The DAKAR Rally 2010 course map

The 2010 Dakar Rally starts from Buenos Aires to Cordoba and follows a gruelling course across South America - see 2010 course info here. News updates here.

Last year saw the rally in South America for the first time away from it's usual France to Dakar route (originally the Paris - Dakar rally) due to increasing terrorist threats directed at the rally competitors in North Africa. Slightly "off piste" for a geotag photography blog but you can guarantee that the photographers covering the race will be geotagging.

I love this sport. It's the nearest you can get to real life "Wackey Races". High speed, high thrills and map reading ! There is no greater adventure on the planet.

DITA 11 - References and Resources

DITA CORE - my references:

1) Blog URL: http://imagesoutheast.blogspot.com/ Blog named - GeoTag ImageSE

2) WebSpace URL: http://www.student.city.ac.uk/~abhb655/Index.html

3) Javascript application URL: http://www.student.city.ac.uk/~abhb655/rhnewsorsport.html

GENERAL references used throughout Blog:

1. DITA Module Session 1-10 Notes - City University
   
   
2. Wikipedia for definitions
   

DITA 01 - Intro & Blog:

1. DITA Session 1 Notes
   
2. Blog support sites review at http://blog-services-review.toptenreviews.com/
   
3. Blog services I reviewed: Wordpress.com and VOX.com
   
4. Blog service chose: BLOGGER
5. My own Geotag photography site: ImageSoutheast.co.uk
6. Linked sites/webpages/blogs are listed on GeoTag Image SE
   

DITA 02 - Text & HTML:

1. DITA Session 2 Notes
2. JPEG definition at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG
3. HTML definition at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML
4. Teleprinter definition at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprinter#Teletype
   

DITA 03 - Internet & www:

1. DITA Session 3 Notes
2. RH webpages on City University Servers http://www.student.city.ac.uk/~abhb655/Index.html
3. Wikipedia for definitions see blog links
4. TRYIT for HTML at W3SChools website for HTML practice area and example code
   http://www.w3schools.com/Html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_paragraphs1
   
5. Birth of the Interent at the Smithsonian Yahoo site: http://smithsonian.yahoo.com/internethistory.html
   

DITA 04 - Images & Graphics:

1. DITA Session 4 Notes
2. Wikipedia for definitions see blog links
3. Personal mini website on City University servers: http://www.student.city.ac.uk/~abhb655/second.html

DITA 05 - XML:

1. DITA Session 5 Notes
2. Wikipedia for definitions see blog links
3. UK Ordnance Survey for Geographic Markup Language (GML)
4. Topographix for GPX mark up for GPS data interchange
5. W3C for "XML in 10 points": http://www.w3.org/XML/1999/XML-in-10-points
   

DITA 06 - CSS:

1. DITA Session 6 Notes
2. Examples of CSS at CSSZenGarden: http://www.csszengarden.com/
3. CSS Standards set by W3C: http://www.w3.org/
4. Example of the use of CSS commands on personal webspace at City University: http://www.student.city.ac.uk/~abhb655/Index.html
5. RNIB Web Accessibility Initiative
   

DITA 07 - Databases:

1. DITA Session 7 Notes
2. Wikipedia for definitions see blog links

DITA 08 - Information Retrieval:

1. DITA Session 8 Notes
2. Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, O’Reilly Media 3rd Edition 2006
3. Example: JANE'S ALL THE WORLD'S AIRCRAFT
4. Snowall stemming demonstration: http://snowball.tartarus.org/demo.php
   

DITA 09 - Client Side Programming:

1. DITA Session 9 Notes
2. Wikipedia for definitions see blog links
   
3. TRYIT for JavaScript including Javascript practice area and example code: http://www.w3schools.com/js/tryit.asp?filename=tryjs_intro
4. JavaScript Tutorial at W3C schools: http://www.w3schools.com/js/default.asp
5. The Art of Software Testing
   By Glenford J. Myers, Tom Badgett, Todd M. Thomas, Corey Sandler
   Google Books reference
6. Personal JavaScript example code to select BBC webpages: http://www.student.city.ac.uk/~abhb655/rhnewsorsport.html
   

DITA 10 - Information Architectures:

1. DITA Session 10 Notes
2. How Keywords Help Determine Site Architecture By Eric Enge, Search Engine Watch, Oct 6, 2009.)
   
