world map with tahoe pins in it

[zooko]

I want one of those world maps with little colored pins in. I want blue pins for storage servers connected to the new community grid (not yet created), and I want green pins for hackers who've contributed to the project.

[zooko]

Okay, I created a user account on ​http://OpenStreetMap.org named "zooko" and clicked on my neighborhood of South Boulder, CO, USA. :-)

[jbglaw]

Okay, so I will make some comments on this.

There are several different methods to get what you want.

1. Lets enter node data into the openstreetmap database (so that it's there for everybody), query a list from there and put this list (in .kml format or something like that) on some web server, as well das some lines of JavaScript displaying a map with the marks from the above KML file.

2. Enter all data to openstreetmap and /render/ new tile images with our dots directly on the map. This is much more work (in man hours, as well as in CPU cycles, storage and bandwidth).

3. Don't enter the data into the openstreetmap database, but keep a private listing somewhere. (This means that somebody must update the list, or write an email bot or something like that.) Display the privately updated list via OpenLayers? ontop of the regular openstreetmap map.

Personaly, I'd go the first route. Esp. in that case, I'd write a script fetching the data as well as the OpenLayers? stuff to display it. You only need to put that on a web server somewhere.

[zooko]

Do the other contributors to tahoe source code mind registering their approximate geographical location in OpenStreetMap?.org ?

My approach to privacy here is to zoom out until you feel sufficiently private. For me, that was zooming out until South Boulder was a small spot on the map and then clicking on that spot. Now I've registered my geographical location as South Boulder without revealing anything more precise.

[vinc456]

I'm not sure how this compares to OpenStreetMap? or jbglaw's solution but ​Frappr seems to do what you want.

[vinc456]

Replying to vinc456:

I'm not sure how this compares to OpenStreetMap? or jbglaw's solution but ​Frappr seems to do what you want.

It appears that Frappr has rebranded themselves as "platial". Anyways I've created a map which you can access ​http://platial.com/mapv/Tahoe/643701#/here. Adding yourself/a pin to the map is as simple as clicking the "join" button and typing in the name of a city.

The map can be embedded on a webpage.

<object width="100%" height="350px" id="mapKit1" align="middle" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0"><param name="movie" value="http://platial.com/widgets/frappr/visitormap.swf?mapViewId=643701&trackingId=mkFL_123933550038&apiKey=76a776d89dfcae9df2c021a5e6317bea80faf727&domain=platial.com&remote=1&deepLinking=0" ><param name="bgcolor" value="#4c4c4c"><param name="quality" value="high" ><param name="wmode" value="opaque"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain"><param name="base" value="http://platial.com/widgets/frappr/" ><embed src="http://platial.com/widgets/frappr/visitormap.swf?mapViewId=643701&trackingId=mkFL_123933550038&apiKey=76a776d89dfcae9df2c021a5e6317bea80faf727&domain=platial.com&remote=1&deepLinking=0" quality="high" width="100%" height="350px" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" bgcolor="#4c4c4c" name="mapKit1" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"  base="http://platial.com/widgets/frappr/" wmode="opaque" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed></object><div style="padding:5px;  background-color: #757575; font-family:verdana,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:left;"><div style="float:right;"><form action="http://platial.com/search" method="GET"><input type="text" name="what" style="margin-bottom:5px"/><input type="submit" value="Platial Search" style="margin-bottom:5px"/><input type="hidden" name="where" value="world"/><div style="clear:both; "></div></form></div><div style="color:#ddd; float:left;"><a href="http://platial.com/mapmaker/frappr/" style="color:#FFD747; font-size: 14px; text-decoration:none; ">Get Your Frappr GuestMap!</a><br/>Powered by Platial</div><div style="clear:both"></div></div>

There are probably better solutions but this gets the job done....

[vinc456]

Come to think of it Tahoe's ​project page already provides very similar functionality courtesy of Google Maps.

The results can be similar to ​Subversion's "Where in the World?" Note that adding a pin requires registration. This could be a good or bad thing.

