Making A Geospatial Web: Collaborative Cartography, Part I

location based services

I'm working through some questions related to the geospatial web. You know, the thing that some expect to arise when information that is buzzing within the data storage devices of the Internet are obtainable/searchable out there..in the normal human physical world.. Of course, the questions get slippery and difficult to frame fairly quickly because there aren't that many good examples of good examples of what the geospatial web might look like. Don't talk to me about virtual sticky note apps, or movie theater time look-ups based on where you are. I mean, you can talk to me — I'm just having trouble getting excited about such things, mostly because they seem a bit forced. I like the idea of spatial annotation, although I'm not entirely sure why. And I like the idea about being able to do semantically relevant things while I'm out and about and not just sitting in front of my screen at a fixed desk.
But I'm an exception. I'm super alpha, which isn't a boast — it's about being weird and iconoclastic and peculiar to such a degree that no one knows what to do with me, so I just go and do what seems exciting to me. I'd say 8 out of 10 times, speaking modestly, being an iconoclast helps me make new stuff that is cool enough to be sustaining.
Of course, at the same time I want to look to the future to see what is too geeky for everybody right now, but that might anticipate new kinds of geospatial social practices.
One thing I've been hopped up on for awhile is the possibility for massively multiplayer collaborative mapping. Essentially, geotagging — adding geographic semantics — across the globe. What does that mean? It means providng a simple, low-barrier-to-entry mechanic to allow pretty much anyone geared up to surf the web, to add geographic semantics to any arbitrary web resource.
It's a question — how do you do that?
Lately, I've been working with a friend, Will Carter, former IMD grad student, now mobile technology guy++, to develop a little theory object to help figure these questions out. It's got the friendly neighborhood "bookmarklet" semantics of del.icio.us, with some Yahoo! Maps seasoning.
What's the usage scenario? I'll just cut to the chase:
1. Go about your web surfing business.

geotagstuff
2. Huh.. Look at that.. While going about your web surfing business you found a web page that you think has some geographic relevance! Click on the "geotagstuff" bookmarket — you’re now beginning the geotagging process.

geotagstuff
You'll be taken to a lightweight page with an embedded Yahoo! Maps interface. You can do all the usual Yahoo! Maps things, like drag, zoom and double-click to identify a precise location.You'll probably have to "tune" the map — simply enter some geo parameters in the "tune" window, such as a street address, town and state, or even just a town, or even just a state. Enter a helpful note to further describe the web page. Now click "Add Thing" , and you're done. Easy peasy.
3. Go back about your web surfing business.
Geotaggers of the world, unite!
Okay, like..bunches of people have geotagged lots of web resources. The web is ripening with homebrew geosemantics. It's a bumper crop of geospatialized web stuff!
Big deal..so what?
The "so what" for "geotagstuff" is answered through access to the "geotagstuff" feeds. Yep, that's right. Another feed. But, this one is made by you and based entirely on geographic coordinates.
What are we talking about?

get a feed link here

see a feed of stuff around newport beach and jam it in your favorite aggregator
You'll be able to get a feed based on geographic coordinates. Want to find out what's going on around Union Square in New York City? Go to the feed generator, do some Yahoo! Maps scroll abouts, and right click on the feed badge and paste it into your favorite newsaggregators subscribe-to-feed box. Want to find out what's going on between Los Angeles and Las Vegas cause, like..you're road tripping this weekend? Do a multipoint click-click-click thing all along your route, right click on the feed badge and paste it into yourfavorite newsaggregator.
And we're making "geotagstuff" smart for our favorite rich media photo sharing blogging streaming sites. If you geotag a flickr page, the image will show up in the feed. Reckon we'll do the same for the video whatever sites. If they survive all the cease & desist mishegoss.
Why do I blog this? Cause this is another theory object. Yep. Another one. But now maybe it's becoming clearer what those things are good for. Got some questions? Build something to help answer them. In this case, I have questions about geotagging practices — what is the geospatial web and how does it come into being? How are normal people going to participate in this? How do you geotag things without having to screen scrape every mother loving web page and hope to Christmas you find some geographic meta data? Can geotagging be homebrew? Can it be collaborative? Can it be massively multiplayer?
We'll see, theory object style. It's the new dot-com.
Limited beta soon, probably mid May. Ping me if you're interested in being involved.
[julian at techkwondo dot com]
Technorati Tags: geospatial web, mapping
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Submitted by julian on Wed, 2006-04-19 15:51. / / categories: Book Stuff collaborative cartography Theory Object julian's blog add new comment 473 reads

