Category: opensource

Categories
Data Policy opensource

OpenAerialMap – Think Open Street Map for imagery..

Open Aerial Map

As happens in this world of constant communications, I heard of the new OpenAerialMap site via an IM chat with Jeff Johnson of PictEarth on Sunday lunchtime !

The idea behind OAM is for it to become an online repository for community generated aerial photography, sourced from Kites, Low cost UAV’s , etc. I’m sure many still see the creation of Open Source imagery captured by amateurs as a Joke, but then people were not serious about OSM !

It’s true that OAM cannot really replace the global systematic cover offered by satellite imagery or the professional aerial photography producers, but for applications where discrete imagery is required of a particular location at high resolution, or to cover a specific event or activity (high temporal resolution) there is a niche which can be filled by this imagery, and the services like OAM which distribute it.

As with OSM, OAM can work because the tools to both capture and distribute this type of Geodata have become democratised to the extent where it is possible for the amateur to respond to events faster than the professional,and to make that data available without the restrictions of conventional licensing. Although the distribution of large amounts of imagery represents all sorts of new challenges in developing a robust operational system.

As with traditional mapping, we are not looking at a replacement to the traditional top-down centralist approach to the creation of Geodata, however there is now at least an alternative, that may become more significant over time.

I wonder if there are plans to use include Geobase SPOT data set of Canada ?

Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.

Categories
Android LBS Mobile opensource

Android and LBS – in the stack at last…

So maybe now Mr Balmer is reconsidering his comments of last week..

For me and my interest in geographic information the key detail about the Android SDK is the LBS component, and where is appears in the whole android stack. I have often argued that LBS would only really make sense as an underlining infrastructure that is available to all applications, therefore allowing much higher levels of integration.

One of the key factors to the success of the iPhone is the great integration between its applications, it’s just a shame these are currently restricted in number, to the Apple supplied applications.

Android

With Android the Location Manager component is part of the core application framework, meaning that all user applications have access to the devices location. At a simple level this means that applications like the address book as access to the device location, so your contacts rather than sorted alphabetically could be sorted based on distance from your locations.

Or slightly more “left field” how about a security application which locks the device waiting on the user to enter a PIN if the devices location does not match the scheduled location from the calendar application.

For really the first time, the innovation which always comes from Open Source development can be focused on building LBS.. at last !!

Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.

Categories
Mobile opensource Technology Thoughts

So where will you be at 6:02pm GMT this Friday

Me, I will be at the back of the line outside the Regent Street Applestore, in the line for my iPhone hopefully I will do a few lives blogs using my brilliant Three USB broadband modem – which is just great and has replaced by dependence on BT Openzone.

This wireless internet thing seems to have arrived !

Is it just me or has the tech and mainstream press missed the point on Android – It’s an opensource platform for mobiles and as such a potential alternative to the current closed nature of mobile networks and devices..

If you don’t like your current mobile then build your own !!

Written and Submitted from the Google Office, London.

Categories
Google Maps opensource

OSM on the iPhone.. not in Dubai !!

I have just returned home from a well earned family vacation in Dubai, a destination that is a cross between SimCity and Disneyland as my wife describes it.

Of course I took my laptop along to keep up with email and stuff, and was thus quite impressed to see Mikel’s post about getting OSM onto the maps application on the iPhone !

Now in my mind this is one of those things that is cool that is can be done but actually nobody would do for real unless maybe they lived on the Isle of Wight, and whats wrong with Google maps anyway 🙂

However the reason for my story is that actually I could only imagine what OSM looked like on the iphone as my access to Mikel’s blog or to be precise the images on mikel’s blog was restricted.

brain Off

So all I got was broken graphics icon, and if I clicked on these to force the images to be displayed I got this..

blocked

So what does the government of the UAE have against OSM on the iphone..

Nothing, actually the web filter was rejecting the images because they were served from flickr and well there are all sorts of images there that may be inconsistent with the religious, cultural and moral values of the UAE !

So I had to wait to get back home to see Mikel’s hard work, although for a few seconds I did think dark forces were at work !!

Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.

Categories
LBS Mobile Nokia N95 opensource Vodafone

Nokia attacks iPhone or somebody else ?

One of the major memes of the Blogosphere of the moment is the backlash against Apple for making the iPhone and closed platform tied to specific network operators, and for then breaking the hacks with a firmware update that had allowed a very small group of users to add new applications to their now “simfree” iPhones.

Nokia it appears have jumped at the opportunity with the adverts above appearing around New York, making the point that their N-Series phones represent an open platform.

Now don’t get be wrong I think Apple have made a huge mistake with the iPhone, in that they had the opportunity to break the current operator dominated market, to be frank I’m not that bothered about the ability to add new applications, I think I have added one or two to my N95 but don’t really use them very much.

For me the real villains remain the network operator who lock down the ability of all makers phones on their networks, remember the fuss about vodafone dropping the VOIP application from the N95 ? In the US the situation is even worse with the level of control demanded on CDMA phones by the operators reaching extreme levels.

This is not just about adding applications, to upgrade my “open” Nokia N95 to the point that the GPS actually worked, I had to first replace the firmware with a Generic English one as Nokia would not update a vodafone branded phone, in doing so I have not doubt voided its warranty.

So maybe the target for Nokia’s poster campaign is wider than the iPhone, perhaps the operators are also in the firing line. You get the sense that Nokia has run out of patience with operators messing about with their phones and increasingly see their own Nokia branded online services delivered independently of the network operators as the way forward.

