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Microsoft goes all trendy!

Microsoft now does softwear…

So how about a T-Shirt with Bird’s Eye?

OS Grid References and the Multimap API (2)

var locations = new Array();

var xy1 = new MMPoint(523000,212324);  // OSTN97 OS National Grid
var xy2 = new MMPoint(323000,212324);
var xy3 = new MMPoint(423000,212324);

locations.push(xy1);
locations.push(xy2);
locations.push(xy3);

var funcRef = convertResultsLoaded;
var converter = new MMConverter( funcRef );
converter.convert(locations, 'osng');

function convertResultsLoaded() {
    console.log(converter.result_set);
};

A while ago I blogged about using OS Grid References in the Multimap API.  Web mapping developers in the UK often grew up with Ordnance Survey (OS) maps, are used to using the associated OS grid references (rather than lat/lon) to specifiy location and want to use them in mapping APIs.

Previously Multimap released a new feature in the API to allow developers to convert grid references to lat/lon for use in the API.  Multimap have a fantastic technical writing team and they have just released documentation on this feature (which is called Coordinate Transformation). 

The documentation on how to use the features in the Multimap JavaScript API is here and the documentation on how to use the features with the Multimap Web Services is here.

Thanks to Manu Gaur for this great documentation.

Happy coordinate transforming!

Multimap API – New Route ‘Actions’

Web applications using Multimap API Routing often include custom ‘travel direction icons’ in the route instructions for clarity and a richer user experience.  For example Ford use icons to indicate the direction of turn in their Irish Ford Dealer Locator routing:

The RAC has followed a similar approach with their route planner instructions:

Previously developers who are created their own travel directions icons needed to know what all the possible text instructions were, so that they could assemble a full set of images, and then parse the route instructions for the descriptions so that the correct icon could be used for each step.  This got worse if you were implementing applications with several languages, as you would have to look for a different set of instructions with each language!

Thankfully Multimap has been working hard to produce  language independent symbol/step_type tokens that can be used by developers to create their own strings or display their own icons.   So now developers do not have to parse variable instruction strings, but just use the new tokens instead.

This new feature involves step attribute called ‘actions’ which can be used by to build step icons. So, for example, you can make your own turn_left.gif and roundabout_1.gif etc and don’t have to parse the instruction to extract the information on which steps should be given these icons, but just check for the relevant actions (“turn_left” and “roundabout”). We expose these actions as an array called ‘actions’ which can have one or more action values

The full documentation on how to use this new feature is here

Happy routing!

A map for World AIDS Day

Today (1st December) is world AIDS day. 

The AidsInAfrica.net site has an interesting animated map here which shows an interesting time animation of the increase in HIV infections.  It is sobering stuff and a nice example of the power of simple maps. 

Place matters: the Location Strategy for the United Kingdom

At last the Location Strategy for the UK has been published here.  It was started in 2005. I have not waded through it all yet….

An initial skim suggests the main recommendation is more integration of public sector data through common references (DNF is mentioned).  There do not seem to be any radical “Free our data” type statements, but they do say dataset owners should:

…simplify their licensing
arrangements so as to facilitate the sharing
of data to realise greater overall value

Oh, and we would get a new government “Location Council” to deliver the new Location Strategy.

Winter is here in Tirol

I had a fantastic snowy walk today…

Yahoo!’s spatial thinking

I have been taking some time to explore there latest spatial thinking and innovations by Yahoo!.  Setting aside some of the current business politics, I think Yahoo! are doing some of the most interesting stuff at the moment. 

It started a while ago with their Where On Earth (WOE) IDs.  Basically these provide a hierarchical identifier system based on location.  I must admit it took me ages to realise what these are all about.  I have a map centric view centric view of the world and places, so it seemed very odd at first.  WOE IDS geo-tag (i.e. locate) things in a very different way (with no need for a map or lat/lon).  When talking about a place all people really care about is what place it is and how to ensure that they are all talking about the same place (even if you might individually define its extent differently).  Lets take an example, if we want to share data relating to Soho, how do we make sure we are talking about the same place?  So with this system we do not have to argue endlessly about what the lat/lon of Soho is (or even worse try and define it’s extent), all we have to agree on is that Soho is in London which is in England which is in Great Britain, give it an ID and then we know we are talking about the same place… 

So what I love about WOE ID is it is a simple non mapping solution to an age old spatial problem.  In fact a map is ultimately relegated to just a display function.

So ahy has this now got really interesting?  Well Flickr has been storing WOE IDs for geo-tagged photos.  From this Yahoo! have been able to predict the extent of places (with WOE IDs) based on the geo-tags for the relevant Flickr photos.  The resulting geometries are know as Alpha Shapes.  So this is a completely different way to discover more about the geo-extent of a place.  Taking the Soho example (which BTW is not an officially defined area) we can define it’s extent by what most people (taking photos) think it is.  There are examples and details of this approach here on the Flickr development blog.. 

What I love about this is that, by taking a non map-centric view of place, Yahoo have developed an approach that can tell us more about what the the perceived geographic extent of a place is.  No GIS person would ever think of doing it this way round!

Even better you can get the data yourself (as ESRI shapefiles) and try the software Yahoo use to create the Alpha Shapes (called Clustr).

More details on Alpha Shapes are blogged here too.

Lets hope this innovation continues!

mapof.it/

I was chatting to John McKerrell yesterday and he was showing me his new creation http://mapof.it/.  This is one of the coolest thinks I have seen recently and like all really cool things it is really simple. 

Basically http://mapof.it/ allows you to build URLs that take you to a specific location (or route) on a web mapping site of your choice.  So http://mapof.it/innsbruck will take you to a map of Innsbruck.  You can also request a route between two places like this http://mapof.it/munich/innsbruck.  In a way it is a kind of understandable  TinyURL for maps! You can specify a mapping site of you choice using this approach:  http://mapof.it/mm/graz,austria or set a specific site as your default with http://mapof.it/set/mm (this preference is saved as a cookie). 

What I love about this is it is simple, useful (as an easy way to send a link to a map of have an easy URL to type) and you can choose which mapping provider you want to use. 

More info is on John’s blog.

So only one question remains: How many spelling mistakes will John find in this post?

Martin loves Multimap!

Martin Daly has done a review of embedded map tools and Multimap comes out top.  More details on how to use this are here.