My only advice is to Keep It Simple, and don't let techies practice their latest and greatest on your data.
I personally would be inclined to design a relational database and allow querying it or downloading it directly, without any intermediate XML/ API/ other layer. Store the whole website in git or another version control system. Relational tables match straightforwardly to CSV downloads and HTML displays. You probably also want mash up capability with google maps etc, but someone esle should answer that. -W On Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 8:00 AM, Bryan Keith <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello, > > I am looking for some design suggestions. I'm in contact with one of the > people working on this website: > > http://www.bikewise.org/ > > The folks putting that site together are mostly non-technical. They're > cyclists. What they're trying to do is collect data, with a spatial > component of course, about bike crashes, near misses, hazards, and thefts. > The idea is that when enough data is collected transportation planners > can use this information to improve bicycle safety and facilities. Since > getting a city or region to be bicycle-friendly is a long term process (on > the order of decades), it is imperative that the data is stored in an open > format so that anyone who needs the data now and in the future will be > able to easily access it. > > I think there are quite a few people on this list with experience in this > kind of application. I also understand if this platform is built well it > only has to be built once and can be used anywhere in the world. What are > your recommendations for how the data ought to be stored? What specific > database/format/application and why? What application/api should this be > built on? How should the data and application be licensed? What other > questions should I be asking? What else should be considered? > > I'm looking for solutions that will allow the data to be available long > into the future, not just the latest spatial data fad. > > Web apps aren't my specialty. I do 3d gis-type programming for > sub-surface earth science applications (geology, water, contaminants) and > have rarely done web stuff and application design. Thank you for any > recommendations. > > Bryan > > > > _______________________________________________ > Geowanking mailing list > [email protected] > http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org > _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org
