[Freegis-list] [Fwd: open GIS / gazetteer in Swedish]

[Allan Doyle]

An interesting idea...

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: open GIS / gazetteer in Swedish
Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2001 20:35:04 +0100
From: Lars Aronsson <lars at aronsson.se>
To: european-gi-policy at jrc.it

EGIP,

Hope this is not off topic.  I am not a geography/mapping/GIS
specialist, but a web enthusiast with an interest in geography.
I have been lurking here for a year, and this is my first post.

I operate a new website (http://susning.nu/) based on "Wiki"
technology, where I use maps from Mapblast.com.  This works like a
gazetteer or subject-based information gateway.  It is a very
interesting combination of some components that were already
available:

(1) A Wiki website is a collection of hyperlinked web pages, where
each page has a link that says "edit this page".  Clicking that link
brings up the content of the same page in plain text in an edit form.
Any user can edit or add to any page on the site.  When the form is
submitted, a simple conversion into presentable HTML is made.  During
this conversion, the wiki website software (a CGI script) can do
magic.  Since such programs are free software (I use the UseMod Wiki,
written in Perl), the webmaster can add his own text conversion rules.
My website is all in Swedish, but if you want to see an English
example, try http://www.wikipedia.com/

(2) Mapblast.com is one of those dotcom websites with a business model
that is beyond my grasp.  Anyhow, if I address the following URL, I
can retrieve a nice 450x300 pixel GIF image of a map of Stockholm:

    http://www.mapblast.com/gif?&CT=59.32536:18.071197:100000&W=450&H=300&FAM=myblast&DU=KM&LB=

As you can see from this URL, the CT= parameter contains the
geographic coordinates in decimal degrees (59.32 N, 18.07 E) and the
scale (1:100000 on a 75 dpi screen).

(3) The availability of affordable GPS navigators has led to a
hobbyist movement that exchange data files in the Waypoint (.WPT) file
format.  These files contain geographic place names and their
coordinates.


In the Wiki software, I added a rule that converts any occurance of
the pattern "map:<number>:<number>:<number>" in the page contents into
the HTML code that includes an inline image from the Mapblast.com
server.  From a free WPT file that I found on the Internet, I got the
coordinates for Stockholm and several other places.  I then added
pages to my Wiki website for a lot of places:

    http://susning.nu/Stockholm
    http://susning.nu/Sverige
    http://susning.nu/Europa
    http://susning.nu/Afrika
    http://susning.nu/Benin
    http://susning.nu/Kalifornien
    http://susning.nu/San_Francisco
    etc.

It should be obvious that I'm building an open gazetteer (in Swedish).
The only things stopping me are the fact that the coordinates in free
WPT files are sometimes very wrong, and the fact that I want to write
a little text about each place.  For example, I have added links to
the Lonely Planet website for most countries, and I have links to the
homepage of every Swedish municipality.  My website is also not only a
gazetteer, but a general purpose dictionary/encyclopedia in Swedish.

I also don't know (yet) what Mapblast.com thinks of this.  They could
of course stop their service at any time.  I would still have my pages
with their coordinates, which I could use in combination with some
other map source, if there is one.

So, any comments?  What is the likelyhood that the Swedish national
survey would provide their expensive, copyrighted maps to me?  Haha!
Do I have any other options to find a source of free mapping data, as
a backup for Mapblast.com?  Where can I find reliable WPT files?

Is anybody doing work or research in this direction?


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik
  Teknikringen 1e, SE-583 30 Linköping, Sweden
  tel +46-70-7891609
  http://aronsson.se