[georss] An interesting Live Local blog posting by Steve Lombardi

[Carl Reed OGC Account]

August 08
Exploring Collections interactively and with GeoRSS feeds
Here is a fun toy for exploring Collections in Live Local. Users are creating on the order of 100,000 Collections a month since the feature launched a few months ago.  We will soon be adding the ability to search for and browse Public Collections, but in the meanwhile I have built a simple index and web app to provide a glimpse into what others are doing with Collections. The index is a small subset of all public Collections but grows daily. I have spent hours of fascination scrolling through the map absorbing other users Collections around the world. try it yourself. here is a map of Chicago.


http://www.veteam.members.winisp.net/VECollectionSearch/CollectionHunter.htm?lat=41.878908&lon=-87.634313&lvl=16 

Same area with filter for 'architecture'


http://www.veteam.members.winisp.net/VECollectionSearch/CollectionHunter.htm?lat=41.878908&lon=-87.634313&lvl=16&q=architecture

 Zoom out to expand your search, drag the map to continually refresh the display. 

Some things to remember

  a.. Each time you move the map your query will auto refresh 
  b.. Each query returns a max of 200 items, so zoom in or provide a keyword filter if you are at the maximum. 
  c.. The keyword search is VERY basic. I haven't implemented a full text index in this Web app, just a sql 'Like' query with a simple spatial index. So if you get zero results try a single keyword and not a phrase 
  d.. The popup only shows the text of the item. To explore it fully (and to see all of the elements of the containing Collection) click the link to open the full collection at WLL 
  e.. the app is running on a tiny little server but seems to hold up pretty good for average use.


What's Next? I built a simple REST based parameterized interface that returns RSS. Specifically a GeoRSS feed. With it you can add an RSS feed to your favorite reader that keeps you continually updated as things change in your neighborhood, or anywhere on earth. I haven't had time to tidy it up and get it added to the site, but if anyone is interested email me at stevelom at microsoft.com to prod me to finish it. With an hour or 2 of work I could have it online. With the keyword parameter on the REST interface you can create an RSS feed of all restaurant activity in a neighborhood, as a for instance. or subscribe to a feed of any mentions of winery. or whatever.


Want your Collection added to the index. Simple! Just create a Collection (tutorial), mark it public, then share it with a friend. The indexer picks up a random set of new public collections to add to the index daily. If yours isn't added within a day or so, you can email it to me and I'll explicitly add it. 

Any other suggestions? I'm interested in hearing about ideas for exploration and sharing of this type of user created content

Carl Reed, PhD
CTO and Executive Director Specification Program
OGC

The OGC: Helping the World to Communicate Geographically

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