A new look for Go-Geo!

The place to discover geospatial information and services for those in education and research, has a new look. Users visiting Go-Geo! will find a new map-driven quick data search and a dedicated section for metadata resources, including information about metadata workshops, links to standards and support documentation for users wishing to create geospatial metadata using the Go-Geo! Metadata Editor tool.

Other design enhancements include colour schemes to make navigating across the site easier, reorganised resource channels to give more prominence to frequently accessed resources and descriptive icons serving as visual aids to quickly assess resources.

Dr Robin S. Smith, GIS Analyst at the University of Sheffield and a user of Go-Geo! said: ‘When it comes down to it, fostering interdisciplinarity is a challenge and data is key. Through Geographical Information we can create and share meaningful mapped representations of datasets that collaborators can share and interpret together. Expectations are high and we often get requests for data that may not exist. That's where Go-Geo! comes in.

‘Its ability to search and share details of projects and data is really helpful. It helps us to know what's out there, especially if we don't need to start from scratch. I see it as a first step towards grassroots e-science- it's connecting users to both the datasets and the context of that data. It's not just about metadata but also who else is out there and what they have written, particularly outside of the academic arena.

‘They say location matters but “locating” the right data for that location can be just as important. As interest in using GI across disciplines and sectors increases, having a resource to find and interpret
such data will have an increasingly important role.’

Following the release of the new look Go-Geo!, the team will extend the portal to provide links to data catalogues for international data and GI-related resources in support of academics and students conducting research in other countries. This is an important step towards Go-Geo! becoming a major component of the Spatial Data Infrastructure for UK academia.

For further information, please go to: Go-Geo!