About GPS, points of interest (and map data)

[Jon Phillips]

On Sun, 2007-01-21 at 09:04 +1100, Howard Lowndes wrote:
> 
> Jeroen Dekkers wrote:
> > At Sat, 20 Jan 2007 21:47:53 +0100,
> > Pierre Hébert wrote:
> >> In the same idea it would be great if the Neo could help us build a 
> >> shared geographic database. With a Neo and a software assistant we could 
> >> mark streets, crossroad as we are walking. Of course building a GIS 
> >> requires a lot more work than building a database of POI, but with 
> >> thousands of Neo in a big city (or perhaps millions soon ;-) ) I guess 
> >> that such database will grow rapidly !
> > 
> > I think you're looking for this:
> > 
> > http://www.openstreetmap.org
> 
> I heard about this site a few days ago, so I contacted an ex-coworker in 
> our local council to find out the local situation - he moved from the 
> mapping field into the IT field.  Here is his reply:
> 
> "Our cadastre is stored in a MS SqlSvr relational database, and is
> accessed and controlled by ESRI's Spatial Database Engine (SDE). Data
> may be exported to various formats, including, I believe, XML, but many
> years ago Council sold reproduction rights to NSW Land Information
> Centre (LIC, although I believe that the name has changed) for a tidy
> sum and rights to use their data for our own purposes."
> 
> My betting is that most mapping generating bodies have seen the dollars 
> and done the same.   Sigh...

GPS and mapping is a great usage of openmoko. So much so, that we should
detail what Open ____ solutions exist here:
http://www.linuxtogo.org/gowiki/OpenMoko/Software

I have hacked a bit on the cairo-based Roadster: 

http://cairographics.org/Roadster

Jon

-- 
Jon Phillips

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