Session coverage by guest blogger Alexander Sheko
Session Details
- Presented by Steve Bennett (Twitter, Website)
- Location: Room Two
- Time: Session #5 (2:20pm - 2:55pm)
- Number of Attendees: 18
- Format: Presentation and discussion
Steve has created cycletour.org, a website for mapping out cycling routes, and ran a session on how to create this type of service. The website uses Open Street Map and uses information from Victorian Government sources.
Steve Bennett expounds the virtues of Open Street Map.
Leveraging Open Street Maps
Some participants were familiar with technologies such as GIS or creating code, while others were not. Steve showed how he combined data from open source mapping applications with CSS coding to develop maps with custom appearances that best convey the information that is of interest.
Steve showed all the backend aspects of the publicly accessible map, and how information from database was extracted by the map and displayed as a layer. For example, the map could show where there are fords at rivers.
There are a number of ways that maps and their functions could be customised. For example, they use routing algorithms to find the optimal route between two points on a map. These can be customised to different modes of transport i.e. calculating the best route for bicycles is different to that for cars. Rules can even be defined to suit local contexts e.g. different rules about who can use different facilities in different countries or states.