Hi Folks, We have had a few interesting discussions both on and off this list about some speciality map overlays that I had put together to entertain myself (things like canals, historical sites, railways, power stations etc.) - the sort of things that I have on http://maps.webhop.net. I have started moving these to a commercial web host at http://maps3.org.uk, which will be faster.
A few people have commented that they would like to be able to do this sort of thing to display the data they are most interested in, but setting up all of the databases and rendering programs is too complicated. I have been giving this some thought, and would like to develop a speciality map rendering system to allow less technically minded people to create their own map overlays to display over the standard OSM map rendering (ie without having to set up your own postgresql database, import OSM data, keep it up to date etc...) - all you will need to do is create the mapnik stylesheet to tell the renderer what do display and how to display it (not that that is easy!). I envisage having a shared web server to share these map overlays, and provide customised editing facilities (potlatch2 tailored to the particular things being displayed on the map). It would also allow someone to create their own mapnik style sheet to show a particular set of data, and add it to the map. The idea would be that we would use a commercial web hosting service to keep the cost down, and a separate computer to do the map rendering and upload the map tiles to the server (I will use my old laptop for now, which should cope unless things get very popular...but might start an appeal for a community owned virtual server to do it if the load gets too high!). I have put some thoughts on what this system would look like on my OSM user page (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Grahamjones#Speciality_Maps). My question is whether many people would find this useful? Or has someone already done it but I have not found it? If it is the sort of thing people are interested in I will look at getting it set up - If anyone would like to help, that would be great! (note that I have sent this to the GB list because my hardware is not up to dealing with the whole world - there is no reason in principle why this should not be international). Regards Graham. -- Graham Jones Hartlepool, UK.
_______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb
