The Development and Application of the Nunaliit Cybercartographic Framework
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1Taylor, D.R.F.; 2Hayes, A.; 3Fiset, J.
1CARLETON UNIVERSITY Email: fraser.taylor@carleton.ca
2CARLETON UNIVERSITY Email: ahayes@gcrc.carleton.ca
3CARLETON UNIVERSITY Email: jp@fiset.ca
Abstract
The Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre (GCRC) at Carleton University focuses on the application of geographic information processing and management of the analysis of socio-economic issues of interest to society at a variety of scales from the local to the international and the presentation of the results in innovative cartographic forms. Cybercartography is a multimedia, multisensory and interactive online cartography. Its main products are cybercartographic atlases using location as a key organizing principle. The GCRC has been developing theory and practical technologies to support data management and dissemination. Over the past decade GCRC researchers have built an open source software framework called the Nunaliit Cybercartographic Atlas Framework. Nunaliit is specifically designed to store very diverse datasets, connect information in ways that are relevant to a variety of stakeholders and offer many options for portraying the data, especially using maps and location as organizing methods and telling stories with these. It has been built from the ground up to meet the needs of knowledge holders using well known open data standards to integrate and exchange information with the systems used by subject matter experts and geographic information science experts. This paper will describe the ongoing development of Nunaliit and several new applications such as collaboration with the Ontario Brain Institute. The GCRC is now in the process of upgrading its data centre at Carleton University to provide additional storage, improved performance and enhanced reliability. The private cloud environment was specifically built to address the needs of many of our partners which are not comfortable storing their data in larger cloud systems where they have no personal connection with system operators and where they cannot actually visit the systems storing their knowledge. Our understanding and advocacy for partner ownership, control, access and possession of knowledge, as defined by indigenous communities, has over time allowed us to earn the trust of partner communities. This aspect of geographic information processing is an important component which is often ignored in the development of technology.
Keywords
Nunaliit; Cybercartography; Atlas Framework