3. An example IA Development Process
4. Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, O’Reilly Media 3rd Edition 2006
5. Wikipedia for definitions see blog links
6. GoogleEarth: http://earth.google.co.uk/
7. Streetmap: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/
   

DITA 10 - Information Architectures

A defined information architecture (IA) is an essential step in creating usable information systems (IS). With discrete systems and specific users (say an air traffic management system) designers can map out a comprehensive IA and any non-intuitive commands required are addressed through operator training. A web based IS needs to be intuitive, managing information structures, searches and keyword vocabularies to provide simple access to relevant information for the stated purpose.

When browsing websites I have seen poor IA that seems to obscure the information or where no search facility is provided and the site requires you to guess where the information of interest is categorised. So, when creating an information architecture for websites the design stage includes checking the market and competition for relevant and highly ranked topics and then using a keyword analyser to identify top search terms for that topic. This information then helps to choose the top level search terms which are most likely to be of benefit to the user arriving at the site for the first time.
(Ref How Keywords Help Determine Site Architecture By Eric Enge, Search Engine Watch, Oct 6, 2009.) and also an example IA Development Process.

Past GIS have been organisation specific to support geographic data management (e.g. town planning by a council) but since the advent of websites presenting geographic data like GoogleEarth and StreetMap anyone can access a GIS and they need to be intuitive. This usually includes map presentations based on peoples experience with paper maps. In addition the types of underlying data and information files and structures need to be designed to facilitate the user needs (e.g. raster map data alone would limit the ability of a user to interact with symbols on the map like a photograph of the location or information about nearby hotels).

DITA 09 - Client Side Programming

Client-server computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or work loads between service providers (servers) and service requesters, called clients. Often clients and servers operate over a computer network on separate hardware. A client requests a server's content or service function. Reference Wikipedia.

Client side programming facilitates user customisation of the interaction between the client and the server which delivers the service or data.

The exercise for this session required the creation of a client side program to help users access a desired link from the BBC Web Site according to:

* whether the user is interested in news or sport
* whether 'news users' are in england, northern ireland, scotland or wales
* whether 'sport users' are interested in cycling, golf, football or tennis

While developing the program the development and testing facility at TryIt was used along with the descriptions and examples of Javascript given at w3schools.com. The development order followed the structure of the problem and the eventual program: 1) user selections input 2)processing the decisions 3) outputting the required link. The development was full of iterative changes and tests followed by modifications to correct program behaviour.

Once the basic functions were completed futher work was done to exclude and report erroneous input. Finally the program was tested using a variety of test cases chosen to cover all control flow boundary conditions (The art of software testing By Glenford J. Myers, Tom Badgett, Todd M. Thomas, Corey Sandler) including valid and invalid inputs with the aim of finding errors.

This link takes you to my JAVASCRIPT coded webpage: Select BBC Weblink

DITA 08 - Information Retrieval

Information is data with context which gives meaning in a subjective way to the recipient.

Three views of Information Retrieval (IR) are:

• User view - the user wants to fill a gap in their knowledge by searching for meaningful results from queries or browsing data in likely relevant topics
• System view - IT systems for reliable storage and retrieval of data supporting user needs
  
• Sources View - capturing and presenting data for 3rd parties e.g. collating aircraft data relevant to the aerospace industry by Jane's
  

To support IR from systems, content is structuring to speed searches using indexing techniques:

• Find data fields and communicate with metadata
• Find words used in the database
• "Stop word" removal reduces the word list by taking out the most commonly used words e.g the, and, to
  
• Stemming references common terms with suffixes removed e.g. generate from generator, generated, generates. An example of a stemming generation language is Snowball
• Synonym generation helps to create an index which finds more terms related to the original search e.g. table tennis & ping pong
  

My www search approach starts with a Google search for the most unique combination of words to narrow the likely results and give useful information on page one. If too many returned items have poor relevance I add further terms to select better information.

