Hi Michael,
Nice idea! Some thoughts:
* There are some existing open projects that specifically collect and
share data of e.g. cellphone towers, wifi networks etc (in at
attempt to offer an open alternative to Google location services,
which keep wifi networks data locations private).
* Check out: Mozilla Location Services
<https://location.services.mozilla.com/>, Open WLAN Map
<http://www.openwlanmap.org/?lang=en> (their map
<http://owm.vreeken.net/map/> seems to have some data for South
Africa already) etc.
* Are your thoughts similar to what Wigle <https://wigle.net/> is doing?
OpenStreetMap's mandate is to contain information about
physically-visible things, so it's unlikely that wifi networks will
every be incorporated into the dataset. I'm guessing you want to augment
your own geo-located data with OSM as map backdrop?
You should probably figure out how your app's interaction will be with
OSM? One option is to do what, for example, OSMAND is doing - use the
raw data dumps to render your own vector maps in your app. This is
non-trivial, but enables an app to work without an internet connection.
A simpler option is to use rendered OSM tiles as the "backdrop" to your
own wifi map and app. At some point, the official OSM tile rendering
servers might see this abuse (not sure.. Grant Slater should chip in
here...) but it's not very difficult to set up your own "mirror"
tile-rendering server - with the advantage that you also can control the
styling and features included in the rendered map.
If you are using web technologies to build your app, there are a ton of
libraries (like leaflet <http://leafletjs.com/>) to render an
interactive slippy map, adding your own layers.
If you're writing a native app (e.g. Java, Android) there are similar
libraries, but I have no experience with them.
good luck!
Dawid Loubser
On 06/07/2016 11:38, Michael Graaf wrote:
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: *Michael Graaf* <[email protected]
> <mailto:[email protected]>>
> Date: Wednesday, July 6, 2016
> Subject: WiFi Hotspots in SA
> To: "[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>"
> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>,
> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>
>
> Greetings all,
>
> I write on behalf of a team preparing to create an app (free as in
> beer as well as in speech) which will help users find WiFi hotspots
> and also review them or report new ones. We already have some
> data-sets which appear to be public-domain, but these things keep
> changing hence our intention to have real-time crowdsourcing.
>
> Initially we thought of using both Google Maps and OSM but on closer
> investigation, discovered that above a minimal level of use, Google
> API costs some dollars, so we discarded that idea.
>
> None of us has done this kind of thing before so we are hoping for
> guidance and assistance. I found your addresses in the OSM Import
> Guidelines page.
>
> yours in anticipation,
>
> Michael Graaf.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Talk-ZA mailing list
> [email protected]
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-za
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