[Openstreetmap] GPS point submission format

[Petter Reinholdtsen]

The current way of collecting and submitting GPS points are to hard to
get running, and have problems with scaling.  I'm not sure if I
understand this correctly, but this is my current understanding.

  - run gpsd on a laptop connected to your GPS
  - run Java og Perl program collecting GPS points and store them in
    an mysql database
  - run java program checking when the laptop is connected to the
    internet, and connecting to the central mysql database to upload
    GPS points using the mysql protocol.

The problem with this approach is the amount of dependencies needed
(java, mysql, gpsd), and the lack of access control when connecting to
the central database.  To get rid of these problems, I propose a
system where one submit GPS points by uploading a file to the central
location, and this file is processed centrally to store the points
into the central database.

  - run gpsd on a laptop connected to your GPS
  - run simple program (perl, c) connecting to gpsd, collecting GPS
    points and storing them as time-stamped files with a sensible file
    format.
  - make simple program (perl, c) uploading files when the laptop is
    able to connect to the central server

This way there is no need for the mysql database nor the java apps for
submitting data.

For this to work, we need to find a sensible exchange format.  It need
to be able to represent

 - GPS points (longitude,latitude,altitude, accuracy)
 - timestamp and/or sequence number
 - annotations/labels
 - info on the submitter (name, email, address, etc)

It should be a clear text format for easy debugging and review, and
easy to write and parse, to make sure the collecting program can be a
simple one.

Comments?