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Friday, October 23. 2009

One Solution to the Authoritative Data Question

I've run into several discussions of late that basically ask the question: What is authoritative spatial data?

Google's had to address that quite a bit when country's "complain" that its maps don't have a dispute area's boundaries "right." The latest issue is in Arunachal Pradesh, a region under dispute by China and India.

The solution: "The Chinese version of Google Maps shows parts of Arunachal Pradesh as inside China's borders. In contrast, the Indian version of Google Maps depicts the state as part of India. But both of those depictions differ from the global version of Google Maps, which shows Arunachal Pradesh as disputed territory within broken lines on the map."

Clearly, the answer for different organizations involved in mapping will be different and likely, complex. And, some concerns will clearly be political rather than simply over accurate measurement.

- PC World

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Google at 07:22 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0) | Bookmark and Share

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Good post Adena.

This is all true. As we talk about spatial data being restrictive and having specific meaning, I am finding out that it is all about communication. A single point is defined and it has a permanent ID, then everything associated with that point (or record) is information about what "it" is. It could have a million names (or misspellings) and they are all correct because that is what they were called by at that time when it was communicated. The frequency of a name, relative to its context or place provide it an authoritative quality.

So I think all three maps are correct.

What's interesting is that if all three are correct and misspellings are also correct then we are closer to universal language. Rather, I think that kids already deal in a universal language that includes all the social media and dynamic sources of information like google and wikipedia.

They all speak the same language in fragments and clouds of information relative to their social network.

I'm not sure that the above mentioned is a solution, but rather a perspective.

Best-
Mike Vanhook
@electricghia
#1 Mike Vanhook on 2009-10-23 16:56 (Reply)
Hi Adena, Thanks for your recent posts regarding authoritative data and the explosion of new data sources (e.g., Google, OSM). This is a topic that shouldn't be taken lightly. In my experience the equal or greater concern stems from the resulting data inconsistency when these varied data sets (not necessarily Google) are used for decision-making. The topic highlights not only data consistency as a problem (particularly in the arena of emergency response) but also the enormous opportunity for growth in this aspect of the technology. Keep up the good work!
#2 JIll Saligoe-Simmel (Link) on 2009-10-24 14:12 (Reply)

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