Beyond Open Data: Semantic Interoperability

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台灣政府開放資料終於踏出一大步, 先給 data.gov.tw 掌聲 ^^

最近參加了 Code for Tomorrow 的聚會, 其中與會者熱烈地討論如何混搭農委會 (http://data.coa.gov.tw/) 與環保署 (http://cdx.epa.gov.tw/CDX/PublishDownload.aspx) 等開放資料內容, 並於 Open Street Map 呈現. 我們演練的例子就是從環保署公布的重金屬污染地點來看我們購買的米是否鄰近被污染的區域 (謝謝 CfT 的工作小組). 筆者當下有一個想法就是, 這些資料格式在開放的同時, 是否能參考一些國際既有的規格範本, 讓後續要應用資料的使用者更快上手, 讓相關的資料能以同一個規格延伸定義. 這也是我們下一步想要和大家一起努力的 Semantic Interoperability.

若是單一資料源, 通常我們就是把抓資料的 parser 寫好, 接著就是每天或是每個小時自動去爬. 但是如果資料來源牽涉到不同提供者, 雖然可能都是相同的類別 (例如都是某個景點資訊, 我們先簡稱 POI), 可能我們都還得針對每個資料提供機關對於 POI 的定義與欄位先做研究, 才不會一樣要擷取地址, 但是放在 JSON 的欄位卻是不同, 甚至對於”地址”的定義都是不同 (例如要不要包括郵遞區號, 要寫幾碼等).

現在有不同的國際規格組織在做這樣的事情, 如筆者比較熟悉的 Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) 就有 Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) 這樣的規格來針對 Sensor 的感測能力, 感測資料, 感測方式, 以及後續感測資料如何交換等動作做規格化. 這就是不同於資料發佈者以 JSON 規格定義好感測器名字, 單位, 資料等欄位然後就逕行發佈. 當然直接發佈也是 open data, 但重點不在於用 XML 或是 JSON 的哪類工具, 而是在於這些資料欄位, 甚至是延伸的 metadata 有沒有共通的定義. 這樣在跨組織使用資料的時候, 才能簡化很多不必要的開發以及後續相容性的麻煩.

當然這些所謂的 Semantic iInteroperability 的互通應該還是會建立在 Data Quality 的議題之上. 但若能把這些想法也包容加入, 對於台灣後續對於 Open Data 規劃與國際接軌一定會有所幫助 ^^

GeoThings/slayer

Trusted Crowdsourcing for Disaster Information Management

It’s been a while that we didn’t say anything on blog. However, we keep working and getting feedbacks from our users and our partners. 

What is Trusted Crowdsourcing?

Trusted crowdsourcing is the trained volunteers/responders in NGO to provide accurate information and requests for their organization. Those providers know better to describe the situation and needs.

Why we need those information from trusted crowdsourcing?

After our discussion with NGOs in Japan and Taiwan, we found that there’s a huge need for a collaboration platform for knowing each others during disaster response. Not just the NGOs, but also the local government agencies need those up-to-date information. 

GeoThings do the information and resource management platform for NGO, it makes ICT to be a tool for NGO, and use it for what they dealt with before with more automation. At the mean time, the information administrator of NGO may publish (or you can take it as “retweet”) those latest updates to an open platform, a Ushahidi deployment that hosted by GeoThings. That’s how we collaborate with NGO volunteers for trusted crowdsourcing.

Technically, how to collect Trusted Crowdsourcing Information? 

Those trusted information pop up in NGO’s internal platform (deployed and operated by GeoThings), delivered from mobile phone via geo-tagged SMS. Administrator of NGO may choose what to keep internally and what to share to the public for further coordination.

Achieve coordination from Trusted Crowdsourcing

Now not just NGOs can share the latest disaster response activities with its trusted crowdsourcing, but also the INGOs from outside and the government agencies can receive those trusted information for a better coordination on the open platform that GeoThings deployed. We hope this mechanism can really do something to help the coordination, since saving time means saving more lives.

GeoThings/slayer

GeoThings Disaster Management & Coordination Platform

Q:I would like to talk to you about the platform you propose, improvements that might be made, the reasons you chose Ushahidi and if there might be benefit from redesigning the foundation of the project. I am a member of the SBTF and you can get a hold of me through those channels. - om

Anonymous

Hi, I had a great conversation via mail with Kirk Morris few weeks ago, do you know each other?

Please feel free to mail me (slayer[at]geothings[dot]tw) because I don’t know how to reach you. Looking forward to hearing your insight ^^

Sahana Mobile for Hurricane Sandy Relief!

We know we are away away from NYC but GeoThings still feels like to do some contribution to it. We works with Sahana team these days and quickly developed an Android library which can make request to Sahana deployment for Hurricane Sandy Relief from mobile phone. 

Thanks to Sahana guys, they are the first miler in NYC and did a great job to understand the needs, then carry it out. With S3XML, it reflects how Sahana adapts various situation in a flexible way for disaster management. However, this flexibility also increases the degree of complexity to catch up the updates from the perspective of a mobile developer. As a result, GeoThings develops the Sahana mobile library that interfacing between Android app and Sahana deployment.

The screenshots of this post shows the list of locations and items are dynamically generated on Android phone according to S3XML, which is obtained from the deployment of Sahana for Sandy Relief. With this Sahana mobile library, the first milers and volunteers are able to make their request to Sahana deployment for resource with their smart phone. We believe this feature will certainly boost the efficiency and helps on coordination. 

slayer/GeoThings

Send Your SMS Report to Ushahidi with Photo!!

The latest Ushahidi Android APP support Open GeoSMS to send incident report with geo-tagged SMS, but this is not the only feature we enhanced :-)

With the Ushahidi deployment that enabled Open GeoSMS plugin, the photo that you attached in report, can be later synchronized when internet (or better bandwidth) is available.

