Next-generation Digital Earth.
A speech of then-Vice President Al Gore in 1998 created a vision for a Digital Earth, and played a role in stimulating the development of a first generation of virtual globes, typified by Google Earth, that achieved many but not all the elements of this vision. The technical achievements of Google Earth, and the functionality of this first generation of virtual globes, are reviewed against the Gore vision. Meanwhile, developments in technology continue, the era of "big data" has arrived, the general public is more and more engaged with technology through citizen science and crowd-sourcing, and advances have been made in our scientific understanding of the Earth system. However, although Google Earth stimulated progress in communicating the results of science, there continue to be substantial barriers in the public's access to science. All these factors prompt a reexamination of the initial vision of Digital Earth, and a discussion of the major elements that should be part of a next generation.
Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. good@geog.ucsb.edu
Michael F
MF
Goodchild
Huadong
H
Guo
Alessandro
A
Annoni
Ling
L
Bian
Kees
K
de Bie
Frederick
F
Campbell
Max
M
Craglia
Manfred
M
Ehlers
John
J
van Genderen
Davina
D
Jackson
Anthony J
AJ
Lewis
Martino
M
Pesaresi
Gábor
G
Remetey-Fülöpp
Richard
R
Simpson
Andrew
A
Skidmore
Changlin
C
Wang
Peter
P
Woodgate
D022126:Access to Information; D000465:Algorithms; D003142:Communication; D003201:Computers; D018534:Earth, Planet; D005843:Geography / Q000379:methods*; D012984:Software; D013672:Technology