Author(s)

M. Jern & A. Nilsson

Abstract

Collaborative Geovisualization refers to development of scientific understanding that is mediated by using geovisualization tools in a collaborative context. A \“Collaboratory” is a visual computing environment allowing project teams to collaborate and share data and insight while distributed over a network, using intuitive visual navigation techniques \“Visual Conference Calls”. The innovation can be summarised as the integration of network technology used in collaborative games with 3D data navigation techniques and based on a low- level, fine-grained \“atomic” component infrastructure, implemented and validated in the context of geospatial knowledge construction. We demonstrate how a Collaboratory fuse 2D and 3D data visualization, visual user interface, GIS and collaborative computing into an instinctive interactive weather and climate data analysis experience in which multiple users can participate in an unconstrained process of individual and group discovery. In this paper we focus on geovisualization tools describing a conceptual overview and a Collaboratory prototype implementation of new methods of presentation and dissemination of terrain, precipitation and flood warning data. A Web based application component for 2D and 3D visualization of climate, DTED, satellite and GIS data that supports peer-to-peer collaborative sessions on PC desktops and laptops has been developed. The paper proposes how collaborative technology, \“Collaborative Visual Data Navigation” with web- enabled application sharing, can be used routinely. This project is a blueprint to inform educators, researchers, and policy makers on the effective and sustainable use of interpersonal, collaborative media in science education. We give particular attention to the ways in which dynamic visual representations can be used in these contexts to facilitate shared understanding. The prototype collaborative viewer allows multiple users to view and manipulate the changing climatic data simultaneously and thus to share knowledge.

Keywords