[OSM-dev] Data format for OSM annotation layers

[SteveC]

* @ 25/11/06 01:45:10 PM Nick.Whitelegg at solent.ac.uk wrote:
> Hello Dan,
> 
> >> Those of you following the Freemap project will know that it includes 
> an
> >> annotation markers layer. It would seem to be a good idea to try and 
> develop
> >> an annotations data format which could be used by OSM mashups in 
> general, and
> >> develop an OpenLayers layer for it so that OSM mashups could easily use 
> it.
> >> Maybe we could just use KML? (I take it that wouldn't violate any 
> Google
> >> copyright issues?)
> 
> >GeoRSS would be perfect for this, wouldn't it? Then you could allow
> >people to subscribe to updates in their area, and it'd be very
> >portable and could be used on many different systems. I'd say KML
> >would be a good addition to a GeoRSS feed, especially as Google
> >Earth/Maps seem to be resisting GeoRSS so far.
> 
> My understanding of GeoRSS is that it is basically a geo-coded RSS format, 
> i.e. it's good for (as you say) alerting people of updates on a map. 
> However it doesn't really seem to be designed for bounding-box retrieval. 
> The sort of app I had in mind involves the user panning an OSM slippy map 
> and markers appearing as you move into new areas. Such an app would 
> require a server which takes a bounding box and returns data of some sort 
> representing the markers within.
> 
> There's no reason why GeoRSS cannot be used as the data format, I guess, 
> other than (from my understanding) it wasn't designed for this type of 
> scenario.

Yeah it was, all you're doing is putting a bbox= or soemthintg on the
URL, just like the current nodes-near-me RSS feed

have fun,

SteveC steve at asklater.com http://www.asklater.com/steve/