Still catching my breath after much exam grading, I wanted to post on the in-press article by Conroy et al (2008) in the Journal of Human Evolution about the use of GIS and specifically Google Earth to publish and share data online using an easy and accessible platform. I used Google Earth during my doctoral dissertation to back up GIS data I collected while in the field, it was for me an efficient way to secure the data and to access it whenever necessary from any computer with a decent bandwidth. Let’s face it the major obstacle facing GIS is the price of the software and/or licenses as highlighted in the article. While this market is not an absolute monopoly, one company controls most of it. If you are working within a large institution (students, faculties…), it is likely that it owns the rights to use the different applications (ArcView package) and it is indeed easy to start using these powerful computers they are so proud of in that lab across campus that’s full of engineers. It’s well worth your time. The point is that GIS became trendy, as a new toy that produced neat little maps while the analytical power of the beast slowly became more evident. It is now an essential tool for whoever needs to organize, back up, share, publish and analyze geographical data.
The main purpose of the Conroy at al. article is to demonstrate how Google Earth can indeed facilitate the exchange of basic geographical information. They illustrate that point with a current research project in southern Wyoming (The Great Divide Basin) targeting the collection of Paleocene and Eocene fossils from sedimentary rocks naturally exposed by erosion with a special focus on the evolution of early Tertiary mammals. For the purpose of plotting their finds, they created a series of map layers (6 based on the data they needed to isolate), they then converted these files into a specific format (KML, Keyhole Markup Language) that can be instantly read by Google Earth. Truly the easier format to work with when dealing with Google Earth or exchanging maps/map layers across platforms. As emphasized in the article, we are talking “drag-and-drop” type of manipulations, easy and painless. You can then visualize the collected data and start basic analysis of location Vs slope, location Vs geological bed…
I don’t think the authors insisted enough on the possibility of sharing geographical, and other types of, data online. While paleoanthropologists are increasingly using GIS applications and now fairly complex analytical tools (embedded into ArcView), copyright issues will soon require the creation of new publication standards and new rules/laws regarding the exchange and diffusion of such data. Exciting times but without potential problems. I think the cost of the applications is becoming less of an issue and don’t get fooled there are cheaper (some free) GIS applications out there. Also, Google Earth is not the only online platform…Since I am using ArcView & co, I won’t publicize this too much but it’s out there… can I get that ESRI tee shirt now?
UPDATE: I just found out that Anthropology.net posted on that same article with similar comments and great links. The post is here.
REFERENCES
Conroy, G.
2006 Creating, displaying, and querying interactive paleoanthropological maps using GIS: an example from the Uinta Basin, Utah, Evol. Anthropol. 15 (2006), pp. 217–223. Full Text via CrossRef
Conroy, G., R. Anemonec, J. Van Regenmorterc and A. Addison
2008 Google Earth, GIS, and the Great Divide: A new and simple method for sharing paleontological data. Journal of Human Evolution (In Press):1-5.
The main purpose of the Conroy at al. article is to demonstrate how Google Earth can indeed facilitate the exchange of basic geographical information. They illustrate that point with a current research project in southern Wyoming (The Great Divide Basin) targeting the collection of Paleocene and Eocene fossils from sedimentary rocks naturally exposed by erosion with a special focus on the evolution of early Tertiary mammals. For the purpose of plotting their finds, they created a series of map layers (6 based on the data they needed to isolate), they then converted these files into a specific format (KML, Keyhole Markup Language) that can be instantly read by Google Earth. Truly the easier format to work with when dealing with Google Earth or exchanging maps/map layers across platforms. As emphasized in the article, we are talking “drag-and-drop” type of manipulations, easy and painless. You can then visualize the collected data and start basic analysis of location Vs slope, location Vs geological bed…
I don’t think the authors insisted enough on the possibility of sharing geographical, and other types of, data online. While paleoanthropologists are increasingly using GIS applications and now fairly complex analytical tools (embedded into ArcView), copyright issues will soon require the creation of new publication standards and new rules/laws regarding the exchange and diffusion of such data. Exciting times but without potential problems. I think the cost of the applications is becoming less of an issue and don’t get fooled there are cheaper (some free) GIS applications out there. Also, Google Earth is not the only online platform…Since I am using ArcView & co, I won’t publicize this too much but it’s out there… can I get that ESRI tee shirt now?
UPDATE: I just found out that Anthropology.net posted on that same article with similar comments and great links. The post is here.
REFERENCES
Conroy, G.
2006 Creating, displaying, and querying interactive paleoanthropological maps using GIS: an example from the Uinta Basin, Utah, Evol. Anthropol. 15 (2006), pp. 217–223. Full Text via CrossRef
Conroy, G., R. Anemonec, J. Van Regenmorterc and A. Addison
2008 Google Earth, GIS, and the Great Divide: A new and simple method for sharing paleontological data. Journal of Human Evolution (In Press):1-5.
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