Blog'n'tracks

Vu sur Ogle Earth

Tim Park writes in about TierraWiki, a new project of his that looks slick and sounds promising:

I thought I would write as I am working on a project that blends Google Earth with Wiki technology for outdoor enthusiasts that I thought that might be interesting to your readers. The humble goal of my site, TierraWiki, is to create the most complete reference to the outdoors in existence.

The wiki is based off of the same MediaWiki technology as Wikipedia but I have built extensions to

1. be able to use the GPS track information from our outdoor activities to build a comprehensive trail map that you can access not only on the web but also through Google Maps and Google Earth,
2. enable location based search to make it easier to find outdoors information in the vicinity of another location, and finally
3. have exposed a Google Earth network link that allows you to always have the latest trail map in Google Earth as well as articles that are geotagged.

Basically, I ask that the community go out and use the outdoors on their favorite trails and then upload their GPX tracks to build the trail network. I then have some algorithms that I am working on that can merge this track data, and eventually, will let users plan outdoor trips and have a look at just what they are getting into across the web and Google Earth before they do it (nothing is worse than finding that "extra mountain" on your mountain bike ride).

Here is an example track page, and here is an example of a composite trail map. Finally, here is the TierraWiki network link containing all the trails in its database. Each individual trail is also downloadable as a KML file.

I especially like how it is possible to upload and show elevation and speed data from the GPX file. Wikipedia now has many of its articles georeferenced, but with TierraWiki the geospatial savviness goes the other way — you start with the geospatial data, and then you mark it up semantically with maps, photos and/or a description.

There are of course other good GPS community sites out there, but TierraWiki differentiates itself by using a wiki content model to assimilate information, as opposed to an account/login model. It'll be interesting to see which proves most popular in the long run.

Woaw, trop cool ce site!
Fallait il penser, je vais mettre mes circuits dessus, par curiosité ;)

Vu sur Google Earth Blog

Today Microsoft has released 3D capability to Virtual Earth (local.live.com). They are bragging how they don't require you to run a separate application (although, since you have to download and install a 5 Mbyte browser plug-in, I don't see that as exactly true). Once you have the required plug-in, turn on ActiveX controls, and meet other system requirements, you can run it in your Internet Explorer. I'd like to say I tried the new Virtual Earth 3D feature. But, unfortunately I can't run it. It requires Internet Explorer 6 or 7 (I only run Firefox). And, it requires Windows XP SP2 (for a variety of reasons I only use SP1 on my primary 3D desktop - and for security reasons is why I don't run IE). Also, of course, if you use a Mac or Linux you can't use it.

One nice thing Microsoft has implemented in the new 3D feature (based on a video demonstration and screenshots published by CNET) is photo-based textured 3D buildings for 15 cities. The city shown does indeed look quite good in the VE 3D demonstration, and - as we've seen with GE 4 - photo textured buildings are much better than the plain gray 3D buildings shown in GE for 38 cities (plus many cities in Japan). The CNET video reviewer gets some facts wrong: Google Earth can show photo-realistic buildings, and you don't need to use Google Maps to see road maps or any of the dozens of other layers of information built-in to Google Earth (which are unmatched by Microsoft or anyone else).

Anyway, with all the limitations (IE, XP SP2, plug-in, etc.) I don't really see this as a big threat to Google Earth. But, Microsoft does continue to nibble away at the unique features provided by Google Earth - at least in theory. If you are a Microsoft devotee, I guess you will be happy. But, if you are a Mac/Linux/Firefox/Opera type - forget it.

On va encore devoir attendre un peu ici en France, le plugin ne veut pas s'installer sur mon PC pour de sombres raisons (mauvais pays et/ou mauvaise langue).
Les liens permettent de se faire une idée, dans le fond c'est une bonne idée, mais dans la forme je me demande l'utilité de l'ActiveX... En attendant de voir le Geoportail!

Vu sur Slashgeo

Tim Sutton writes "Over at qgis.org, the developers of Quantum GIS (QGIS) have been labouring on version 0.8 for nearly a year now. Its been a long slog with a major architectural change — moving from the Qt3 toolkit to Qt4. This lays the foundation for a long lived version 1.0 release in the not too distant future. However close to releasing version 0.8 we get, there always seems to be 'one more bug' to squash though. With some great support from our users, we have now embarked on a funding drive to hire a developer. This marks a turning point in the life of QGIS. We've always been a project made up of dedicated developers dabbling in building a Free and Open Source GIS in our (often limited) spare time. Now we aim to ramp things up a notch. We have had so much good will and thanks from our many users but never had a decent way to channel it. With our sponsorship programme our users now have the opportunity to make a concrete contribution to getting this and future versions of QGIS 'out there'. Initially we plan for the sponsored developer to work solely on bug fixes, with a particular emphasis on getting the Windows version to work more robustly. This is a nod of acknowledgement to the fact that we realise that many, many of our users are working on the Windows platform. If anyone out there on the slashgeo community would like to get involved (for example by advertising our funding drive on your web site / pod cast / blog etc., or becoming an individual or corporate sponsor of QGIS) we look forward to hearing from you! Tim Sutton QGIS Project Steering Committee member"

Voilà une bonne nouvelle pour le SIG libre. Je préfère personnellement uDig à QGIS mais tout dépend de ce que l'on veut faire...
Bravo pour cette initiative et espérons qu'il trouve des fonds!