OpenStreetMap
Thats One small track for man... many waypoints for mankind
Posted by acrosscanadatrails on 2 October 2008 in English.Hi,
I got the good news that Wikiloc.com is now available as a folder layer on Google Earth. .. On the outset it might not sound like good news.
.. however, what that means is that it's 1 more step closer to having google maps and Google earth show OpenStreetMap.org as a layer.
Here's what we know so far:
Google Maps, has publically announced that they use Wikipedia as a layer option so then all the mapped wikipedia entries will show. (it shows up 1st on searches)
Wikipedia is part of Creative Commons. ... and follows the CC-SA values :)
It looks like Google is trying to become more open source, with the launch of Google chrome, and the sucess of igoogle.com making the home page, EXACTLY what people want to see, and freedom of developers to configure code for it.
Perhaps its a stretch? I dont know.
Well, back to the news. WikiLoc.com is a cool site that you can post your route GPS tracks on the site, and will show the verticle profile, as well as show all the photos of the trip. Whats even more wild about it is that on the slippy map that is shown, it gives you all an option to recommend that OpenStreetMap be used as the base slippy map ... instead of Google Maps. ... Perhaps once wikiloc makes the change, and shows OpenStreetMap as an option or the defult option, when it becomes popular. .. this in inturn will help the Opentreetmap community, as more eyes will see the map, and will learn that they too can contribute.
Once WikiLOC gets even bigger, and takes over the lead to become the main source of adventure trails track collecting, Google will then see the merrit in using OpenStreetMap on google earth. ..
So cool.
Anyway, please comment if you will.
(this isn't an add) (comments??)
If google can also learn to play by the rules... we all win :) ... would be wild when google can search out and sort all the Tags, that are in the database. .. not modifying it.. just showing the results on the map when the user types in key words.
...
Oh ya, im now finaly done loading all my tracks ive done upto date. .. now working on Tofino, BC
Cheers,
Sam
Across Canada Trails
Discussion
Comment from NicRoets on 3 October 2008 at 09:24
Perhaps now that GE has Wikiloc, it's LESS likely to add another community generated layer like openstreetmap.
I'm considering converting some of my POIs (shops etc) to KML and post them on the GE community layer as a way of showcasing how detailed openstreetmap already is.
Comment from acrosscanadatrails on 3 October 2008 at 10:02
Thanks :)
1st part: I dont know :) ... just saying that having the base map switched from Navteq road map to openstreetmap will be awsome.. so the 1st part is that wikiloc is about showing overall routes.. and not defining what the roads that were taken are. .. just shows WHERE the roads are. .. but not necessarily from origional tracks. (any KML can be added). so switching the base map, will help . ... also trying to get other communities who currently use Google maps to switch out. ... hopefully :) Maybe hinting at other communities to start using OSM slippy map, would help the push for it?? (Bikely.com does the same & Everytrail.com too)
Ya, POI's.. would be great if everyone keeps on collecting the POI from OSM, then posting them onto POI collecting sites. .. as well as posting to GE community. ... I think i know how todo that with a planet dump download, then extract the similar POI. .. unless the POI is localized, then it would be a BBox.
For my Canada map... i'd like to switch out all the poi i included so then it all comes from OSM, so can actually print it CC-SA. (i've added that to my todo list)
Is there a list out there of all the poi collecting being done from OSM tags?
maybe.
Thanks for the comment :)
Sam