When looking for information on interests, such as guitars, I adopt "indiscriminate driftnetting" searching everything that mentions the esoteric interest and saving links to the ones which closely match the topic e.g. "which replacement pickup best delivers a classic jazz tone". No single search will find the answer and related searches are employed with a painstaking review for relevant listings which become a new search terms to find further information.

DITA 07 - Databases

In early computer business systems data was stored similarly to paper based filing systems in separate files by business departments. This was due to familiarity with old paper systems and was limited by sequential storage on data tapes in early computers. However, this file centred approach caused problems with:

• Data duplication
• Updating information across multiple files
• Difficult to cross reference data
  

To overcome this limitation a form of centralized and comprehensive data organization was developed and administered using a database management systems (DBMS). The centralization of data allowed exploitation of relationships across the dataset resulting in the term relational database. The benefits being:

• Comprehensive dataset
• Centralized administration with single point control of access, security and backups
• Data can be edited by multiple users improving the consistency and correctness – all users benefit from this single comprehensive view
• Data and physical computer resources are separated giving the user a logical view independent of hardware platform

A relational database stores data as sets of tables containing 2 columns of information. To ensure that the data held in each row is unique a primary key is held. Often this is simply a sequential index number starting with 1 and incrementing with each new row of data added. To relate tables a foreign key is used which numerically identifies a link to the relevant other table in the database.

To access relational data SQL (Structured Query Language) is used to create commands which select and display the required data. The most commonly used SQL instruction is the “select” command e.g.

SELECT surname, salary

FROM employee

WHERE department = engineering AND salary >= 40000
ORDER BY salary

would display columns for “surname and salary” from the “employee” database in salary order for those engineers paid 40000 or more.

DITA in 4 min. 32 sec.

Thanks to the anonymous "Demo Student" on the DITA Module message board this You Tube video summarises the DITA Module in just 4 minutes and 32 seconds!:

Link to YouTube video comment on Web 2.0

DITA 06 - CSS

The concept behind the Document Object Model (DOM) is that all well formed XML and HTML documents are hierachical and reflected in the program-like nested structure of clear XML/HTML. This tree structure of nodes consisting of elements and text where elements have a unique identifier (id) and text cannot have any further nodes within.

A further development toward clear information management in web HTML is the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) which allows the web designer/coder to separate out text and image file content from instructions on how to layout the information when the web page or website is presented. An example of how the same content can be represented by differing CSS instructions can be seen at the css Zen Garden site. CSS standards are set by W3C.

A general form of CSS code is:

selector, selector, ... {property1:value1; property2:value2; ... propertyN:valueN;}

This example defines selectors Heading1 and 2 and gives them the same property/values
for colour and font

Heading1, Heading2
{
color: red;
font-family: tahoma
}

Where selectors are used to identify those areas of the document in which to follow the style declarations inside brackets {declaration, declaration}. Each declaration provides properties and values, like colour and type face to apply in the selected part of the document. An example is shown here.

CSS can also define positioning of text and graphics elements of the web page. Positioning can be static - in the document flow, relative - changeable with reference to it's stated position or absolute - a fixed position anywhere in the document.

Benefits of CSS include:

• Single down load of the CSS instructions which can cover an enter website layout
• Reduced data loading for the website and less memory usage
  
• The ability to decide at the point of delivery how to use the layout in the CSS once platform is known - different layout for a PC screen and a handheld device
  
• The ability to let the web user select a layout e.g. for large text if partially sighted - link to RNIB Web Accessibility pages
  

Disadvantage of CSS

• Differences between browser software (e.g. versions of MSInternet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc) give different representations for the same CSS instructions.

DITA 05 - XML

eXtensible markup language (XML) is a flexible and easy to use form of Mark Up meta language that can be used across the WWW and contains elements within open and close tags, and attributes which give properties or values to tags. It supports clear interfacing of information between many different types of programs and in many different user domains.

Despite the user flexibility in XML it has rules and XML code must be well formed and valid. One example of the structuring inherent in XML is shown in the Document Type Definition (DTD).

