Current data catalogues allow users to access many resources coming from several sources. Selecting the adequate resource for each purpose can be difficult taking into account the huge amount of them. Metadata have always supported the user in this choice, as metadata describes the resource characteristics such has title, spatial representation, extent, lineage, etc.

The first approach to metadata was based on the producer’s point of view, since producers were the responsible for documenting and sharing metadata about their resources. Since 2012, a new approach to metadata has been included in the metadata when describing a metadata model for Geospatial User Feedback, as the metadata given by the data providers may not be sufficiently informative for the users.

Users can produce valuable and complementary metadata about resources structured in feedback about each resource they are interested in, have used, etc. There are plenty of elements that can be included in a feedback item about a resource (or a group of them) such as ratings, comments, usage, related publications, additional lineage steps, significant events description. All this user feedback metadata complements the producer’s metadata and adds value to the resource description in a geospatial portal.

It also helps increasing users’ engagement as they can see a real opportunity to create a community and establish social links on the geospatial portal around the resources they are interested in. The data producers may also take advantage of this situation, being able to respond to users’ demands, in creating new versions of the resources or answering their concerns as new feedback items (related with the previous ones).

The work developed on previous projects such as GeoViQua, CHARMe and Melodies and on the OGC Geospatial User Feedback working group, lead to the approval of the OGC Geospatial User Feedback Conceptual Model Standard.

In order to support this need, UAB-CREAF has created the NiMMbus system, that includes both a feedback collection service and a demonstrative client allowing users to retrieve and include new feedback items to the system. The system is integrated with NextGeoss, LandSense and Gmail Single-Sign-On systems.

NiMMbus client sign-in page: https://www.opengis.uab.cat/nimmbus

The system allows to describe several resources, being one of them feedback items. A feedback item is describing user perspective on a certain resource, the target (or target). The user can describe a title, abstract, purpose, comment, rating and also publications related with the resource:

NiMMbus feedback item description

Each external resource is described in the system as a citation, and other resources in the system are publications, individuals and organizations (the last two can be used as responsible parties in citations, publications or feedback items):

NiMMbus resource types

There are a couple of approaches to interact with the feedback collection system: 1/ a simple widget (JavaScript library, easily included in any portal) or 2/ using the created API (highly interactive, more knowledge needed). Both of them are described in GitHub. The first one is really easy to be implemented and allows to include a widget with two main function: list the previous feedback items about a certain target resource, and also allow to create new feedback items for the same resource. In the next caption a part of a community portal with only a new single button can be seen. This button triggers the widget and fills in the content on the right side of the caption:

NiMMbus widget and its two main functions: list previous feedback items and allow creating new ones

The exact same example on the previous caption can be seen in the NiMMbus Test Widget page.

Webinar

In the above webinar recording you will learn more about user the concepts within Geospatial User Feedback, the NiMMbus feedback collection system and how to easily include it your portal. The webinar is hosted by Bente Lilja Bye with presentations given by Joan Maso on behalf of the authors (all members of the NextGEOSS team). It is structured in three parts:

1 The first one the NiMMbus, the user feedback system will be presented and a few examples about its current integration on several catalogs will be explained.
2 In the second part, the technical details about how NiMMbus can be integrated in community portals will be described in detail.
3 An example of how a CKAN-NiMMbus integration.

Alaitz Zabala is a researcher at Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB). She holds an European PhD degree in Geography in 2010, MSc in Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and a Bch in Environmental Sciences. Her main research interests are lossy compression effects on remote sensing and resulting cartography and image classification, as well as attention to metadata, geographical information standardization, data quality and user-feedback metadata. Teacher in several undergrad and grad studies, mainly in RS and GIS courses. In NextGEOSS, Alaitz is responsible mainly for developing and integrating the NiMMbus service, as a Geospatial User Feedback service for NextGEOSS as well as external partners.

Joan Masó is a researcher at CREAF and GIS developer. Co-creator of the MiraMon compressed map and the MiraMon Map Reader idea in 1997; the first MiraMon technology for Internet distribution. He holds a PhD in Geography, MSc in Physics, and a MSc in Electronic Engineering all in the UAB) . Teacher in a RS and GIS master in the UAB. Creator of Remote Sensing imagery visualization and download web data portals. He is an active member of the TC of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) since 2003. Spanish representative in the ISO19115-1 and ISO 19157. Coordinator of FP7 GeoViQua project, and author of the OGC Geospatial User Feedback Standard: Conceptual Model (15-097r1) and XML Encoding Extension (15-098r1)