[OSM-talk] Ideas for Freemap and other countryside-orientated mapping sites?

[Nick Whitelegg]

Hello everyone,

With contours for most of the UK now showing on Freemap I'd like to get 
some ideas of the sort of features that a Free walking and outdoors 
orientated mapping site should have. This could apply not just to Freemap 
but other similar sites that people might want to set up in other 
countries.
Here are my ideas so far. The general direction I want to go is a very 
interactive map, allowing users to preview an area before they go there - 
and contribute their own experiences.

1. Interactive map with clickable points of interest, allowing you to get 
a feel for what the area is like. This is what I look for  particularly 
when investigating areas overseas, yet don't often find easily.

2. Much as OSM itself has done, I like the idea of trying to build a 
community where people can contribute and share walking routes, which 
could be done either through GPS uploads or just by tracing on the map, is 
how I would go about this. By contributing GPS walk routes they could, if 
the area is unsurveyed, also contribute raw data to OSM at the same time - 
a specialised Potlatch interface, where a user can contribute a walk route 
to Freemap and raw data to OSM at the same time, would help here.

3. Ability for people to print off the walking routes mentioned in (2), 
via a PDF file.

4. Indication of path blockages, hazards, nice views, etc (partly 
implemented already, but not brilliantly user-friendly as yet). Again this 
would be wiki-like where people can add, modify and delete them. These 
would be indicated on the PDF files

5. As a way round the fact that some things are difficult to survey, maps 
could also contain directions at difficult points. Again these would be 
shown on the printable PDF.

6. Pub and bed and breakfast reviews - obviously these would have to be 
non-slanderous....


Does it sound like I'm going in the right direction? Any other comments 
welcome.

Thanks,
Nick