Re-engineering the GIS&T Body of Knowledge

Abstract

A computational framework is presented for re-engineering the Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge (GIS&T BoK). At its core is an ontology that is meant to simplify and extend the original BoK hierarchical structure to better capture relationships existing among concepts. Our approach builds on several key ideas. First is the notion of a knowledge corpus, an aggregate of both the internal cognitive forms of knowledge held by domain actors and the content of external artifacts that are produced and consumed by domain activities. Second is the notion of a reference system within which such artifacts are located and relationships among artifacts can be expressed. Third is the idea that by structuring the GIS&T concepts through the use of semantic web standards for formal ontologies and envisaging it as a reference system for GIS&T artifacts, activities, and actors, a fundamentally different approach to the redesign, content generation, and maintenance of the GIS&T BoK is enabled. This new approach affords replacing the top-down strategies used to generate the original GIS&T BoK, with a bottom-up strategy that combines analytical and participatory components. On the analytical side, computational and visual techniques are used to provide alternative means for accessing BoK content, examining the semantic consistency of current BoK structures, transforming the existing hierarchy into a semantic network, identifying overlaps and gaps in the current BoK, and performing projection of knowledge artifacts onto the BoK to inform its maintenance and update. Participatory approaches to bottom-up restructuring and maintenance of the BoK will support authoring, editing, and validation of concepts using a wiki-like community editing service. The system we describe is deployed as a web service that can be accessed by a range of applications for visualization, analysis, exploration, and contextualization of concepts and their related classes in the new GIS&T Body of Knowledge. The goal is for the new GIS&T BoK2 to evolve into the centerpiece of a cyberinfrastructure ecosystem for the GIS&T domain.

Making a Mark: a computational and visual analysis of one researcher’s intellectual domain

“…This is informed by the idea of a personal and unique intellectual domain within which a given researcher operates and her/his contributions are recognized. That domain may intersect with one or several common knowledge domains, with the latter defined as 'the aggregate of all the actors, activities, and artifacts that are bound by certain recognizable social constructs, including exhibiting significant thematic and epistemic coherence' (Ahearn et al 2013(Ahearn et al , p. 2231.…”

Creating a Body of Knowledge for cartography

“…This is an impressive, collaborative effort, currently open to revision, and reaching out to other communities to ensure relevance and effectiveness e.g. through the European AGILE organization (Ahearn et al, 2013). A BoK for the discipline of land surveying has been developed in a fairly 'low-key' fashion, primarily to address the views of accreditation bodies, and the nature of the surveying profession.…”

Some thoughts on the possible benefits of using VirLaBoK for GI teaching design and locating GI courses

“…VirLaBoK is a software tool for designing GI courseware (Hossain et al, 2014), designed to work in conjunction with the American GI-BoK2 tools (Ahearn et al, 2013). Both products are based on the original Geographic Information Science & Technology Body of Knowledge (hereafter referred to as "GI-BoK"), originally published as a printed book (DiBiase et al, 2006).…”

“…The tool was developed in the context of the Geographic Information: Need to Know project ("GI-N2K"), an EU-funded undertaking from 2013 to 2016 with partners from 25 European countries. The main pillars of VirLaBoK are an updated and 'Europeanized' version of the 2006 GI BoK, and a digitized American version of 2006 GI BoK called GI S&T BoK2 (Ahearn et al, 2013). The ontology-based content of BoK2 is called BoKOnto.…”