GI-days in Münster

Workshop: Semantics in a GDI

W. Kuhn (Institut für Geoinformatik, Universität Münster) and colleagues

Download of the workshop description

Download of the presentation

Abstract

Geospatial data infrastructures should facilitate multiple uses of the same information. However, different understandings of information providers and users can lead to semantic problems: how can users determine whether a data source has useful contents for their purposes? How should providers characterize the contents of their information? How can one find suitable sources to build a certain service? In order to answer these and other questions, we need to move from today's purely syntactic interoperability to one that is semantic, in the sense of enabling communication rather than just connection.

The workshop addresses practitioners and researchers with an interest in these questions. In its first part, the problems and solution ideas will be introduced through a case study. For the second part, the participants are asked to contribute semantic interoperability problems of their own. Some of these will be discussed and analysed. The strengths and weaknesses of available solution strategies and technologies will be assessed.