It's also possible to create an free-standing Google map that is embeddable in websites. Permissions vary from an invite-only basis to "anybody can edit". I've created a sample ​here. This particular example is unlisted and can be shared only with selected people who have this map's URL.

[zooko]

I would love to have this. A world map with colored pins showing where the VolunteerGrid servers are located would be very cool. Also if there were pins of a different color showing where TahoeLAFS contributors live that would make me happy too. (See the CREDITS file​ for who I consider to be contributors.) However, I'm not going to prioritize setting this up, so if somebody else wants to click the "accept" button and take responsibility for this task then it is a lot more likely to get done. :-)

[jbglaw]

As I said, it's simple creating an embedded map with OSM. The only point is to get people's (and probably server's) geo-positions.

I think I'll write an email to the list and ask for the data. If I get some reasonable reply, we can use that. (Putting that into the OSM database would make manegement and changing easier, though.)

[zooko]

Per my comment:1 I created a user account on ​http://OpenStreetMap.org named "zooko" and clicked on my neighborhood of South Boulder, CO, USA. Is that sufficient to give you the information you need for my location? How can I also enter in the coordinates of things other than myself, such as my server, which is in a different location?

[jbglaw]

Are you sure you ceated an account? ​http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/zooko tells me that "zooko" is not known...

OSM is first of all a hugh database containint "interesting" stuff (roads, post boxes, houses, benches, ...). Thus you take one of the editors (eg. JOSM, Potlatch, ...) and enter known information about objects (first of all their location) into it. This is done in key/value pairs.

For Tahoe, I'd probably do something like:

tahoe_user=yes

or

tahoe_server=yes

Actually, it's quite hard getting a good tag design really correct (wrt. extensibility, eg. get ir right for attaching supplied storage size afterwards etc.) For a start, it would probably nice to simply collect longitude/latitude of persons and servers and keep these in a simple CSV file or the like. OpenLayers? can easily parse that.

[zooko]

Sorry, my account is named "zooko@…".

[jbglaw]

I've now implemented a small hack to play with pin features :)

​http://webcontent.osm.lab.rfc822.org/tahoe/

I've used GeoRSS as a base, that is, we can have a Heading, Link and a describing text for each pin, easily. I've split it up into three groups (devs, users and servers) and would like to get your comments on it. (And I think I need help with the map extend. How can I place proper CSS there to let it extend to the rest of the screen?)

[jbglaw]

If I get positive responses here, I'd announce it to the mailing list. Though I'd strongly underline that publishing your *exact* location (and that of the tahoe servers) might or might not be a good idea.

[zooko]

I would like to contribute some coordinates of myself, my tahoe servers, etc., but I can't figure out how to either (a) learn the (approximate) lat-lon coordinates of my servers to mail them to you or (b) click on some map somewhere which will give you the coordinates.

Can you tell me how to do one of these things?

[jbglaw]

There are several ways. The easiest probably is to scroll down. In the lower right corner, you'll see the longitude/latitude value of your current mouse cursor position.

If you want to have satellite images, you can for example find your position in Google Maps, center that point (eg. double-click it) and look at the permanent URL ("Link", in the top right at least for the Google Maps Germany service). You'll find the latitude/longitude pair in the "&ll=..." URL parameter. (Keep in mind that OSM and Google list the two values in different order, so it would be nice to /verify/ them if you'd also name a nearby city.)

I'll probably try to add some kind of "submit" menu on right-click, but that seems to be not /that/ easy compared to the initial map setup :)

[jbglaw]

I've now added your data, as well as myself (being an user.)

[zooko]

Hey, my location and that of my home workstation "yukyuk" are markedly different on that map. Why don't you upload your data file to the volunteer grid and give me the write cap? :-)

[jbglaw]

I'm kind of old-style there. Please drop me an unified diff :) I've put links to the three data source files (simple XML, human-readable formatted) to the top of the page.

[exarkun]

The community grid is no more, as far as I know. :/