[georss] Transport of Toponyms with GeoRSS

[Ron Lake]

Sorry - I have no idea whatever as to what you are talking about - are
my e-mail and yours connected?  Please explain.

Ron

-----Original Message-----
From: georss-bounces at lists.eogeo.org
[mailto:georss-bounces at lists.eogeo.org] On Behalf Of noiv
Sent: August 19, 2006 12:31 AM
To: georss at lists.eogeo.org
Subject: Re: [georss] Transport of Toponyms with GeoRSS

Ron,

I'd like to invite you to go a step or two back and
see the whole picture or planet:

The earth is not a perfect sphere, any coordinate system
is an approximation.

In 99% there are no houses and no addresses, because there
are oceans, deserts and rain forests.

The continents are drifting, you should not rely on coordinate systems,
when you scale down to centimeters and want to drive a car.

The moon makes the surface moving up and down every day,
thus elevation data is not fixed nor accurate.

Numbers cause failures, don't mix up the pin-code of
your bank account.

But does all these things could stop us from:
giving Reuters the chance to release more useful news or
turning the millions of flickrs into a geo-photo-community or
helping agencies to communicate more efficiently about
tsunamies, earthquakes, biological hazards and hurricanes and
save lives at the end ?

I think not.


Mike, Carl, Josh,

which steps are mandatory to convert a draft into a standard ?

--
Torsten Becker - ExploreOurPla.net



2006/8/17, Ron Lake <rlake at galdosinc.com>:
> Hi,
>
> Coordinates provide part of the story.  In many problems this means
> using more than one way to specify where something is. For some
problems
> coordinates relative to the earth's surface make sense and in many
> problems that an accommodated with sufficient accuracy by a geographic
> coordinate system (lat,lon).  For many other problems coordinates need
> to be specified relative to some other known/identified point.  These
> might be (x,y,z) relative to some origin point (e.g. corner of a room,
> corner of a building) or they might be coordinates along something -
> like km from a road intersection.  Now these can be expressed
> (sometimes) in geographic coordinates but it may not be sufficiently
> accurate, nor easy to understand.  I don't tell you my house location
in
> (lat,lon) not just because of accuracy issues - but also because it is
> easier to understand my postal address or that I am 2 km from the
> intersection of 11th and Folk Street.
>
> Note also that coordinates are not a safe way in many cases to
identify
> something - since when you make data transformations the values of the
> coordinates are effected by computational errors.  A small adjustment
of
> the coordinates might in some cases "move" the point in question so
that
> it is no longer inside the object of interest.
>
> These issues are handled in GML (on which geoRSS is based) by
supporting
> any number of coordinate systems.  Tools can then perform coordinate
> conversions as required.  In a great number of circumstances, data
will
> be transformed into a single coordinate system for viewing and user
> interaction - so that there is a coordinate system that means
something
> in the users context.  For "global" problems this is typically some
kind
> of geographic system - for more local problems (think about navigating
> inside a building) other systems are more natural and easier to relate
> to.
>
> The other key element in the story, and one that is only partly
> addressed in geoRSS thus far is that of features.  Features are
entities
> that people relate to in a specific problem domain - so are easy to
> understand - things like bridges, buildings, restaurants and parks.
> Sometimes all we want to know is that we are "inside" or "near" to the
> feature in question - without really knowing where it is.  At other
> times we are more concerned with other properties of the thing - like
> how large it is - is the road paved - what kind of food does the
> restaurant have. Since geoRSS is built on GML - once create GML
features
> that represent these things that matter to us, along with their
location
> (in various coordinate systems), there size and shape and other
> properties of interest.
>
> So coordinates yes - features too.
>
> Cheers
>
> R
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: georss-bounces at lists.eogeo.org
> [mailto:georss-bounces at lists.eogeo.org] On Behalf Of noiv
> Sent: August 17, 2006 11:38 AM
> To: georss at lists.eogeo.org
> Subject: Re: [georss] Transport of Toponyms with GeoRSS
>
> I'd like to add a point from the view of a user and/or application
> designer to the discussion. Years ago coordinates have been useful for
> geographers and machines, (only). But since interactive maps pop up
> everyday, coordinates gets a meaning for end users as well.
>
> Now there are programs helping him to consult a map
> and he easily can see where in the world a given coordinate
> points to and how it belongs to himself.
>
> I would say, the coordinates in a feed have turned from a
> data element into an action element. The procedure
> or problem of position a map in way the given point
> is visible at best is now solved by programs for everybody.
>
> The question is simple: What's the text on the button starting
> this procedure?
>
> Everybody is talking about Globalization, Global Warming, etc.
> and there is a need for a method of linking a resource, a message
> or an event to a point on this planet in an end user friendly way
> And there are end users at both endings of communication.
>
> Isn't GeoRSS the most nearest concept that
> matches a solution to this challenge?
>
> If GeoRSS will not go this way, what else do you plan?
>
>
> Regards
>
> --
> Torsten Becker - ExploreOurPla.net
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