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Ask Slashdot: Easiest To Use Multi-User Map Editing?
Lordfly writes "I'm part of an online group of local hobbyist, semi-pro, and professional photographers. I want to start an editable map that showcases interesting places to shoot photos — parks, old buildings, interesting infrastructure, etc. Ideally I'd like to be able to tag/organize the markers (public/private property), as well as add example photos for each location to give people an idea of what the place looks like.
I've used the Google Maps 'Create a Map' feature, but have found that sharing for other users to see/edit is a bit ... off. Also, given Google's propensity for dropping features without much pretext, it makes me wary to sink time and effort into a possibly ephemeral map. It does most of what I'm looking for it to do, but are there more robust alternatives out there I'm not finding?"
I've used the Google Maps 'Create a Map' feature, but have found that sharing for other users to see/edit is a bit ... off. Also, given Google's propensity for dropping features without much pretext, it makes me wary to sink time and effort into a possibly ephemeral map. It does most of what I'm looking for it to do, but are there more robust alternatives out there I'm not finding?"
This is a problem that OSM (open street map) has solved. Either use their service, our even create your own clone - their software is likely to be all open source, and their mapping data certainly is.
http://www.ea.com/simcity-4-deluxe
not sure how hard you're looking if you're aware of neither wikimapia.org nor openstreetmap.org but this is *exactly* what they're for
"why perpetuate the myth that Google "drops products without warning/reason"?
Well, you're right... that's a bit unfair. There's usually some warning, and occasionally even a reason.
But relying on their stuff is indeed somewhat risky.
You will need a spatial database (I prefer PostgreSQL + PostGIS), but you might want to try SQL Azure with their supreme Geography types. Then I would create a WFS (web feature server) on top of that from scratch using a compiled c++ CGI backend running on NGINX. Then I would create some JSON web services to handle the back and forth in PHP5 on a separate server running Apache2, because you need that multi-tiered scaleability eventually, so start now. Then I would hobble together a javascript mapping API to interact with the WFS and JSON web services. After I reach a performance impact from the CGI doing on-demand rendering, I would create a server process in Python to generate and cache tiles to a web tile server, then rework the JSON and WFS server to serve those up in addition to the overlay of the more dynamic layers. Then I would flush that all down the toilet and do what the other guy said.
I see you are planning to blow some buildings up.
Try Ushahidi, originally developed more for crisis management and political activitism it may be useful for you. There is also an online version at crowdmap.com you can play with. I have used it for various reasons from the downright comical to the extremely serious and I have not had any issues using it, once you get past the learning curve.
ANY company or service can go away or change.
That's why you keep a copy of the data, coordinates, etc. Then you can display that data with Google maps, openstreetmap, or a dozen other ways and you're not dependent on anyone.
If you keep a copy of your data, you don't need to decide based on one option having a 0.01% chance of going away versus another with a 0.02% chance.
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It's based on OSM but less rough around the corners. It's a hosted solution used by some pretty big players like Foursquare and Yelp.
I have a similar project in mind and they are my top alternative for Google Maps.
Ideal for me would be to have a Google Earth layer that when I edit, my edits appear on others who share the layer and vice-versa. Any solutions?
Have you tried ? http://umap.openstreetmap.fr/