Get your music, games, and Location Based Services from Nokia for your Nokia mobile device, Vodafone, t-mobile, o2 and orange just move the bits around the network and add no other value themselves. (Those 3G licenses are a real bind no !!)

I think this is quite a smart strategy although I’m not sure symbian the preferred OS for nokia mobiles is the right way forward, however, the demands for a truly “open” mobile internet increase every day – although remember the calls are coming from a very small geek community ( that’s you dear reader) most people don’t even change their phones wallpaper !

Written and submitted from the BA Lounge, Milan Linate Airprt, Italy, using the BTOpenzone 802.11 network.

Categories
neogeography opensource Technology

State of the Map Slides

Here are my slides from the State of the Map Conference in Manchester, as is my way I’m afraid on their own they don’t mean a great deal, but in due course all the presentations will appear as podcasts, so you can follow along.

For me I got the feeling that the momentum behind OpenStreetMap is really building with interest from “Professional” GI companies increasing and in some cases beginning to either use OSM data or adopt similar methodologies. Which reminds me, Dominic over at Geometrybag has a great script to import OSM into ArcGIS.This week I’m at the Cambridge Conference, an invite only conference aimed at senior people from the worlds National Mapping Organisations. (update – there are podcasts of many of the presentations here ) This evening the prestigious Hotline Lecture was given by Martin Sweeting, of SSTL the guys who are having amazing success building micro-satellites, built from commercial off the shelf components which are competing successfully with the traditional large and expensive satellite systems.I could not help but think of the obvious parallels now with mapping.Written and submitted from the Cambridge Conference, Cambridge, using the free CC2007 wifi network (Great Job Mr Bridges !!!).

Categories
Data Policy Google Earth opensource

The next step in Open Geodata ?

Projects like OpenStreetMap have proved that it is possible to replicate professional ground survey using low cost consumer grade GPS to create vector data sets that have the potential to complete with commercial datasets. Today I came across a website which describes a technology that could do the same for aerial imagery. Pict’Earth describe combining low cost devices which many of us already have to develop a very low cost real time aerial surveillance platform.

Using a Nokia N95, Imagery and positional information is captured and sent to the ground live during flight on a low cost model aircraft and displayed in Google Earth in near real-time. This imagery can be shared via the web with any internet connected google earth client, anywhere in the world.

Alternatively the same information can be post-processed to produce geo-referenced photo mosaics.

This is just amazing !! Ok so its not orthophotography, but then for most applications that’s not needed, key other than some good software, is the use of the N95, a 5 megapixel camera, a commuincation device and a GPS is a small cheap package – and you thought it was a phone !

Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.

Categories
Google Earth Google Maps neogeography opensource

Google Developer Day – BBC leads the mash-ups revolution..

As a follow up to the Google Developer Day event last week , Silicon.com has a great article on the adoption of mash-up culture at the BBC and their brilliant backstage project.

GDD PinFor other content owning organisations BBC Backstage sets a great example highlighting the way that forward thinking licensing of information can really aid the innovation process and develop truly useful new content driven sites.

During my time at the OS we made no secret of the fact that Backstage was an inspiration to the OpenSpace project.

Just imagine the mashups which could be created if other content owners in the public sector were as open.. indeed in just this last week, we are beginning to see a more innovative approach to publishing content with the reporting of Brents use of google maps and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency decision to publish some of it’s charts in KML.

A point I made during last weeks London Keynote (about 30 mins in, but its well worth listening to the great Chris di Bona) is that there are still huge amounts of geographic information still to be liberated from existing corporate silos, in addition to the user generated content we are beginning to provide the tools to create.

When you think about it, this is less a technology issue that it has even been – this is now really about information policy..

Written and Submitted from the Google Office, London.

Categories
LBS opensource

iPhone – chipping away at the walls…

A very good article by Jo Best at silicon.com, on how the balance of power is shifting between network operators and mobile phone manufactures following the announcement of the iPhone. Pixels Fic-Neo1973A small shift perhaps and we could be replacing one walled garden with another ? I amongst others are hopeful that we seen some momentum behind the OpenMoko Open Source phone project, which is coming soon !!

Written and submitted from the garden at home ( 16°C !!) , using my home 802.11 network.

Categories
GIS opensource Thoughts

OpenStreetMap and Mainstream GIS start dating..

The image below tells us quite a lot about own the GI industry is developing.

OpenStreetmap data and ITN

Click on the image for a full resolution screen-shot of openstreetmap (OSM) data and OS ITN data in Cadcorp‘s SIS desktop GIS, which can now import OSM XML.

What do we have here…

1. Cadcorp a progressive but mainstream GIS vendor supporting open source data!
2. OK, it is Isle of Wight data, where OSM has particularly good coverage, but as one can see community generated open source data is comparable geometrically with “professional” Ordnance Survey data.
3. OSM data lacks the rich attribution of Ordnance Survey (e.g. classification A road, B road, Minor, path etc), which will restrict its use in many applications, but which will still meet the needs of many.

The story the image does not illustrate are the difficult problems of keeping the data current, and completing national coverage, areas which will be future challenges for OSM.

As I have blogged before the “Traditional” GI industry is only slowly beginning to wake up to the potential of community generated geodata, so full marks to Martin Daly and Cadcorp for recognising the potential.

One day very soon, community generated geodata will sit side by side with commercial professionally produced data for many GIS applications – as of today that day is a little closer.

Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.