This paper describes the Sensor Interface Descriptor (SID) model and focuses on presenting and evaluating the SID creator, a visual approach to create instances of the SID model. Those SID instances comprise the knowledge required to integrate a sensor with the Sensor Web. This integration is done by an SID interpreter which uses an SID instance to translate between a sensor protocol and the Sensor Web protocols. An SID instance, designed for a particular sensor type, can be reused in multiple applications and can be shared among user communities. The SID creator enables users to describe the interface, commands and metadata of their sensors. In a user study, we evaluated the simplification of the sensor integration process through the SID concept. The study incorporated four user groups, ranging from high school students to expert users, who were challenged to integrate weather station sensors with the Sensor Web by utilizing the SID creator. While the common approaches of integrating such sensors with the Sensor Web involve manual coding and extensive adaptation efforts, this new visual approach significantly simplifies the integration process.
Abstract. Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is making its way into an increasing number of fields within geographic information science. This development has raised a need to cover VGI at various educational levels, which has led to a number of new classes on VGI ranging from elementary through secondary school to undergraduate and graduate university curricula. In this paper, we give an overview of the state of the art of VGI in education at these different levels. We outline different ways of introducing VGI in class. Specifically, we have investigated the long-term effects of using VGI in education to find out whether students who have come across VGI in class remain interested in the topic and engage in the communities. For this purpose, we have created a survey that was circulated among students of past VGI classes at different levels. The evaluation of the 202 completed surveys gives an overview of motivations and impediments with respect to different VGI platforms. We conclude with recommendations for the future development of curricula covering Volunteered Geographic Information.
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