"The IWMW event provides an opportunity for those involved in the provision of institutional Web services to hear about institutional case studies, national initiatives and emerging technologies and to actively participate in a number of parallel sessions."

Parallel Session: "Where's the University?": building an institutional geolocation service

Title:

B4: "Where's the University?": building an institutional geolocation service

Facilitator:

Janet McKnight and Sebastian Rahtz, Oxford University Computing Services

Abstract:

Do you know where you are? The JISC-funded Erewhon Project has been looking at the use of geolocation-aware Web services.

Increasingly we see institutions using geographic metadata to provide and enhance a range of services and applications both on the 'traditional' web and the growing mobile web. This workshop will share our findings with the wider higher education community and test some of the project hypotheses.

The session will cover topics such as:

• How to (and how not to!) gather and store geographic metadata
• Discussion of institutional barriers to data-gathering and service provision
• A wide range of use cases for geodata
• Real life applications and mashups - from maps to mobiles
• How mobile devices are raising the game for geolocation
• Developing ontologies for modelling the physical and political structure of a university

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the session, participants will:

• have an understanding of what is required to build a geolocation service for their institution
• be more aware of the technological and social issues involved
• have concrete examples of geolocation-aware web services
• have ideas for services they could implement in their own institution

Contact Details:

Janet McKnight Information Services Oxford University Computing Services 13 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 6NN Phone: +44 (0) 1865 273213 Email: janet.mcknight@oucs.ox.ac.uk

Sebastian Rahtz Information Services Oxford University Computing Services 13 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 6NN Phone: +44 (0) 1865 273213 Email: sebastian.rahtz@oucs.ox.ac.uk

Materials

Slides

Erewhon Project - [PDF format]

Collecting Geographical Metadata - [PDF format]

Working with Oxpoints- [PDF format]

Managing ontologies - [PDF format]

Conclusions - [PDF format]

Exercises

Exercises - [PDF format]

Webinar

Higher Ed Web site