The OneGeology Best Application Competition

OneGeology Operational Management Group announces an opportunity to innovate the OneGeology Best Application Competition'

The OneGeology Initiative

OneGeology is an international initiative of the geological surveys of the world. This ground-breaking project was launched in 2007 and contributed to the 'International Year of Planet Earth' (IYPE), becoming one of their flagship projects. As well as IYPE, support has been received from several other global organizations (e.g. UNESCO, UN, GEO, IUGS). Currently there are 117 countries participating in this successful project, and of these, 51 countries and in addition several States and Provinces, are providing their data as web map services (WMS and/or WFS).

The OneGeology Portal - a focal point of access to the international geological map data - is the most visible product of the project. The portal was officially launched during the 33rd International Geological Congress in Oslo and since the beginning has attracted attention not only from geoscientists, but also other thematic communities. The OneGeology development team sees the upcoming 34th IGC in Brisbane as a crucial milestone for the future directions of OneGeology project. To ensure that developments consider and incorporate future user needs, we open this competition to young (under the age of 35) geoscientists.

The competition

Aim: The main aim of the OneGeology Best Application competition is to demonstrate the wide range of potential applied uses and applications that the OneGeology Portal, and geological data/services that it provides, can offer for easy discoverability, access and use.

Possible types of OneGeology Applications

Developed OneGeology applications can demonstrate:

1. A new innovative web application of geological data, to address any environmental, social etc. issues. The combination - integration of geological data with other types of environmental data is of prime interest.
2. A new innovative technical solution of the geological application e.g. on-line incorporation of OneGeology geological web services (WMS, WFS) into a client application or a new way to discover / search geological data etc.
3. A new solution for making progress in the direction of semantic harmonization – e.g. utilizing the OneGeology web services (WMS, WFS) for on-line geometric-semantic harmonization across administrative boundaries.

Who can apply

The competition is aimed at the young geoscientists especially those within the YES (Young Earth Scientist) Network; so the competition is open to all young geoscientists (under 35 years of age). The OneGeology development team encourages students, or any young researchers to develop an innovative application based on the geological data and services provided via OneGeology Portal.

Registering your application

The registration of the applications developed for this competition will be accepted until the end of May 2012.

Please register your entry by emailing onegeology@bgs.ac.uk and include the following information:

• Name
• Organization
• Email contact
• Country
• Name of your new OneGeology application
• The URL link to access the application and your short summary (1 page document) outlining your proposed new application for using OneGeology data services.

The selection procedure

A OneGeology selection board will be established to evaluate and decide on the winning application.

The winning prize

The winner of the competition will receive a free registration for the 34th International Geological Congress, Brisbane, Australia (August 2012) and will also have the opportunity to present the new innovative application during the Geoinformation Symposium/ OneGeology Session at the conference.