There has been discussion from time to time about separate layers of data for OSM. One proposal is to use an alternate instance of the OSM database to serve as the database for an alternate layer of data.
While I was riding my biking this morning I thought of a good use for such a database layer, a layer holding GPS tracks from recreation events such as biking and hiking. There have been and are numerous services that do this. The first I know of was MotionBased. I worked at such a company myself back in the early days of cell phone GPS on Nextel phones. Storing such data in OpenStreetMap would be good because it could attract a lot of developer attention for clients and services because it is open. The data could also be fed back in to help refine the trail network of OSM. I put up a wiki page here with some dicussion: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OpenSportMap At the bottom it talks about generalizing this idea to all kinds of data. One example is allowing users to create their own maps on top of OSM, like MyMaps from Google. There are many other uses too. I think it is a good idea because it can extend OpenStreetMap from being just a base map to being an entire online GIS platform where users can create any layer they want. Dave _______________________________________________ talk mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
