Finding the right place online

More and more geospatial information is becoming integrated into the Internet in what has become known as the GeoWeb. An EU-funded project is helping pave the way to GeoWeb 2.0.

The Geospatial Web, or GeoWeb for short, merges geographical information with the abstract information of the Internet. It has become increasingly popular with the rise of global positioning system (GPS) devices, geo-location services and smart phones. As it becomes increasingly more interactive, we have now entered the era of the GeoWeb 2.0.

With financing from the EU, the project 'A geospatial knowledge world' (GEOCROWD) is striving to promote the GeoWeb 2.0's vision. Specifically, the project is focusing on the collection, storage, analysis, processing, reconciliation and accessibility of semantically rich, user-generated geospatial information available on the Internet.

GEOCROWD is carrying out three main activities: exploiting user-contributed geospatial data, managing geospatial data, and accessing and disseminating this data online.

When it comes to user-generated data, the project is focusing on travel blogs, where it is investigating the semantic information non-expert users utilise in their descriptions.

The project is due to conclude its activities at the end of November 2014, and should ultimately help to make GeoWeb 2.0 a reality.

Related link:
http://cordis.europa.eu