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In-Depth Information
and metadata software (geonetwork-opensource.org, wiki.deegree.org), desktop GIS clients for
data updating and analysis (qgis.org, openjump.org) and web GIS development toolkits for browser-
based clients (openlayers.org, openscales.org, mapbender.org). These free and open-source software
tools have not only posed formidable challenges to the dominance and monopoly of commercially
available software (Obe and Hsu, 2011), but they have also prompted commercial software vendors
to open up their closed toolboxes to encourage users to develop and share their application modules
(Stephens et al., 2012; see also Bivand, 2014).
In terms of mass collaboration, we have seen many exciting new advances in the spirit of open
science, following on the phenomenal success of OpenStreetMap (Sui et al., 2012) and a variety
of projects in citizen science (Dickinson et al., 2012). The integration of social media, ubicomp
and urban informatics has brought citizens together and engaged them for worthy causes (Foth
et al., 2011). Particularly noteworthy is the area of emergency management and disaster relief.
We now have Ushahidi, InRelief, Sahana and Crisis Commons playing crucial roles in various
disaster relief efforts, all relying on VGI as a primary data source. These new developments, in
turn, have further encouraged governments to be more open and transparent; more geocoded
data are now available online (e.g. geo.data.gov) and new government-supported platforms are
being developed to facilitate these developments (http://www.geoplatform.gov). Coupled with
industry-initiated efforts for open ubicomp standards (Helal, 2010), these new developments will
greatly facilitate interoperability among the rather heterogeneous ubicomp systems. Perhaps
more important for us as individual researchers and scholars, websites such as OpenScholar
(http://openscholar.harvard.edu), Wikiversity, Citizendium and Scholarpedia will further facili-
tate openness, sharing and collaboration among researchers and scholars, following the open
science model. An interdisciplinary group of scholars have proposed several intriguing concep-
tual frameworks for us to understand the broader implications of ubicomp (Kitchin and Dodge,
2011; de Souza e Silva and Frith, 2012; Farman, 2012), which may potentially serve as a guiding
framework for GC.
Although it is quite breathtaking to witness these developments, there are still plenty of unre-
solved issues for an open GC paradigm. For businesses in the geospatial industry, there is the real-
ity of competing against
the free
, which often requires business people to imagine a new business
model with which to gain a slice of the increasing competitive market and ensure profitability
(Bryce et al., 2011). For those of us in academia, there is the harsh reality that the current academic
reward system is designed for the practice of closed science; new practices in the spirit of open sci-
ence often contradict higher education's push for commercialisation and a business bottom line and
are frequently being discouraged or at least insufficiently rewarded. For government agencies, there
is the struggle over how and where to draw the line in terms of openness and secrecy in the wake of
WikiLeaks (now OpenLeaks). If the history of technological and scientific advances holds any use-
ful lesson, it perhaps is this: ubicomp and open science, similar to all other well-intentioned human
endeavours throughout history, will not be immune from their unintended consequences. Last, but
certainly not least, these issues carry with them certain urgent questions for educators at all levels
from K-12 to graduate school. What are the educational implications of these developments in ubi-
comp, spatial big data and open science? In what skill sets and habits of thinking should we train
and educate our students in order to help them flourish both in the global labour market and as
responsible citizens in the age of ubicomp and spatial big data?
16.5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The goal of this chapter has been to examine the implications of ubicomp for GC. It is abundantly
clear that computing has undergone a fundamental shift during the past two decades as comput-
ing power has gradually embedded itself into the environment of our daily lives. For the first
time in human history, we have the capability of tracking the location of individuals and objects
in real time. Ubicomp has led to a new sentient environment in which the virtual and physical
