Notes from the HUMBOLDT Project

Dear Reader,

Thank you for your interest in the HUMBOLDT project. After nearly two years of work, the HUMBOLDT consortium takes up this opportunity to introduce the project to the wider public. This newsletter will provide you with an overview on the project’s achievements so far, ongoing activities and future plans. Additionally, it includes short reports of events where HUMBOLDT was represented in the past months.

With this medium we would like to establish a regular communication to the interested audience on HUMBOLDT activities. Enjoy reading and please do not hesitate to give us your feedback.

Dr. Eva Klien, Co-ordinator of the HUMBOLDT Project
Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research, Darmstadt, Germany

An Overview of the HUMBOLDT project

The four-year EU project HUMBOLDT contributes to the implementation of a European Spatial Data Infrastructure (ESDI) that integrates the diversity of spatial data available for a multitude of European organisations. It is the aim of this project to manage and advance important parts of the implementation process of this ESDI.

The main goal of the HUMBOLDT project is to enable organisations to document, publish and harmonise their spatial information. The software tools and processes created will demonstrate the feasibility and advantages of an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe as planned by the INSPIRE initiative, meeting the goals of Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES).

Learn more about HUMBOLDT by visiting our Web site.

Project News

First Annual Report available for download

The HUMBOLDT project’s first Annual Report (2007) is available for download from the project website. It introduces the project’s aim and main principles, and presents the first scientific and technical results: conclusions from the state of the art inventory of core issues in data management and data harmonisation; an overview of the components and overall architecture of the HUMBOLDT framework software;concrete examples of how HUMBOLDT can be put to work, by presenting two of the HUMBOLDT Scenarios: Urban Planning and Border Security. The Annual Report gives a good overview and offers concrete information about ideas and technology in the project.

Download the HUMBOLDT Annual Report 2006 to 2007.

HUMBOLDT at the INSPIRE Conference 2008 in Maribor, Slovenia

Data harmonisation, being one of the key aspects in INSPIRE, is also a core topic of the HUMBOLDT project. A workshop on data harmonisation hosted by HUMBOLDT at this year's INSPIRE Conference attracted over 40 participants. In this workshop existing solutions on spatial data harmonisation as developed in the context of the EU projects RISE and ORCHESTRA were presented. The results of these projects and other cross-border SDI projects were considered as best-practice solutions for developing new methods, tools and components in HUMBOLDT. A comprehensive state-of-the-art analysis in HUMBOLDT led to some new approaches and tools to support data specification processes as well as subsequent harmonisation processes. Current results of the work carried out in HUMBOLDT and the next steps in the development of the HUMBOLDT Framework were presented.

One result, which was demonstrated at the workshop, is the HUMBOLDT Editor: a tool, which was implemented in order to support the data specification process in the HUMBOLDT scenarios. From a technical point of view, the HUMBOLDT Editor produces digital representations of data specifications, which are equivalent to specifications, that were produced by any existing UML editor (e.g. the commercial tool Enterprise Architect). In addition to a UML editor, the HUMBOLDT Editor is dedicated but also limited to designing spatial data specifications. For an end user this means that the HUMBOLDT Editor is much simpler and easier-to-use than a UML Editor, because functionality dedicated to software development is not offered, whereas specific functionality for spatial data handling is provided. The HUMBOLDT Editor is currently tested in an alpha version in the HUMBOLDT Scenarios. As soon as it receives the beta status, this will be announced in our newsletter and the HUMBOLDT Editor will be freely available to the public for testing.

Access the presentations shown in the HUMBOLDT workshop in Maribor.

HUMBOLDT at the BOSS4GMES Interoperability Day

HUMBOLDT has several associated research projects with which collaborations exist to the mutual benefit of both projects. With these projects a working exchange has been established that includes the exchange and commenting of documents, but also common meetings and workshops. The most recent workshop on interoperability of geospatial data was hosted by the BOSS4GMES and HUMBOLDT partner CLS in Toulouse.

The workshop explored existing interoperability problems in the creation of GMES Fast Track Services such as Land, Ocean and Security, and also looked at the opportunities that down-stream harmonisation could bring. It was also discussed that the place and importance of HUMBOLDT results will be mostly in this down-stream data harmonisation; even though there are some interoperability issues in the core services where HUMBOLDT approaches and technology should be very useful.

Visit the BOSS4GMES project website.

Presentations given at this workshop can also be accessed.

HUMBOLDT at the CASCADOSS Symposium and Workshop on FOSS4G

CASCADOSS (Development of a trans-national cascade programme on Open Source GIS&RS Software for environmental applications) is also a project HUMBOLDT has a partnership with. The project focuses on the application and usage of Free and Open Source software for GI applications (FOSS4G) and aims at educating the geospatial community about the role geospatial Open Source projects can have within their working methods and decision-making processes.

To this purpose, the project hosted a conference and workshop in Warsaw from the 16th to 19th of June. This conference was very successful, with more than 90 attendees and high-quality speakers highlighting different technical, organisational and legal aspects of FOSS usage and development. As a HUMBOLDT contribution, Thorsten Reitz (Fraunhofer IGD) gave a keynote on user requirements, open source development and usage in the project and the impact of standardisation on FOSS.

For additional information on the CASCADOSS project and the symposium, please visit the project website.

You can also view the presentation given by Thorsten Reitz.

Conceptual Schema Translation Working Group Meeting in Zürich

To stimulate the development of one of the core aspects of HUMBOLDT, the transformation of conceptual application schemas, a working group meeting took place in Zürich on the third and fourth of July. The event was supported by the contributions of several project members and external experts, such as Anders Friis and Ioannis Kanellopoulos of the Joint Research Centre as well as Claude Eisenhut and Andreas Morf from the mdWFS project. As an outcome of the two-day workshop, a conceptual schema and a matching transformation language were selected, as well as a prototypical harmonisation process designed, which is to be implemented in the next eight weeks.

Upcoming HUMBOLDT Events

Budapest Project Coordination Committee Meeting

The HUMBOLDT Project Coordination Committee represents decision makers sent by every partner in the project and it's meetings also represent opportunities for large workshops as well as meetings of all work packages and working groups. These meetings take place once per year and include trainings, the official acceptance of the next Detailed Implementation Plan, a meeting of the Review Board and many other activities.

The third such meeting is now scheduled for the 3rd to 5th September and will be hosted by FÖMI in Budapest. If you are interested in joining the meeting in some form, please don't hesitate to contact the project office.

Imprint

Responsible editor: Eva Klien

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