virtual globes serving science and society虚拟地球仪科学与社会服务.pdfVIP

Information 2012, 3, 372-390; doi:10.3390/info3030372 OPEN ACCESS information ISSN 2078-2489 /journal/information Article Virtual Globes: Serving Science and Society Thomas Blaschke 1,2,*, Karl Donert 3, Frank Gossette 4, Stefan Kienberger 1, Martin Marani 5, Salman Qureshi 2,6 and Dirk Tiede 1 1 Centre for Geoinformatics, University of Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstrasse 34, Salzburg 5020, Austria; E-Mails: stefan.kienberger@sbg.ac.at (S.K.); dirk.tiede@sbg.ac.at (D.T.) 2 Department of Geography and Geology, University of Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstrasse 34, Salzburg 5020, Austria; E-Mail: salmanqureshi@.pk 3 European Association of Geographers, 19 Blackwood Avenue, Liverpool L25 4RN, UK; E-Mail: kdonert@ 4 Department of Geography, California State University, 1250 Bellflower Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90840, USA; E-Mail: gossette@ 5 Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Nairobi, Postbox 30197, Nairobi 00100, Kenya; E-Mail: martinmarani@yahoo.co.uk 6 Department of Geography, Humboldt University, Berlin, Rudower Chaussee 16, Berlin 12489, Germany * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: thomas.blaschke@sbg.ac.at; Tel.: +43-(0)662-8044-5225; Fax: +43-(0)662-8044-525. Received: 30 June 2012; in revised form: 10 August 2012 / Accepted: 13 August 2012 / Published: 31 August 2012 Abstract: Virtual Globes reached the mass market in 2005. They created multi-million dollar businesses in a very short time by providing novel ways to explore data geographically.