• Churches
• Defra
• PAS
• Subject specific resources
• Geophysics database
(English Heritage, ADS)
• Project archives
(Archaeology Data Service,
English Heritage)
• Britain from Above (EH,
RCAHMW, RCAHMS)
• Synthesis
• AIP
• Publications
• Grey Literature
• Monographs
• Research Frameworks
• Museum collections
• Disparate ‘digital’ ‘archives’

12. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Current problems
• Lots of geospatial
information!
• Duplication of data
• Overlaps
• Conflicts, versions
• Concordance
• Gaps
• Costly to maintain
• Exchange/Transfer
• Export Publish 
Import paradigm…
• Formats & Systems;
interoperability
• Non-digital
• Software
• Difficult to use
• Quality
• Access
• Licensing
• Costs
• Spatial data as text
• County, Parish indices
• Coordinate precision
• Quality/Currency of
spatial indices
• ‘Archives’
• Dead trees vs live data
• Retention & Disposal

13. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Current problems

14. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Some possibilities…
Working with geospatial data

15. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Inferencing and (spatial) Indexing
Build indices using spatial inferencing across resources

16. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Enhance/Enrich
• Possible to augment resources
• Inferencing
• Reconciliation
• Open Refine
• Toolkit for working with ‘messy data’
• http://openrefine.org/
• Ordnance Survey reconciliation API
• http://data.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/docs/reconciliation
• Turns text (eg Parish, County)  OS Open Data URIs

17. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Enhanced spatial search
Mediate queries using spatial semantics

18. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Aggregation
Each team maintain data and leverage technology to share effectively
National overview as snapshot/dynamic/versioned aggregation

19. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Potential
• Aligned resources
• Requirement: Persistent
Identifiers
• Linked Data not data
exchange/copying
• Aggregation not duplication
• Focus resources
• Share efforts
• Share data
• Shared infrastructure
• Better resource discovery,
access and retrieval
• Improved search; mediation
• This search boundary
• My search boundary
• HTML, KML, (geo)JSON, WKT, etc
• True spatial indices
• Inferencing
• Leverage standards for
interoperability:
• World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C)
• Open Geospatial Consortium
(OGC)
• MIDAS, CIDOC, Spectrum, etc
• Inspire
• Build on good bits of existing
infrastructure
• ADS archives
• Heritage Gateway
• Oasis (principals…)
• NHLE
• HBSMR
• Local maintenance
• Expertise
• HERs as spine
Make more of limited resources

20. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
#HistEnv Spatial Data strategy
Who…?
• Curatorial
• Local, National
• Planning
• Local, National
• Legal
• Professional
• Contractors
• Consultants
• Academic
• Public
Focus on:
• User needs
• Responsibilities
• Resources
• Skills
• Funding
• Deadlines & Drivers
• Division of labour
• Share the load

21. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
#HistEnv Spatial Data strategy
“We form like Voltron…”
Wu-Tang Clan

22. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
#HistEnv Spatial Data strategy
• The Scottish experience
• SHED
• Scotland’s Historic Environment Data strategy
• “This joint venture between local and national bodies comprises
shared and linked digital records. It will be professionally
managed, continually updated, and accessible to all, ensuring the
greatest economic, social and cultural benefits for the people of
Scotland and beyond.”
• “There can be only one…” – Highlander
• Or not: Single definitive resource ruled out
• Opting for distributed, linked approach


23. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014

24. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Potential issues; infrastructure
• Dependency on host
• Procurement policy
• Vendor lock in
• Support
• Not which GIS
software…
• …but which standards
• Compliance is key
• Government
procurement is moving
this way
• FOSS vs COTS
• License costs vs
development costs
• Total Cost of Ownership
• Cost Benefit Analysis
• User Needs
• Understanding &
awareness
• No LAMP here 
• Massive potential for
geospatial heritage
data…

25. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
Conclusions
• Make better use of digital spatial resources
• Efficiency
• Linking, sharing, collaborating
• Technology, infrastructure, skills, users
• Direct resources to content creation/enhancement
• Standards
• Industry
• Heritage
• Collaborative, workable, usable
• Standards again

26. Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS), York, May 2014
fin
• paul.cripps@southwales.ac.uk
• paul@archaeogeomancy.net
• @pauljcripps
• gstar.archaeogeomancy.net
• hypermedia.research.southwales.ac.uk
• gis.research.southwales.ac.uk