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Papers by Edward Pultar

Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, 2013

Proceedings of the 16th ACM SIGSPATIAL international conference on Advances in geographic information systems - GIS '08, 2008

An abundance of geospatial information is flourishing on the Internet but mining and disseminatin... more An abundance of geospatial information is flourishing on the Internet but mining and disseminating these data is a daunting task. With anything published on the web available to the public it has become a grand repository of volunteered geographic information (VGI). Internet users often provide location information for videos, pictures, travel destinations, or other events. All of these data can be gathered by a web crawling geospatial agent that later performs geospatial data mining. The discovered geoinformation can be stored, analyzed, queried, and visualized as the agent creates a data repository of what it discovered. This paper presents the design and prototypical implementation of the GEDMWA (Geospatial Exploratory Data Mining Web Agent). It reads webpage data and follows links to acquire knowledge in order to add value to geoinformation usable in a GIS. The agent creates a database of webpage text, mines it for location information, and then converts it to proper geospatial data format. The data is quickly visualized and analyzed after GEDMWA converts it into proper GIS and virtual globe formats. This provides diverse user communities a tool that utilizes a variety of distributed sources to discover additional knowledge about their fields of interest.

Proceedings of the 2009 International Workshop on Location Based Social Networks - LBSN '09, 2009

This paper describes a Location Based Social Network (LBSN) built upon activities that combine vi... more This paper describes a Location Based Social Network (LBSN) built upon activities that combine virtual and physical location. While many modern social networks are based in the virtual world and strengthen pre-existing connections, the CouchSurfing social network is built upon creating new face-to-face connections between members across the world. The network has connected travelers to cost-free lodging for over 5 years with over 1 million current members. Now it provides a large user database where each user is tagged with a location. This is useful for spatial data mining and knowledge discovery as recommendations about locations are left in user reviews of one another. These are drawn upon to find interesting locations and discover new places, people and activities. Techniques from the field of time geography are used with LBSN information about individual member location to show how spatiotemporal constraints combine the virtual and physical worlds. Additionally, mobile devices afford flexible utility for the LBSN and applications are presented that take advantage of this.

Proceedings of the 1st ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on MapInteraction - MapInteract '13, 2013

ABSTRACT The City of San Francisco is endowed with a rich variety of art in public spaces. The Sa... more ABSTRACT The City of San Francisco is endowed with a rich variety of art in public spaces. The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) alone curates over 800 pieces of public art. In addition to the SFAC holdings, there are colorful murals, landscaped parks, art monuments, street art of mysterious origin, and pieces curated by other organizations. People taking public transportation, playing in parks, reading in libraries, or performing daily tasks that take them into San Francisco's built environment see art. There is no one place to learn about all the different art freely available. Existing mobile and web applications that map art locations silo information by covering only certain categories of art such as publicly funded pieces, murals, or street art. No application uses social media as a source of art data. In contrast, the San Francisco Public Art Map presented in this paper (SFPAM at www.sfpublicart.com) is a web application that aggregates location-based publicly accessible art data in San Francisco. SFPAM addresses the gap identified in other applications. The application has three levels of art data curation: organizational, administrative, and volunteered. The project compiles art location information from disparate institutional sources that fund and curate public art. Administrative scraping of web sites and local knowledge create additional layers. Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) creates a dynamic layer of pictures and comments on public art through social media streams such as Flickr, Panoramio, Instagram, and YouTube from contributors who unknowingly take on the role of curator through posting and tagging images. Combining data from multiple curators creates a richer set of art data points for visitors and residents in San Francisco interested in public art. Assessment of SFAC's art location data reveals quality issues with positional accuracy. Some points are located miles from their actual location and multiple points are collocated. Comparison of sample points from the SFAC dataset and peer reviewed VGI suggests that VGI can improve the quality of the application dataset.

Currently we are witnessing how ordinary citizens are willing to share geospatial information usi... more Currently we are witnessing how ordinary citizens are willing to share geospatial information using the friendly and easy-to use functionality provided by the web 2.0 platforms. These platforms act as social networks describing events with big social impact and reflecting what is now known as Citizen Science. In particular events, such as those close to human settlements and urban areas, social networks are filled with volunteered information. A great majority of the information is volunteered geographic information (VGI) and contains location information thus sharing knowledge about an event’s evolution and impact. For the time being, in order to discover and retrieve this VGI it is necessary to deal with the different search mechanisms provided by various web 2.0 services. This paper explores how to improve the interoperability of these platforms by providing a single service as a unique entry point with an interface that implements an open standard specification. This paper discu...

Proceedings of the Second ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on the Use of GIS in Public Health - HealthGIS '13, 2013

In this position paper, we describe a vision for the future of a socalled "Spatial-Health CyberGI... more In this position paper, we describe a vision for the future of a socalled "Spatial-Health CyberGIS Marketplace". We first situate this proposed new computing ecosystem within the set of currently-available enabling technologies and techniques. We next provide a detailed vision of the capabilities and features of an ecosystem that will benefit individuals, industries, and government agencies. We conclude with a set of research challenges, both technological & societal, which must be overcome in order for such a vision to be fully realized.

