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Woke up in my clothes again this morning; Don't know exactly where I am - It all comes back to you you're gonna get what you deserve

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November 19th, 2008

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10:14 am - It all comes back to you you're gonna get what you deserve
I was doing pretty well at NaBloPoMo, and then my muse got sick. Not deathly ill. Just a cold-having malaise.

Anyway, continued discussion in social media circles have me again thinking about collaborative mapping. I have gathered a lot of historical information and pictures about my neighborhood; I'd like to be able to apply layers, tie in pictures, and allow others to do the same, on top of the same base map. And I bet the pieces I need to do this are all out there, but not, seemingly, in the same place, or in the same language, or usable in the same environment. Python is hot for GIS, but one solution in this space, geoserver, is Java.

Goals are important. Here are mine:
-Base map based on current data.
-Ability to apply rasters with varying transparency, so one could, for instance, overlay a nearly-opaque historic map over the base map, then put a nearly-transparent historic aerial photo atop them all.
-Ability to add vector layers which can be drawn in. Consider a case where you'd trace old property lines, municipal boundaries, land user patterns...
-Ability to tie photos to particular points, ideally with perspective information. Looking down a street towards a given direction should allow me to see a picture taken from that perspective.

And of course the ability to tie free-form text to any object. I'd then populate Pittsburgh, and start letting people fill in. Just because my own interest is history doesn't mean such a system couldn't be used for far more. Understanding the past doesn't, and shouldn't, disallow living in and enjoying the present.

(9 comments | Leave a comment)

Comments:

From:(Anonymous)
Date:November 19th, 2008 05:58 pm (UTC)
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Sounds like a fun project!

If you haven't already, you may want to look at "open layers" - a client side JavaScript library. It does a nice job meshing Google Maps with WMS and WFS servers.

I don't know much about collaborative maps, but you might check out www.bikely.com, a site where people can enter and share bicycle routes. It is one small example of sharing - hopefully you'll come up with a bunch more.
[User Picture]
From:[info]mistergrumpy
Date:November 19th, 2008 06:05 pm (UTC)
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I've looked at openlayers, it's not quite the niche I am after, I think, but this may end up being a meld of technologies to come close without quite getting there.

Oddly I found bikely a yesterday, for a different reason. It didn't give me the information I needed, because the problem was the answer to the question I was looking for turned out to be "no", but I wasn't trying to ask a yes/no question.
From:(Anonymous)
Date:November 19th, 2008 08:52 pm (UTC)

more ideas

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A few more sites you might check out:

1) Cyclopath http://cyclopath.org/wiki/Main_Page -- a Twin Cities bike rating/commenting site (in beta--uses MapServer and I think Flash)
2) True North, a site the MN Historical Society is working on, collecting maps/map layers for history education. http://www.lmic.state.mn.us/ghol/Maps.php (uses Chameleon/MapServer)
3) This cool flickr/streetview mashup allows you to compare the current view with an historical photo http://www.paulhagon.com/playground/flickr/streetview/

It's a great vision--best of luck!
[User Picture]
From:[info]mistergrumpy
Date:November 20th, 2008 03:19 pm (UTC)
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A post on basically this topic to geowanking told me of the HyperCities project at UCLA. Similar idea; they aren't very far along yet.

I'll summarize further as more information becomes available
From:(Anonymous)
Date:November 24th, 2008 06:29 pm (UTC)

Open Map Project

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What about the Open Map Project?
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From:[info]brokengoose
Date:December 11th, 2008 10:21 pm (UTC)

DIYcity

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A recent post at Worldchanging pointed toward DIYcity. It's not really the same thing, but it's a group of people who are poking with similar tools.
[User Picture]
From:[info]mistergrumpy
Date:December 11th, 2008 10:24 pm (UTC)

Re: DIYcity

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Hm. Thanks. I'll check that out.
From:(Anonymous)
Date:December 23rd, 2008 03:17 am (UTC)

OSM

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OpenStreetMap can represent most of what you propose. JOSM, an OSM editor, can load up WMS imagery over which it will write the map information. I don't know of any standard for pointing to a photo inside OSM, but maybe as a node with attributes: photo=http://....jpg and direction=35 (35 degrees off geographic north)? Attributes are free-form text; I don't know what are the length limits.
[User Picture]
From:[info]mistergrumpy
Date:December 23rd, 2008 03:46 am (UTC)

Re: OSM

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Linking photos as attributes is cheating, but I may actually be able to run with that. Looking at OSM again has been on the "short pile" of things to do, perhaps I will find some time in the Christmas->New Years' week.

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