[OSM-dev] openstreetmap could start at user's approximate location using geo-ip

[Stefan Ziegler]

> Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:52:00 +0800
> From: "Sam Watkins" <swatkins at fastmail.fm>
> Subject: Re: [OSM-dev] openstreetmap could start at user's approximate
> 	location using geo-ip
> To: "open street map" <dev at openstreetmap.org>
> Message-ID: <1232423520.23604.1295688807 at webmail.messagingengine.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> 
> On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 03:34:14PM +0000, Tom Hughes wrote:
> > It uses the cookie first, then your home location (assuming you're 
> > logged in), then GeoIP via hostip.info, and finally defaults to Europe.
> > Take a look at www.hostip.info if you want to see where it thinks you 
> > are.
> 
> hi Tom, everyone
> 
> (I accidentally posted this to Tom off list yesterday.)
> 
> hostip.info says I am located in "500 Internal Server Error"!
> 
> I don't like this present technique because it's slow, and it's not
> working for me and several others on the list. Geo::IPFree exists and
> unlike hostip.info works correctly for me. I propose we change the
> system to use such a local free IP->country database. I can also provide
> a country border database we could center it on the center of the
> rectangular bounding box.  Not sure 
> 
> I can have a go at making this change if that's agreeable.
> 
> I was working a while ago on a project with the same idea as
> openstreetmap.org - but I didn't get very far with it.  I did write code
> that can animate flying around or zooming in on the planet, it included
> country borders and cities only.  I would like to change that program so
> it can use the openstreetmap data, that would be fun.
> 
> My program also includes a method of dividing the earth's surface into a
> hierarchy of approximately equal-sized "rectangular" regions (so it
> wouldn't have lots of very skinny regions near the poles).  I'm not sure
> what method openstreetmap uses for this.
> 
> One other thing I would like to see is rotation of the map (my program
> can do that), this is fun and potentially useful, but it would need a
> vector based renderer.  Is there a browser-compatible vector-based
> renderer, or is anyone working on that?  I suppose that would give
> vastly better performance than the tiled image system.

My Project osm3d  (on Sourceforge) (www.osm3d.org) is  an interactive vector renderer.
But it works outside of a browser.  
The problem, each renderer have (especially for the interactive ones):
the huge mass of vector data, you have to sort (location) and draw.

Inside a browser, you may use java3d.
For example, for Germany, you have Gigabytes of (uncompressed) vector data.  
If you want to get the vector data interactively in small parts, OSM would need much more server power.

There are many other renderers, most of them in 2d. Osmarenderer and Mapnik are typical vector renderer, but not interactive. 

> It would also obviously be really cool to make something like Neil
> Stephenson's "the street" a 3d environment with avatars, but based on
> the real world map!  maybe could call it virtual tourist, could walk
> around in the world and meet people who are online and live in that
> place.  Open street map together with geographical data and the public
> wiki model make that very possible to achieve.  I don't know if this is
> a goal for openstreetmap already.

You think of Second Life? :-) I think, you are not the only one, who had this idea.
To realise it, you need many programmers and server power.
It is really very complex. Second Life have many servers and a maximum number of people for a distinct location.
 
> I tried zooming the map "way out" it's funny how it says "more open
> streep map coming soon" in the area above the north and south poles!!!
> 
> Sam

Bye, Stefan.


-- 
Diplom-Informatiker,
Homepage: http://www.stefanziegler-online.de/


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