We are currently witnessing ordinary citizens willing to share geospatial information using frien... more We are currently witnessing ordinary citizens willing to share geospatial information using friendly and easy-to use tools provided by Web 2.0 platforms. These platforms act as social networks describing events with large social impacts. Social networks are filled with volunteered information before, during, and after events that occur near human settlements and urban areas. The amount of this geolocated information is increasing due to the increase of location-aware devices that allow users in the field to share knowledge about an event's evolution and impact. In order to retrieve this information one interacts with the different search mechanisms provided by various Web 2.0 services. This paper explores how to improve the interoperability of these various Web 2.0 platforms by providing a single service as a unique entry. This paper demonstrates the utility of the Open Geospatial Consortium's Open Search Geospatial and Time specification as an interface for a service that searches, retrieves and aggregates information available in different Web 2.0 services. We present how this information is useful in complementing other official and scientific information sources by providing an alternative, contemporary source of information. We demonstrate this with a proof of concept presented in a forest fire scenario. The intrinsic interoperability of the system is reflected in the collaborations shown with different information systems such as those at the biodiversity and forestry units in the Institute of Environment and Sustainability at the Joint Research Centre.  This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non commercial Works 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons,

Visual Travel Recommender Systems, Social Communities, and User Interface Design, 2010

Page 1. Social Networks, Travel Behavior, Social Capital Edward Pultar Department of Geography, U... more Page 1. Social Networks, Travel Behavior, Social Capital Edward Pultar Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara Advisors: Martin Raubal, Michael F. Goodchild, Kostas Goulias, Stephan Winter Page 2. Introduction ...

A fundamental issue in geography is the role of information in patterns of human behavior. In rec... more A fundamental issue in geography is the role of information in patterns of human behavior. In recent years the flourishing of technology has brought many conveniences, connections, and frustrations for people across the world. Specific to this research, the digital age ...

International Journal of …, Jan 1, 2010

Proceedings of the 16th ACM …, Jan 1, 2008

… Communities, and User Interface Design, N. …, Jan 1, 2009

This research examines tourism behavior using Internet-based websites that provide free lodging w... more This research examines tourism behavior using Internet-based websites that provide free lodging with local residents. Increases in computing power and accessibility have led to novel e-tourism techniques and the users of such systems utilize an amalgamation of social networks, ...

Transactions in GIS, Jan 1, 2009

… of the 2009 International Workshop on …, Jan 1, 2009

Conference Presentations by Edward Pultar

Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, 2013

Proceedings of the 16th ACM SIGSPATIAL international conference on Advances in geographic information systems - GIS '08, 2008

An abundance of geospatial information is flourishing on the Internet but mining and disseminatin... more An abundance of geospatial information is flourishing on the Internet but mining and disseminating these data is a daunting task. With anything published on the web available to the public it has become a grand repository of volunteered geographic information (VGI). Internet users often provide location information for videos, pictures, travel destinations, or other events. All of these data can be gathered by a web crawling geospatial agent that later performs geospatial data mining. The discovered geoinformation can be stored, analyzed, queried, and visualized as the agent creates a data repository of what it discovered. This paper presents the design and prototypical implementation of the GEDMWA (Geospatial Exploratory Data Mining Web Agent). It reads webpage data and follows links to acquire knowledge in order to add value to geoinformation usable in a GIS. The agent creates a database of webpage text, mines it for location information, and then converts it to proper geospatial data format. The data is quickly visualized and analyzed after GEDMWA converts it into proper GIS and virtual globe formats. This provides diverse user communities a tool that utilizes a variety of distributed sources to discover additional knowledge about their fields of interest.

Proceedings of the 2009 International Workshop on Location Based Social Networks - LBSN '09, 2009

This paper describes a Location Based Social Network (LBSN) built upon activities that combine vi... more This paper describes a Location Based Social Network (LBSN) built upon activities that combine virtual and physical location. While many modern social networks are based in the virtual world and strengthen pre-existing connections, the CouchSurfing social network is built upon creating new face-to-face connections between members across the world. The network has connected travelers to cost-free lodging for over 5 years with over 1 million current members. Now it provides a large user database where each user is tagged with a location. This is useful for spatial data mining and knowledge discovery as recommendations about locations are left in user reviews of one another. These are drawn upon to find interesting locations and discover new places, people and activities. Techniques from the field of time geography are used with LBSN information about individual member location to show how spatiotemporal constraints combine the virtual and physical worlds. Additionally, mobile devices afford flexible utility for the LBSN and applications are presented that take advantage of this.

