Good Morning All,
We have all heard the phrase "80% of data collected, stored, and maintained by local governments includes some reference to geography." In one form or another. I found myself looking for some empirical proof of this before I embarked on quoting the internet which we all know is the oracle of truth.
Apparently the phrase has at least some empirical support, although not total, from some German researchers.
In an 2012 article in press with International Journal of Geographical Information Science, "How much information is geospatially referenced? Networks and cognition," the German university academics attempted to test the theory that 80% of information has a spatial component by looking at German Wikipedia articles. The article took two approaches to analyzing scientifically the statement. The first approach was to look at German Wikipedia articles as a network, with articles as nodes and links within the articles as "edges of a directed graph." The second approach was cognitive. Articles were categorized as having a "direct geospatial reference", "indirect geospatial reference" or "no geospatial reference." The network approach found that 78% of articles were either tagged with geographic coordinates or linked to an article with tagged coordinates. The cognitive approach found that percentage to be closer to 60% at 57%. The article is in German but there is a summary in English near the beginning.
The end of Kahman, Burghardt, and Weber's article indicates real value of the phrase, citing a quote on Twitter by John Fagan<http://twitter.com/johnbfagan/status/9484856028>, Head of Software Engineering, Axon Active AG. Agile & Lean and formerly of Bing Maps and Multimap: "that geo quote keeps us all in our jobs. Best not go poking around to see if it's true."
78 % is good enough for me, although John Fagan may have a point. (:))
Have a tremendous Thursday!
Joe
Joseph Young
Maine Office of GIS, Administrative Director
Maine Library of Geographic Information, Executive Director
SHS 145
51 Commerce Drive<[log in to unmask],-69.802412,822m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x4cb206d051eb934d:0x1075539d44caa8f0!6m1!1e1C:/Users/joseph.young.SOM/Documents/ArcGIS" target="_blank">https:[log in to unmask],-69.802412,822m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x4cb206d051eb934d:0x1075539d44caa8f0!6m1!1e1C:/Users/joseph.young.SOM/Documents/ArcGIS>
Augusta, Maine 04333-0145
VP/Cell: 207-624-2664
http://maine.gov/megis/
http://www.maine.gov/geolib/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This list Maine GeoNews (GEOLIBRARY-L) is an unmoderated discussion list for all Maine GIS Users. If you no longer wish to receive e-mail from this list, you can remove your name and email address yourself at the this web address:
http://lists.maine.edu/cgi/wa?SUBED1=geolibrary-l&A=1
Or,you may also request that your name be removed by sending email to:
[log in to unmask]
|
