Data input is the process of encoding data into computer-readable format and

assigning the spatial data to a Geographic Information System (GIS). Spatial data
input methods include manual digitizing, scanning, data conversion, keyboard
entry, and coordinate geometry.
The input method chosen depends upon several factors such as accuracy
standards, form of output product needed and equipment availability.
www.profc.udec.cl/~gabriel/tutoriales/rsnote/cp13/13-3-1
Digitization is the process of creating digital images/files or the entry of data into
a computer in order to create a digital database. Digitization process seeks to
capture, preserve, and disseminate images and data for public access. Existing
maps can be digitized with a scanner or tablet digitizer. Raster data are obtained
from a scanner while vector data are measured by a digitizer (See Figure 1).

Entering spatial data is more complicated than the attributes. One

way to enter spatial information is to digitize, or manually enter the
spatial coordinates by way of a mouse connected to a digitizing
table or tablet. An operator traces the outline of polygons, such as
land holdings, or along lines such as streams, or clicks the mouse
on a point such as a water well. The table or tablet contains a fine
grid of wires that capture the coordinates of where the mouse is
located. GIS labs used to be filled with digitizing tablets. Why
aren't the tablets as common today? First, over the decades since
the 1970s, spatial data has been collected by organizations around
the world, lessening the data input burden for today's GIS users.
Second, other means may be more efficient than digitizing to collect
spatial information, as will be discussed below. Third, the digitizing
that is done today is often done right on the screen, using a mouse,
in a process known as "heads-up digitizing." Most often, the data
collector views a base map or image such an aerial photograph on
the screen in a GIS, and traces features with a mouse on the
screen. The features are saved in a new point, polygon, or line
layer.

Other means to enter data into a GIS besides digitizing include

scanning. Maps are scanned by drum (roll) scanners or large
format flatbed scanners. Once the data are scanned, they are in
raster mode. If vectors are desired (for example, if the map
contains streams), the data must be vectorized and tagged in an
automated or manual process. Another means of input is via
traditional surveying techniques, or with coordinates collected by
Global Positioning Systems (GPS) receivers. Descriptions of land
ownership, or parcels, can be entered in a process known as COGO,
or coordinate geometry. Often, data such as imagery has been
captured by a sensor on board an airplane or satellite, and that data
can be brought directly into a GIS for analysis. Data that has
already been collected can be downloaded from the Internet, such
as from www.geographynetwork.com, or obtained on a variety of
media, such as CD-ROMs. You will have the opportunity very soon
to download data from the Internet for your GIS.
Data Output

There are several ways of outputting data FROM your GIS.

Displaying your data on the screen is the most common way of
outputting data from a GIS, using maps symbolized as graduated
colors, graduated symbols, charts, and so on. You have already had
the opportunity this semester to output data in some of these
ways. Printing is probably the second most common way of
outputting your data. You have already created several layouts in
ArcView, and will have the opportunity to create more. More and
more, GIS users are outputting their data over the Internet, via
Internet Map Server technology. Users of the technology can query
and access just the data that meets their needs in an interactive
mode using a standard web browser. We will be able to examine
some of the sites that offer this service

Data lineage is the ability to view a complete source-to-target flow, thru every process,
every function, and every intermediate step. It illustrates what happens to a column, how
it is used in expressions and when its name changes or when it is combined with another
column to create something new. Data lineage helps decipher where a value came from,
and how it was derived. Do your lineage reports have visibility into the “black boxes” that
you are calling remotely? Would you like to “see” where the data flows when it goes
“outside” the system? The IBM InfoSphere Metadata Workbench has a new capability
called the Data Lineage Extender. This new feature lets me describe the details of any
external process and include it in all of my metadata exploration and analysis.
In this blog I try to focus on real-time issues, and so will start with the benefits of defining
a remote Web Service; however, the Data Lineage Extender and the “Extension Mappings”
that it offers are not limited to Web Services. Extensions, as they are also called, can be
used to define external scripts, Stored Procedures, Java classes, COBOL programs, third
party transformation tools — anything that you believe is important for completing your
lineage picture.

Aerial photography is the taking of photographs of the ground from an elevated

position. The term usually refers to images in which the camera is not supported by a
ground-based structure.