This example Document Type Definition (DTD) shows how a host system transferring address date to a delivery service handheld could constrain data to allow unambiguous transfer:

An example domain for the use of XML approach is Geographic information interchange which can be facilitated by a version of XML called GML (Geography Markup Language) and also GPX which has been created for exchange of GPS (global positioning satellite) information such as heading, track etc.).

The following extract from the Bos, B. (2001), “XML in 10 points” website describes the key attributes of XML and it’s user definable flexibility:

“Like HTML, XML makes use of tags (words bracketed by '<' and '>') and attributes (of the form name="value"). While HTML specifies what each tag and attribute means, and often how the text between them will look in a browser, XML uses the tags only to delimit pieces of data, and leaves the interpretation of the data completely to the application that reads it. In other words, if you see "

A key benefit of XML is that it separates document content from semantic or presentational information. This allows the transmission of information to different types of platform (PC, handheld, text reader) with decisions about presentation left until the delivery environment is known aiding interoperability across different types of web program.

DITA 04 - Images & Graphics

Graphics and images can be of many types e.g. letter character fonts, maps, photographs or satellite images and weather charts.

The most basic storage method for images is the bitmap (windows .bmp) where a grid of squares is populated by data words that describe intensity and colour of the picture elements (pixels). Bitmaps are prone to create blurred images when enlarged by zooming into an image of this type (i.e. pixellated) and these files are large memory users. Alternative file types can store a compressed version of this data e.g JPEG (windows .JPG) - this format sacrifices detail (information) to compress the image further. In lab tests an image was 3841 Kb as a .BMP and compressed to just 127 Kb as a lossy .JPG. An example of a lossless bitmap compression file format is GIF.

An alternative is using a vector image containing information about shapes (e.g. lines) and their position and length. Vector images can be scaled with shape and detail being preserved - an example is the Scaleable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.

The way that colour in images is stored and presented on the WWW uses a binary representation of a colour per display pixel using the additive Red Green Blue (RGB) colour system - all 3 colours produces white, as opposed to subtractive systems e.g. painting RYB and printing CMY systems where adding all gives black.

Due to human perceptions of colours and particularly the occurance of colour blindness in the population so primary colour schemes are best avoided for websites.

A format manipulation test image file is here: Session 3 mini website.

DITA 03 - Internet & www

Session 03 of the DITA module looks at the network of computers that make up the internet and the World Wide Web (WWW), one of the main services using the internet. The WWW has only been in widespread usage since the early 1990s but in less than 20 years it has changed the way many people communicate with each other, work and shop. Now that web 2.0 functions, such as social networking and mash ups of multiple website functionality are commonplace there is no sign of the continued impact diminishing.

Internet hardware includes servers and client computing resources networked together in a resilient way, initially created by the US military in order to ensure continuity of service if parts of the network were attacked. Each computer (or wifi router) has a unique "IP (Internet Protocol) Address" e.g. 196.196.42.xx. Protocols are pre-agreed ways of sending computer information without which the Internet and WWW would not function. An example is TCP/IP.

A key innovation which lead to the WWW was creating a way of referencing all pages with a unique code or URL (Uniform Resource Locator) e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Locator. When structuring information for a website a protocol called HTML or Hyper Text Markup Language is used to create semantic and presentational layout and context for the information being presented. An example of simple HTML coding can be seen at this link.

Using HTML code, an index file and two linked local files an example mini website about RH Hobbies has been created. HTML files were made using a text editor and then uploaded to City University Unix servers using SSL FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Once placed in a public directory with public access permission set, the mini website can be seen at WWW.

Nikon teams up with National Geographic

The Nikon and National Geographic brands are getting together for joint advertising of their committment to celebrate the natural world and increase awareness of the vulnerability of much plant and animal life on the planet.

See link: Nikon teams up with National Geographic

DITA 02 - Text & HTML

This post covers digital data representation and the organisation of data using mark up language. We performed a number of simple experiments using MSWord, Notepad and Internet Explorer to see changes in the format of data representation in each file type. A JPEG file, as shown, was embedded in a WORD file and then in an HTML file to show the difference between "file centred" (embedded in WORD) and "document centred" (reference link in HTML) approaches to organising additional file data.

