[OSM-talk] Annotatable OSM maps on Freemap

[Nick Whitelegg]

Hello everyone,

Following on from the "should we store notes on points of interest on 
OSM?" thread last week, I have now produced an initial implementation of 
an annotatable OSM map on Freemap (http://www.free-map.org.uk). If you 
click on a point of interest (such as a pub), you will be shown notes on 
that point of interest - if they exist - or annotate it yourself if not. 
Note that this is separate from the markers overlay; the annotations are 
actually being stored in the local OSM-derived database itself and so are 
linked directly with what's rendered on the screen.

You can also annotate footpaths - useful if you're planning a walk and 
want to either choose a nice footpath (good views, nice surroundings etc) 
or avoid a not-so-nice one:-)  (e.g. muddy, surrounded by landfill site 
etc)  Try clicking on a few paths in the default area 
(http://www.free-map.org.uk/index.php?lat=51.05&lon=-0.72) and you'll see 
a few sample annotations - if not, you can annotate yourself.

The general conclusion last week seemed to be to not store this data in 
OSM itself but in an external database - so that's what I've done, it's 
being stored in Freemap's local copy of the OSM Postgis database for the 
UK.  For POIs, the idea is only to provide a fairly brief annotation, then 
link to Wikipedia for more details (where appropriate). I'm planning to 
add access to this data via the Freemap API (see post last week).

Note this is in an early stage, there may be bugs, and it's not feature 
complete yet. Avoid IE, it probably won't work just yet  (any experts on 
the ins and outs of IE-specific JavaScript are welcome to 
examine/contribute code:-)  )

Nick