The conference paper accepted for publication in PerDis 2017

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The paper “Public displays for public participation in urban settings: a survey” (Authors: Guiying Du, Auriol Degbelo, Christian Kray) has been accepted for publication in the 6th ACM International Symposium on Pervasive Displays.

Abstract: Public displays can be used to support public participation in urban settings. This article provides a survey of the use of public displays for public participation in an urban con- text, covering articles on this topic published between 2012 and 2016. 36 papers were selected and analyzed along eight dimensions: type of political context, type of scientific contribution, standalone displays vs displays with a device, single vs multi-purpose displays, shape of displays, lab vs field study, deployment in public vs semi-public space, and the level of public participation addressed. Our analysis revealed a number of trends regarding public displays and public participation in urban settings. Inspecting these articles also led to the observation that current research on public displays is mainly targeting lower levels of public participation and that the evaluation of public displays for public participation in urban setting remains a challenge.

Call for PhD in Smart Sustainable Cities assessment framework is now open. Applications open until 14 April 2017

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Eligibility Criteria

We target international and national holders of a Masters degree (or equivalent) related to GI. The field of Geoinformatics is interdisciplinary, so previous studies can be in GI or any GI application area, such as geography, ecology, transportation, forestry, energy provision, computer science, geology, etc., which is relevant for the research topic Sustainable Smart Cities assessment framework (see below).

Typically, the diploma/certificate confirming the completion of the Masters degree has to be submitted with the application documents. In exceptional cases, applicants can provide a transcript of records of the Masters program with courses attended so far. In that case he/she will provide the final diploma/certificate at the selection/interview phase. In case you don’t have your diploma by then but you are going to get it very soon, contact the supervisor to talk about your case.

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The paper “Citizense – A generic user-oriented participatory sensing framework” has been accepted for publication in the International Conference on Selected topics in MoWNet’17

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This paper, written by Ngo Manh Khoi, Luis E. Rodríguez-Pupo and Sven Casteleyn, described the general architecture of a generic participatory sensing framework that incorporates useful functionalities such as context-aware sensing, incentives for participants, an interactive dashboard for managing the content of the sensing campaign and viewing the results. The mobile client app (in Android) can also function as an offline data collecting tool.

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Information literacy seminar at UJI

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The 24th of November Library services at UJI, organised a Library training session for GEO-C students. As part of WP6 (General studies) this seminar was designed to provide additional key competencies to GEO-C students, useful in their reserach.

During this session GEO-C students had the chance to learn more about the services offered by UJI’s library, putting special emphasis in the services especifically addressed to research. The seminar included the use of scientific databases (ScienceDirect or Web of Science), the introduction to reference management software (Mendeley) or an overview of tools for measuring scientific impact (Journal Citation Reports).

Check the full agenda here

Spatial-Temporal Predictive Modeling with Open Source and Open Data for Urban Areas Workshop – AAG Workshops 2017

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W2_3 Spatial-Temporal Predictive Modeling with Open Source and Open Data for Urban Areas – Kick – off Workshop
Thursday, April 6, 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Organizers: Luis Santa (GEO-C Doctorate in Geoinformatics: Enabling Open Cities) & Shivam Gupta (GEO-C Doctorate in Geoinformatics: Enabling Open Cities)
Capacity: 25
Cost/person: $5.00
Room: Beacon B, Third Floor, Sheraton

The half-day workshop is aimed as a collaborative exercise, which extends ongoing research for developing open smart cities, using open data and open source statistical and GIS tools. Also, to provide a comprehensive but digestible introduction to the most common methods of analysis and geomatics work flows which are nowadays often encountered when tackling various issues in urban agglomerations. Given a multi-tiered nature of contemporary web applications, we propose an interactive session devoted to a R-supporting middleware, as well as the of statistical packages for popular web frameworks. The exercises in form of examples from fields of air pollution, climate and transportation among others.

2nd CALL FOR PAPERS for Open Data for Open Cities Workshop at the AGILE 2017 Conference.

  geoc

We invite all who want to be a part of a discussion on the real impact of Open Data in cities and spatial point analysis process on linear networks to present their works in our workshop.

Once the data consumers have access to open data, next step is to go depth and come up with practical methods of analysis together with accessible results for citizens.

Keynote Speaker:

We are very pleased to announce to our keynote speaker, Heleen Vollers. is a Senior Management Consultant at Capgemini Consulting. She works in the Public Insights & Data practice of Capgemini Consulting where she is a member of Capgemini’s global EU account.

Heleen is actively involved in the development of the European Data Portal and associated services, on behalf of the European Commission – DG CONNECT. Beyond being just a Portal, the project offers support services to countries as they mature on their Open Data journey. In addition, there is a strong focus on driving a user community and understanding the benefits of Open Data. Heleen leads the research work on measuring the level of Open Data maturity across Europe.

 

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CfP Workshop @ ECIS2017: Opening Smart Cities: Challenges to engage citizens through information systems

  geoc

We, some of the ESRs from the “GEO-C – Geoinformatics: Enabling Open Cities” project, would like to invite you to our half-day pre-conference workshop part of the 25th Annual European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2017). This workshop entitled “Opening Smart Cities: Challenges to engage citizens through information systems” aims to explore and discuss the potential of information systems to engage citizens in the development of smart cities through e-participation technologies.

The session will take place on June 6, 2017, in conjunction with the ECIS 2017 in Guimarães, Portugal. The deadlines for short papers (max. 2000 words) submissions are on April 3, 2017 and we encourage you to submit your paper as a .pdf to us, along with the authors’ names and contact details to geoc3.ecis@gmail.com. The main topics we will address will be:

  • E-participation in smart cities
  • Citizen engagement platforms in smart cities
  • Open data and governance towards open and inclusive cities
  • Participatory and critical design in urban decision-making processes
  • New kinds of interaction between citizens and other stakeholders in open cities
  • Different performance of citizens on using ICT for e-participation: gender, age, education, etc
  • Reflections for e-participation: Best practices, failures & practical challenges.

We are looking forward to your submission!
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“Ontdek je Buurt” awarded at the UX Linked Data Challenge

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GEO-C participated in the UX Linked Data Challenge from November 3rd to December 2nd 2016. In particular, a member of the GEO-C consortium participated in the “Buying a house challenge”. The challenge aimed at increasing the business value of an online platform to rent, purchase, and sell houses, apartments, and commercial properties in the Netherlands. The team of the GEO-C researcher (Team members: Bart-Jan de Leuw, CGI;  Saskia van der Elst, Ordina; Gerard Persoon, Gpersoon bv; Auriol Degbelo, University of Muenster) built “Ontdek je Buurt” which won the award for the second place during the challenge. “Ontdek je Buurt” is a JavaScript Chrome extension which was developed using open source technologies and integrates existing open data (e.g., open street map data, childcare locations and topographical data from the Netherlands). It enables potential buyers (i.e. citizens) to explore neighbourhoods and find the most liveable place for them.