Location-enabled webfeed holds promise A map mashup integrates user-data
THIS EDITION of NetSpeak explores the map mashup application landscape and examines the potential of GeoRSS, an RSS feed (webfeed) embedded with geographic data. A distinct feature of the current on-line applications is the availability of tools for extracting information from them by other programs/services. By combining data obtained from such services with own data, developers generate new applications/services. Applications developed thus are generally known as mashups. Of late, map mashups, applications based on on-line map services, have gained considerable attention. A map mashup integrates user-data on top of a geographical map pulled from an on-line map service such as Google maps and Yahoo! Maps (http://maps.yahoo.com/beta/). Several such applications are being rolled out daily. The map mashup, `Virtual Tourism' ( http://www.virtualtourism.blogspot.com/) that displays details of major tourist spots worldwide, is an instance of such an application. And, if you want to view the geographical distribution of earthquakes (of magnitude 2.5 or greater) occurred in the last seven days, access the mash-up `Earthquakes in the Last week' (http://earthquakes.tafoni.net/). The famous MIT OpenCourseWare ( http://www.ocw.cn/OcwWeb/index.htm) project, meant for making available educational content worldwide for free, has spurred the generation of several such projects. CORE (China Open Resource for Education) is an excellent initiative of this kind from China ( http://www.core.org.cn/en/index.htm). An extensive list of educational podcasts, web casts and OCWs can be found on this blog thread: http://stingyscholar.blogspot.com/ 2006/03/university-podcasts-webcasts-ocws.html. The map-mashup of the above list (wayfaring.com/maps/show/10585) helps you gain insights on the geographical distribution of these materials. Exploring blogs such as Programmable Web, (programmableweb.com/) Google Maps Mania (http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/) and so on will help you keep up with the latest developments in the mashup realm. Certain on-line applications now offer facilities for connecting your data with an on-line map service. A lay user who finds it difficult to create a map mashup may find this new facility very handy. The free on-line spreadsheet application EditGrid ( http://www.editgrid.com/) is a product with this feature enabled. In case you need to present some data on a global map with this service, for each location, enter its place name or latitude/longitude details in the worksheet. Now, to generate the map, access the option Add-Ons, available under the menu `My Workspace' and click on the `Grid2Map' button. Alongside the graph, EditGrid provides you an HTML snippet for casting this map on your blog. This service could be useful for different tasks. For instance a college can feed the addresses of its alumni on to a worksheet with location details and project it on to a global map to view its alumni's geographical distribution. Yet another development relevant to the mashup technology is GeoRSS or enabling an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) based news feed with geographic data. It is common knowledge that a dynamic web site (like a blog, a news service etc) publishes the summary of its latest postings on a text file embedded with a few HTML type tags. Now, to each of the entries, if we add location specific information, programmers could develop tools for location-based classification/aggregation or projection of the items being posted on to a map. For instance one could project the news stories on to a global map by enlisting the service of an on-line map service. GeoRSS ( http://www.georss.org/) is an attempt to enrich the RSS format with location details. The GeoRSS format presents some standard means for embedding location information (like latitude, longitude etc) on to an RSS based webfeed. To generate a GeoRSS feed from a conventional webfeed, enlist the service of an RSS to GeoRSS converter (like Geonames- http://www.geonames. org/rss-to-georss- converter.html). Also, as we have tools to read/aggregate RSS feeds, applications for reading GeoRSS feeds are also emerging (ACME GeoRSS map viewer that displays the GeoRSS data on a Google map - http://www.acme.com/GeoRSS/about.html - is an example). To get a feel of the GeoRSS, paste this GeoRSS example feed (http://links.m56kbps. com/georss.xml), created by this author (using GeoNames), on to the ACME GeoRSS reader's input box and view the news items projected on a global map. Whereas RSS feeds help us easily track content from specific sources, GeoRSS feeds may help us track the happenings in specified locations on the globe. GeoRSS is still in a nascent stage and fresh tools/applications based on this technology are emerging. Despite being a simple text format, RSS has become an essential information distribution tool. Likewise, we can expect an explosion of applications based on GeoRSS technology as well. Though products such as Google, Firefox and the like have marginalised the dominance of MicroSoft products in the on-line world, the company is less than willing to accept the defeat. Through a variety of new products (like Windows Live Messenger, where you can chat in local languages) the company is trying to regain its lost ground. To penetrate the market further, Microsoft India (http://in.msn.com/) has recently introduced several regional portals (like MSN Hindi, MSN Tamil, MSN Malayalam etc) for providing customised local content. Bhasha India (http// www.bhashaindia.com) , that provides software/fonts for local language support, is yet another MicroSoft project worth a mention. On-line calculator For doing arithmetic you don't need a calculator anymore, especially if you are on the Net. You just have to access one of the several on-line calculators available. Even Google ( http://www.google.co.in/help/calculator.html) can be used for this purpose. If you wish to try, just enter 'sqrt(16)' in Google search box and see what happens. The on-line application, Calcoolate ( http://www.calcoolate.com/), is yet another web-based calculator with some desirable features. Besides helping you compute complex arithmetic expressions, the service keeps a log of all the calculations you make and displays them on its page. PreFound It is probable that many people have already searched for the same information you intend to find. That is, life will be better off, if you can leverage on the knowledge of others while consulting a search engine. The newly launched search engine PreFound ( http://www.prefound.com/index.php) attempts to exploit this concept. Alongside the normal web search output, PreFound displays the links pertaining to your query already shared by its users. J. MURALI He can be contacted at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.thehindu.com/2006/10/30/stories/2006103000651500.htm Vikas Kapoor, MSN ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype ID: dl_vikas Mobile: (+91) 9891098137. To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