Proceedings of the 1st ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on MapInteraction - MapInteract '13, 2013

ABSTRACT The City of San Francisco is endowed with a rich variety of art in public spaces. The Sa... more ABSTRACT The City of San Francisco is endowed with a rich variety of art in public spaces. The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) alone curates over 800 pieces of public art. In addition to the SFAC holdings, there are colorful murals, landscaped parks, art monuments, street art of mysterious origin, and pieces curated by other organizations. People taking public transportation, playing in parks, reading in libraries, or performing daily tasks that take them into San Francisco's built environment see art. There is no one place to learn about all the different art freely available. Existing mobile and web applications that map art locations silo information by covering only certain categories of art such as publicly funded pieces, murals, or street art. No application uses social media as a source of art data. In contrast, the San Francisco Public Art Map presented in this paper (SFPAM at www.sfpublicart.com) is a web application that aggregates location-based publicly accessible art data in San Francisco. SFPAM addresses the gap identified in other applications. The application has three levels of art data curation: organizational, administrative, and volunteered. The project compiles art location information from disparate institutional sources that fund and curate public art. Administrative scraping of web sites and local knowledge create additional layers. Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) creates a dynamic layer of pictures and comments on public art through social media streams such as Flickr, Panoramio, Instagram, and YouTube from contributors who unknowingly take on the role of curator through posting and tagging images. Combining data from multiple curators creates a richer set of art data points for visitors and residents in San Francisco interested in public art. Assessment of SFAC's art location data reveals quality issues with positional accuracy. Some points are located miles from their actual location and multiple points are collocated. Comparison of sample points from the SFAC dataset and peer reviewed VGI suggests that VGI can improve the quality of the application dataset.

Currently we are witnessing how ordinary citizens are willing to share geospatial information usi... more Currently we are witnessing how ordinary citizens are willing to share geospatial information using the friendly and easy-to use functionality provided by the web 2.0 platforms. These platforms act as social networks describing events with big social impact and reflecting what is now known as Citizen Science. In particular events, such as those close to human settlements and urban areas, social networks are filled with volunteered information. A great majority of the information is volunteered geographic information (VGI) and contains location information thus sharing knowledge about an event’s evolution and impact. For the time being, in order to discover and retrieve this VGI it is necessary to deal with the different search mechanisms provided by various web 2.0 services. This paper explores how to improve the interoperability of these platforms by providing a single service as a unique entry point with an interface that implements an open standard specification. This paper discu...

Proceedings of the Second ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on the Use of GIS in Public Health - HealthGIS '13, 2013

In this position paper, we describe a vision for the future of a socalled "Spatial-Health CyberGI... more In this position paper, we describe a vision for the future of a socalled "Spatial-Health CyberGIS Marketplace". We first situate this proposed new computing ecosystem within the set of currently-available enabling technologies and techniques. We next provide a detailed vision of the capabilities and features of an ecosystem that will benefit individuals, industries, and government agencies. We conclude with a set of research challenges, both technological & societal, which must be overcome in order for such a vision to be fully realized.

We are currently witnessing ordinary citizens willing to share geospatial information using frien... more We are currently witnessing ordinary citizens willing to share geospatial information using friendly and easy-to use tools provided by Web 2.0 platforms. These platforms act as social networks describing events with large social impacts. Social networks are filled with volunteered information before, during, and after events that occur near human settlements and urban areas. The amount of this geolocated information is increasing due to the increase of location-aware devices that allow users in the field to share knowledge about an event's evolution and impact. In order to retrieve this information one interacts with the different search mechanisms provided by various Web 2.0 services. This paper explores how to improve the interoperability of these various Web 2.0 platforms by providing a single service as a unique entry. This paper demonstrates the utility of the Open Geospatial Consortium's Open Search Geospatial and Time specification as an interface for a service that searches, retrieves and aggregates information available in different Web 2.0 services. We present how this information is useful in complementing other official and scientific information sources by providing an alternative, contemporary source of information. We demonstrate this with a proof of concept presented in a forest fire scenario. The intrinsic interoperability of the system is reflected in the collaborations shown with different information systems such as those at the biodiversity and forestry units in the Institute of Environment and Sustainability at the Joint Research Centre.  This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non commercial Works 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons,

Visual Travel Recommender Systems, Social Communities, and User Interface Design, 2010

Page 1. Social Networks, Travel Behavior, Social Capital Edward Pultar Department of Geography, U... more Page 1. Social Networks, Travel Behavior, Social Capital Edward Pultar Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara Advisors: Martin Raubal, Michael F. Goodchild, Kostas Goulias, Stephan Winter Page 2. Introduction ...

A fundamental issue in geography is the role of information in patterns of human behavior. In rec... more A fundamental issue in geography is the role of information in patterns of human behavior. In recent years the flourishing of technology has brought many conveniences, connections, and frustrations for people across the world. Specific to this research, the digital age ...

International Journal of …, Jan 1, 2010

Proceedings of the 16th ACM …, Jan 1, 2008

… Communities, and User Interface Design, N. …, Jan 1, 2009

This research examines tourism behavior using Internet-based websites that provide free lodging w... more This research examines tourism behavior using Internet-based websites that provide free lodging with local residents. Increases in computing power and accessibility have led to novel e-tourism techniques and the users of such systems utilize an amalgamation of social networks, ...

Transactions in GIS, Jan 1, 2009

… of the 2009 International Workshop on …, Jan 1, 2009