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A. Frank:
"personal GIS = spatial PIM (Personal Information Manager)";
Talk: Disputation Martin Treiblmayr, Universität Münster (invited); 2011-12-22.

personal GIS = spatial PIM (Personal Information Manager)

Andrew U. Frank, Geoinformation TU Wien

The modeling of process is a long-standing research question in GIScience:
- space - time - process ontology
- modeling process semantics
- integration of plans and observations (i.e. future and past) in a
single model
- ...
Many of us use a Personal Information Manager (PIM) software, often
found in a mobile phone, to register contacts, maintain the daily
schedule etc. These systems are often time, but seldom space aware. A
spatial PIM should be a special kind of personal GIS.

Spatial PIM is a good case study for GIScience, because it is simple and
we understand the desired behavior well; we can use it ourselves and
correct misconceptions quickly; our own use leads to simplifications but
not simpler than possible.

Two research questions are currently addressed:
- logical connection between the process models of the three tiers. How
to link a Partial Differential Equation to a algebraic model of physical
objects? how to connect operations on physical objects to the meaningful
interactions with social constructed objects?

- modularization of process models to allow combinations and to achieve
a hierarchical structure to avoid the combinatorial explosion when planning.

The combination of different categorical models of processes and
planning with a 'shortest-path algorithm' is given by an elegant and
implementable formula. This may serve as a model how to achieve the
characterization.