We know the internet bandwidth is precious for post disaster management. As a result, to send the report with SMS then sync the status photo afterwards should be a good strategy. Now you can have this feature on the latest Ushahidi Android APP, enjoy.

slayer/GeoThings

The latest updates of Find Me Maybe is for FEMA text messages!!There’re already some handy services going on, such as the text message services by FEMA. Find Me Maybe quickly supports the feature so you don’t need to remember the short code anymore. Just download Find Me Maybe and you are ready to get the FEMA text messages!Here is the official URL for FEMA text messages: http://m.fema.gov/text_messages.htm
Pop-upView Separately

The latest updates of Find Me Maybe is for FEMA text messages!!

There’re already some handy services going on, such as the text message services by FEMA. Find Me Maybe quickly supports the feature so you don’t need to remember the short code anymore. Just download Find Me Maybe and you are ready to get the FEMA text messages!

Here is the official URL for FEMA text messages: 
http://m.fema.gov/text_messages.htm

Are you familiar with the “loading” of Facebook app?  

During/after the disaster, or just a random rush hour while lots of people accessing to internet via 3G network, not to mention that while you were traveling overseas, the bandwidth of mobile internet is so precious. Sometimes it’s not so easy for you to login your facebook for a check-in. Find Me Maybe provides an alternative tool to let your friends or family to know where you are.

Thanks to the old school technology, SMS. We can simply type some words in Find Me Maybe and then send it to Facebook or Twitter with your location information. What’s the difference between the check-in and the location information that posted by Find Me Maybe? Find Me Maybe provides the an URL that points to Google Maps as your current location information. Please see the following example:

http://maps.google.com/?q=24.170859,120.643973&GeoSMS
I’m okay here, please don’t worry about me.

The biggest difference will be, while it’s not easy to get connected, sending your location information via SMS is totally making sense. Not to mention that during the evacuation, you might not really know “where you are” or “which shelter you are”. Just go out, launch Find Me Maybe, get GPS located, and send your message to Facebook or Twitter. So your friend or family will know exactly your location without further explanation of address.

It gonna be your handy app during/after disaster, and also helpful while you traveling abroad without data plan :-)

slayer@GeoThings

After ICST-Asia 2012, the Executive Director of THEOS (THailand Earth Observation System) saying that THEOS is free for academic purpose. According to our previous experience with NSPO and FCUGIS on Formosat-II, we made this proposal, Disaster Management with THEOS, and really looking forward to the collaboration with THEOS for the supports on humanitarian relief.

The Embassy of France in Thailand and TRF (Thailand Research Fund) are aggressive on forming a ICT-topic-related research network for international collaboration. As a result, GeoThings uses the “white board” idea for open data platform for humanitarian coordinations as proposal to TRF. Any organization, company, or institute who interested in this, or would like to join, please feel free to contact us :-)

Ushahidi as Open Data Platform for Disaster Management

In Asia Forum of Seoul OGC TC meeting, we made a proposal to run an open platform for various organizations in Asia. For the post disaster management, it’s usually not that easy to coordinate among humanitarian organizations since we lack of the up to date information including the latest incidents, follow up actions of different organizations, the resource dispatching status from various parties, and so on. 

Just like what we are going to mention in ICCM2012, every organization feels like to have their own private management system for volunteer, warehouse, and resource. That’s totally making sense. However, in the meantime, an open platform need to be leveraged for further coordination on humanitarian supports. That’s the reason why we did this proposal as the shown illustration, to make Ushahidi as an open platform for various humanitarian organizations.

Are you also interesting in the development or joining this project? Just Let us know :-)

slayer/GeoThings

Ignite Talk Proposal to ICCM 2012

Name of Organization: ITRI/GeoThings

Country of Residence: Taiwan

Title: How ICT coordinates humanitarian assistance and disaster relief

Abstract of Talk:

In post disaster management, various humanitarian task forces were there and coordination is certainly one the major issues we have to deal. In this ignite talk, we would like to introduce an ICT solution based on Ushahidi, Sahana, Open Street Map, and Open GeoSMS for not only the front-line supporting volunteers/workers but also the administrators in headquarter. With those features that we are going to mention, the front-line supporting teams can easily report the latest status, acquire necessary resources, request the latest satellite image, receive the dispatched task from headquarter, and do the group chat and location exchange in one simple mobile client. Those features can work with SMS enabled environment, that means, if the data network is not easy to access, this tool can still provide its function and able to deliver essential information for further coordinations. 

With this mobile client talking to back-end services, we will also propose  a simplified interface of server that allows the administrators can quickly view the status map, receive resource request, and dispatch the resource and task in an integrated UI. 

The following features will be included in this talk and have been leveraged by TzuChi (http://www.tzuchi.org/) as experimental trial run in several humanitarian supporting events.

1. Incident Report (to Ushahidi)

2. Task Inbox (dispatched by Sahana, shows on Open Street Map)

3. Resource Request (to Sahana or private database)

4. Satellite Image Request (to Formosat-II)

5. Team Communication (via Open GeoSMS)

New technology should be able to help, not to annoying people with a high learning curve. Our idea is to build an easy-to-use ICT collaboration system for front-line volunteers/works and the administrators in headquarter. Thus, we integrated Ushahidi as open data/information platform, Sahana as resource allocation and task dispatching system, Open Street Map as offline map resource to bring up the map-view based information, and Open GeoSMS as a message format to exchange location information via SMS. Sounds complicated? It’s quite easy if we make only the “essential features” accessible to users and hide rest of the details. This is an idea and a project that we would like to share and get feedbacks in this ignite talk :-)