Megalithic mapping

[Boreades]

At the request of some senior members of the TME team, I've been quietly doing some spade work on how TME could support its own Megalithic Mapping service without copyright issues.

The thinking (so far) is that this would be based on OpenStreetMap, with the addition of our own layers of data. OpenStreetMap is "open source", and we just have to acknowledge OpenStreetMap.

This is where I need your help, before we can start creating our own library of places of interest. Why? Well, if you imagine adding a book to a library, one of the first things you the librarian has to do is decide which section it goes in. Otherwise, it's an untidy mess, and retrieving anything becomes a nightmare. And for that, one needs a classification schema. Wossat? Simply, for us, it's a list of all the main categories of "things" we've ever bothered to make maps of.

Like (but not limited to) these:

Megalith stone
Henge
Hilltop
Hilltop with enclosure
Church
Monastery
Celtic cross
Boundary marker
Port
Mine
Island
Pub

What else can you think of?

Then when we start adding places to our library, we would
1) choose the category it belongs in
2) give it a short title
3) optionally, give it a longer description
4) say what its latitude and longitude is
The last part can easily be done if it has a Wikipedia page, as the Lat-Long pairing usually appears there.

For each category, we would also need an associated and appropriate small icon. Like you can choose for a point in Google Maps, but our own, so there's no copyright issues. If you stumble over any open source icon libraries that look good, please let me know.

When we are displaying all the items in chosen category/categories, each category becomes a distinct layer of points, shown on top of OpenStreetMap.

I know this works, I've already done it for my day job and c.10K categorised locations in the UK

Laydeez 'n' gennelmen, your thoughts please?

[macausland]

It's been touched on before but I think farm fields and watercourses of whatever kind should take their place in the scheme of things along with their names.

Names would give a clue to the thinking of the past and show how they are distributed and clustered.

[Mick Harper]

What about pasting up a map with a few goodies on it so we know what we're dealing with (they can be imaginary at this stage). In my experience (ie for the purposes of pushing a theory) you can't have too few things!

[jon]

Hi Boreades

If you have enough interest, and enough potential for adding new data, you might instead consider asking the Megalithic Portal if a category marker can be added to their database: Just one bit on/off signifying ME interest would do, but you might be better negotiating for a 8 or 16 bits. There would have to be a lot of interest and photos for them to be interested.

But that would give you vast access to data that already exists, allow the MP to expand their data and allow you to filter out ME data perhaps using a frame access.

Anyways.. just a thought

[Boreades]

I forgot to mention a specific requirement that is bound to surface sooner or later. Like on Google Earth, the ability to draw a line between chosen points. OpenLayers does have utilities for that, so it's been added to the extensive and demanding System Requirements Specification document (version 1.0). On the back of an envelope somewhere. Now, where did I put it?

[Boreades]

Are any of us well-enough in with the Megalithic Portal folks to ask about what Jon suggests? Or data sharing of any kind. The latter might be a tad presumptuous, as they've got a lot more data than TME in their database. As in, lots -v- zero.

[Mick Harper]

Not me. They keep lambasting my books.

[spiral]

http://www.boredpanda.com/interesting-maps/

Lots of ideas here. Red Hair, Beer Consumption, Lactose intolerance, Knob and Breast size.

[Mick Harper]

Most amusing. And educational. "Every Country England Has Ever Invaded" bemused me and "The Most-Listened-To Artist In Every U.S. State" finally disabused me of having any remaining connection with popular culture -- I'd only heard of two of them!

[Boreades]

You'd only heard of two US States?