Places in Information Science

Abstract

Human spatial concepts, such as the concept of place, are not immediately translatable to the geometric foundations of spatial databases and information systems developed over the past 50 years. These systems typically rest on the concepts of objects and fields, both bound to coordinates, as two general paradigms of geographic representation. The match between notions of place occurring in everyday where questions and the data available to answer such questions is unclear and hinders progress in place-based information systems. This is particularly true in novel application areas such as the Digital Humanities or speech-based human–computer interaction, but also for location-based services. ..