[wsfii-discuss] Fwd: [isf-vol] Fwd: [wirelesstoronto-discuss] [Fwd: Re: [Locative] Micro London]

[Saul Albert]

hi Mike :)

On Thu, Jun 23, 2005 at 01:09:02PM -0400, Michael Lenczner wrote:
> Tiki has a very powerful wiki, an image gallery, full RSS handling, an
> event calendar and many many other features.  Where it becomes
> interesting is the tight links/integration between features. For
> example, it is possible to assign Latitude & Longitude to users &
> images. Tags are in the works for the next release.

I might have said it before, I'll say it again, I'm totally blown away by
what you guys have achieved, and it makes me inspired every time I think
about it.

(does that sound ominous rather than congratulatory?)

The approach we've tried to take (when I say we, I mean primarily Jo and
our collaborators, I'm just the fluffer) is highly modular. 

At the basis of everything we're trying to do I see the Free Map - a
free, publically lisenced global geodata repository that is used and fed
into by many processes and interfaces.

The intention is to reach a stage where there is enough semantically
marked-up spatialised information around to start doing some really
interesting analysis, creating otherwise impossible services and
information flows, and releasing squeeking armies of bots to go and drag
back tasty nuggets of information to where we can see, and more
importantly, use them.

erm... 

Basically, the main point is to gather and geocode data by making it as
easy as possible to plug your data source / blog / CMS / whatever, into
the Free Map, and then for you to keep that information in a way that it
remains traversable and live. 

The best way to do that seemed to build lots of modules with nice APIs,
and make it easy for people to plug their own stuff into it, and adapt
their set of tools, rather than encourage them to use the same ones.

But that's London for you.

All the best, and thanks again for the inspiration,

Saul.