Digital computers use a binary representation implemented by hardware which stores and processes on/off states. A unit of memory storage is the byte which is 8 bits - a Mbyte is Million 8 bit bytes of data. Data formats were explored using 7 bit ASCII code to denote text characters as used in early teleprinters. Digital data is usually systematically organised into files of related data, and files into directories or catalogues (depending upon computer system).

Metadata is used to organise data by inserting additional file information carrying either semantic or presentation related information about the file. Metadata is coded into files as a Mark Up. Semantic mark up carries information about the context and meaning of the information held in the data file and so is superior to a presentation only mark up approach.

Hierachical file structures can be created, based on a "root" directory. Data organisation can also be "file centred", where additional file data is imported to be embedded in the same file, or "document centred", where additional files are externally held and referenced via a link from a main file.

DITA 01 - Intro & Blog

The DITA module of the MSc in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) course at City University, London, requires the setting up of a blog to capture course learning.
Before I set up this blog (weblog) I checked out a few other commonly used blog sites like Wordpress.com and VOX.com and settled on BLOGGER because of the ease of use and professional look of the results, also I already had a Google account for a quick start.

I wanted to link the Digital Information Technology & Architectures (DITA) studies with the GIS studies which are the focus of the MSc and have a little fun by mixing in my photography hobby. The title of this course says it all - it's about the technologies and appropriate information architectures to support usable digital information capture, storage, analysis and retrieval.

The BLOGGER interface for setting up a blog is extremely intuitive and resulted in a basic blog presence on the web within 30 minutes using one of the selectable blog styles. Easy use editors allow the layout of sections and the text, images and links within sections, to be edited with a MS WORD style edit box for text. A large range of "gadgets" can be selected and dropped into placeholders on the layout customisation page and they allow facilities such as: links, blogs followed, news feeds etc to be added.

The aim of GeoTagImageSE is to act as a hub of information on the subject of geotagged photography and to record experiences of using DITA hands on. The structure supports blog posts, links, related blogs and a description of the context and blogger personal background.

Wet weather camera with GPS

It's raining outside and made me think about the ideal camera for geotagged photography in bad weather conditions. Short of going for a fully encased digital SLR system (but how do you weather proof the add on GPS attachment particularly if it's on the hot shoe?) I can't think of a better camera than the RICOH 500SE released a couple of years ago.

Photo courtesy of Ricoh USA Geo Imaging

See these links for the Ricoh 500SE at PMA show report & DP Photojournal

One on the earliest companies on the geotagging/gps photography scene were Geospatial Experts in the US and they sell a line of Ricoh 500SE and GPS module solutions which include their own software called GPS Photo Link

Best current camera for geotagging?

In my view the best current digital camera for general photography with gps tags included with the photo is the Nikon P6000.

See this link to Nikon UK/EU for product info. on the P6000 with built in GPS: Nikon Coolpix P6000.

All the usual digital camera features are there with a 13 Mpixel sensor for good sized enlargements and an easy hold grip which allows for single handed operation. The GPS takes a few minutes to lock on to the satellites, particularly after moving any distance. It can seem like an age while you wait and it seems to respond best to being left in the same position while it works out where it is. However, this disadvantage is the same on all the GPS units that I have tried, including a number of Garmin systems. Once the satellites have been locked you can walk around taking shots with the camera hanging on it's neck strap and it keeps satellite lock well showing a confirmation on the back screen in the shape of a small satellite symbol.

It is definitely a whole lot easier to carry, and much cheaper, than my other SLR based system with a Garmin Geko clamped to the hotshoe. Well recommended.

Launch of GeoTag ImageSE

Today marks the launch of GeoTag Image SE the sister blog to www.imagesoutheast.co.uk/ by Rich Hall.

GeoTag Image SE aims to provide relevant news, information and useful links to support anyone interested in tagging location information in to their digital photography and video.

Go direct to map ready image galleries supported by SMUGMUG photosharing site at this link imagesoutheast.smugmug.com