Bio
Prof. Josef Strobl is an academic teacher and researcher at the Centre for Geoinformatics, University of Salzburg, and as a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences serves as director of its department for Geographic Information Science. He holds degrees in Geography from Vienna University and has been teaching GIS and related subjects at various universities since 1985. Current research is focused on terrain modelling, GIS and RS methodology and applications, distributed GIS on the Internet and dynamic process modelling. As chair of the UNIGIS distance learning network, Professor Strobl is contributing to the education of future generations of GIS professionals.

Abstract
“Concepts and Cases for Realtime Geoinformatics”
“Sensors today are ubiquitous. Sensors monitoring our environment, people as sensors leading to collective sensing, plus the worlds of volunteered and involuntary Geographic Information. More importantly, or societies, businesses and environments are increasingly managed based on the real-time paradigm: we are not collecting geospatial data to better understand our world and to facilitate more informed decisions in the future, but rather to manage and control processes NOW. The information feedback loop has been shortened towards ‘real-time’ by positioning and mobile communications technologies. Concepts, technologies and application domains today converge into a major new development trend for matters geospatial. Emergency management, using recent earthquake events as case studies, is used to demonstrate the power of geosocial sensing in a connected world, effectively creating ‘live’ geospatial flows of information supporting individual decisions as well as management of response and mitigation efforts. ”

Abstract
Real-Time Geo-information for everyone
The last decade witnessed a revolution in the geo-information world, especially in terms of citizen expectations. Hearing turn-by-turn road directions, virtually visiting places in foreign cities and even producing and sharing their own geo-data within social media, are now trivial tasks for citizens gained who gained the ability to interact and benefit from geo-informatics, a field which was unknown to most of them before. Consequently, we see increased expectations and demands, from students to professionals, for their tools to incorporate geo-information in order to improve their work. This is especially true for real time geo-information as location sharing has become common practice. The geo-community recognized this opportunity and is embracing this challenge. In this talk, we will discuss how different activities use real-time geo-information. We start with the very demanding disaster management professionals where every minute is precious to save lives. Real time geo-information plays a crucial role in the operational decisions (where are the fire-fighting units), in the tactic decisions (which area to evacuate according to the current weather and the gas spread model) and in the strategic decisions (how large is the impact and which regions/countries should be involved). Beyond theory, we will present the experience with the crisis management system “Eagle”, which integrates real-time geo-information in operational, tactical and strategic decision making. On the other side of the spectrum, we find students and activists who can use near-real time remotely sensed imagery of tropical forests in order to detect ongoing land use changes. This is the goal of the DeforestACTION EarthWatchers project, where a crowd of students can monitor in real time the state of the forest and alert ground authorities of illegal activities. Very different target groups with one common need: accurate real-time geo-information. Live Geography is here now.

Bio
Euro Beinat holds an MSc in Computer Science and Systems Engineering and a PhD in Economics. He has 20 years of experience in management, consulting and R&D. At present he is Professor of “Geoinformatics, Location and Context Awareness” at Salzburg University (Austria) and Chairman of the Currentcity foundation (Amsterdam, Netherlands). His business affiliation is with Zebra Technologies Corporation (Chicago, US), as Vice President Location Solutions. His home base is Amsterdam, Netherlands. Dr. Beinat is part of the leadership team of the Geoinformatics PhD School in Salzburg and oversees research

Abstract
What if an entire city could be visible in real-time? Not buildings and squares, but the activity of people who populate it: public gatherings, traffic patterns, commuting patterns, neighborhood activity, people flows. All sorts of new services for the public good would be enabled, from emergency planning to traffic management, from the efficient allocation of utilities to impact assessment of new city infrastructures. Whereas most sensors deployed in cities are aimed at monitoring traffic or pollution levels, positions and activities of mobile phones can be used to “sense” people presence and mobility. When aggregated at the highest level possible mobile location data don’t impinge upon privacy of individuals, but can return important information on concentration and relative weights of human activities in the urban environment, as well as flows and patterns of city use. The presentation illustrates results of selected projects in this sector, and provides evidence of how this information can stimulate new safety management systems, inform city managers about tourism patterns and city use, and provide a basis for innovative services.

Bio
Steven Ramage is Executive Director, Marketing and Communications at the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The OGC is the industry standards body for all things geospatial. Steven is responsible for the management of a broad range of marketing, communications and education program activities worldwide. He encourages participation in OGC programs from the OGC's international network - in excess of 430 member organisations and alliance partners. He also works closely with the OGC Global Advisory Council and the OGC Board of Directors. Steven has a degree in Information Management and an international postgraduate diploma in European Marketing. He speaks several languages including French, German and Norwegian.

Abstract
An increase in natural hazards means the ability to access, share and transmit geospatial data in real-time has become incredibly important. Today, communication networks and distributed computing paradigms depend on standards. However, this is just one example where open standards from the OGC can add value. The OGC operates through a large number of working groups covering thematic areas, as well as specific requirements around standards themselves. This presentation will highlight several areas where real-time data sharing is facilitated through open geospatial standards. It will introduce concepts around Open GeoSMS, a location encoding for the global Short Message Service. As well as discuss some of the challenges and opportunities associated with the Sensor Web applied to areas, such as emergency and disaster management and environmental monitoring.

Bio
Dr. Bernd Resch is a Visiting Professor at University of Osnabrueck, Germany, lecturer at University of Salzburg and Research Affiliate at the MIT SENSEable City Lab. Bernd Resch holds a PhD degree from Salzburg University. He elaborated his PhD thesis “Live Geography” together with MIT, Boston, US and the Research Studios Austria. Bernd Resch holds Master’s degrees from Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria (Telecommunications Engineering) and from University of Halmstad, Sweden (Computer Systems Engineering). His research interests are geo-sensor webs, sensor fusion, real-time data integration, environmental monitoring systems, and analysis of urban dynamics in real time. Bernd Resch serves as a member of the Advisory Board and the Scientific Committee of several scientific conferences and as a reviewer for a number of international journals.

Abstract
Real-time monitoring of urban processes is still widely unexplored and has recently received a lot of attention due to the fast rise of inexpensive pervasive sensor technologies, which made ubiquitous sensing feasible and enriches research on cities with uncharted up-to-date information layers. However, the urban context poses a number of specific challenges to pervasive real-time monitoring. These range from interoperability issues and physical sensor mounting to social and privacy implications. Furthermore, the sensitive urban political landscape including heterogeneous interests of a variety of stakeholders has to be accounted for. Another central issue in deploying sensor networks in the city is the impact of fine-grained urban monitoring, as terms like “air quality” or “pollutant dispersion” are only surrogates for a much wider and more direct influence on people, such as life expectation, respiratory diseases or quality of life.