"One thing I've been hopped
Submitted by Scott (not verified) on Sun, 2006-04-23 21:01.
"One thing I've been hopped up on for awhile is the possibility for massively multiplayer collaborative mapping."
This intrigued me and I was wondering if you knew much about World of Warcraft. While not exactly the same thing... many people have used various recording techniques to "map" that world for future usage (http://www.thottbot.com/).Obviously the technology is quite different but perhaps some lessons could be learned.Usually it's done for the purpose of needed information to beat various levels/areas/dungeons.
It's a form of mapping that is collaborative (though automated) and used by many people.
Tech is still leads to usability issues though, at this state in the game for real world mapping (as I see it).
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The Filtering Problem
Submitted by Rekha (not verified) on Sun, 2006-04-23 18:43.
I love your proposal, especially because it looks usable! Maybe this is jumping ahead... but I want to mention the problem of cacophony. Some days, I'd want to know that the place I'm interested in is where someone swallowed a bat. But sometimes I want a more refined set of information, based on my tastes (such as Lost fandom or a friend's personal geographic history) or functionality (community and cultural events, walking itineraries). Such as, what scheduled events are happening in the local civic center in the city I'm visiting. Or what Lonely Planet recommends.
How do we distinguish -- or blend usefully -- the spontaneous, serendipitous, and personal and the institutionalized/community-oriented/touristic? Do we sort through a mass of tagged feeds as we do with delicious? Do we provide contributor profiles to help us decide which taste arbiters we prefer?
We can cover virtual ground pretty darn quickly, but if we want to set out into the geography while wielding the knowledge and fun gleaned from virtual tagging, well, then, we find ourselves constrained by the time it takes to traverse physical space. I for one, would want some help figuring out what's worthwhile to me. Unless you're working on a three-clicks-of-the-heels application, too? ;-)
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collaborative cartography
Submitted by LeisureArts/placekraft (not verified) on Thu, 2006-04-20 13:28.
Is your cartography project something you could tie into platial? It already has a decent geotagging infrastructure that your web tag tie-in could link to. Or some kind of semapedia interface?
Pardon me if I'm behind your thought curve here...
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platial + geotagging
Submitted by julian on Thu, 2006-04-20 15:25.
Yeah, it totally could tie into platial.com - those guys are friends. I showed them an earlier version of the gadget at Etech last month and they were excited.
It's an augmentor that can be used in a variety of ways, tied into a whole bunch of different scenarios and activities. I can think of how it could be stand-alone but also tied into other sites that need the functionality. It's meant to be light-weight and not a destination — rather a way to plant or harvest locative nuggets of digital artifacts and resources.
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I'm Thankful
Submitted by Chris Brogan... (not verified) on Wed, 2006-04-19 20:05.
I'm thankful for your posts, because they influence how I see the value of the web. They also give me ideas for spinoff concepts, whether or not they are based on your initial post.
In this case, you've hit a use case squarely. I think there's a huge value. For instance, traffic. It's one thing to wait dutifully for the local radio station or two to get around to traffic. It's another to have RSS feeds about a location that give you enough insight to draw your own conclusions (Sox are playing plus the Boston Marathon plus three huge bands are in town= don't drive into Boston today).
I think there are multitudes of other uses for location-specific RSS feeds. Of course, there would then have to be a MUCH easier means of subscribing to such feeds based on location. Can you imagine going through the whole "Add this to Bloglines" formula (or Rojo or My Yahoo!) for location-based feeds? It'd be useless, because people wouldn't expend the calories.
Makes for a fun business case to solve. How do you make RSS subscription slippery and location-flavored all at once?
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