Geotagging with nature....the evolution of GIS

Geotagging of images and media involves assigning geographical identification metadata to the image. Geotagging is a form of geospatial metadata consisting of latitude and longitude coordinates, and sometimes more complex data like altitude, etc. This very specific metadata can help users find images taken near a given location by entering latitude and longitude coordinates into a geotagging-enabled image search engine. The great power of geotagging is enabling information services which can be used to find location-based news, websites, blog or rss feeds, tweets, or countless other resources. Geotagging gives users the location of the content of an image, or other media, and conversely on some sites and web applications can show media relevant to a given location.
Geotagging evolved from the world of geographic information systems, a complex geospatial database tool developed in the early 1960’s. The Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis at the Harvard Graduate School of Design was the real genesis of GIS, it is where the scientific world geospatial sciences, and the artistic world of design merged around the idea of geographic data representation. Some of the preeminent architects and planners of the world including Ian McHarg set forth the basic concepts that were to develop later in geographic information systems.
The great breakthrough of GIS data was the representation of real objects such as roads, land use, elevation with digital data. The ability to tie geospatial coordinates to real world objects allowed for the extensive development of geospatial metadata. Later, with the opening of the global positioning system (GPS), the access to geospatial data grew exponentially. This satellite-based navigation system is made up of a network of 24 satellites placed into orbit by the U.S. Department of Defense. GPS was originally intended for military applications, but in the 1980s, the government made the system available for civilian use. GPS works in any weather conditions, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day, and it is extremely accurate through the use of satellite triangulation. Originally the system required a complex unit, often accompanied with a large antenna system for accurate use. Today, gps receivers exist in every cell phone, and almost any mobile electronic device.
Of course, one of the great advantages of all of this metadata is the ability to link the quickly growing world library of online digital images. The work that Blaise Aguera y Arcas is doing with seadragon at Microsoft is astounding. The visual clarity is phenomenal, and the grace of the movement in the interface is also remarkable. When Google purchased Keyhole in 2004 they made amazing strides in the field of geodata analysis. The emergence of Google Earth, and the associated tools, including streetview, have changed the way we deal with spatial information. Now, with the alliance of microsoft and yahoo, Bing mapping and flickr are offering amazing capabilities, and most importantly ease of use to the end user.
When I was an undergrad, my favorite professor liked to call geography “the science of the obvious”. It is in effect, everything that surrounds us. Combine that simple idea with the capability to manage immense amounts of data and metadata about everything that surrounds us, and the ability to capture spatial coordinates from satellites, and digital images of amazing clarity and quality, and you arrive at the brave world of geotagging, marching right in to the future of the obvious.