How I built a location-based social app

How I built a location-based social app using OpenStreetMap data John McKerrell

What is MapMe.At

Social Location Experimentation Platform

History Started in 2007 Allowed you to label favourite places Few interesting methods built in for tracking your location including DNS

Third party services GeoRSS

One user’s perspective

User experimentation

Developer experimentation Mersey Ferries in Liverpool Looks up location on shipais.com and inserts it into mapme.at http://mapme.at/where/snowdrop http://mapme.at/where/royaliris http://mapme.at/where/royaldaffodil

.. can lead to interesting apps ..

.. and interesting ideas inspire http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/mcknut/3585011720/

Social Location Experimentation Platform

Why OpenStreetMap?

Why OpenStreetMap? I’m a fan

Why OpenStreetMap? I’m a fan Huge existing dataset

Why OpenStreetMap? I’m a fan Huge existing dataset Constantly evolving

Why OpenStreetMap? I’m a fan Huge existing dataset Constantly evolving Read/Write API

Why OpenStreetMap? I’m a fan Huge existing dataset Constantly evolving Read/Write API Good license

How is OSM data used? Maps - screenshot ideally pre-cloudmade (Couldn’t ﬁnd one) (Demonstrates that OSM has always been a feature on OSM even when we had a commercial mapping provider’s API)

How is OSM data used? Maps - new screenshot showing cloudmade

Foursquare (Gowalla, Brightkite)

Foursquare (Gowalla, Brightkite) Allows you to “check in” to places.

Foursquare (Gowalla, Brightkite) Allows you to “check in” to places. Have a existing database of places visible to everyone

Foursquare (Gowalla, Brightkite) Allows you to “check in” to places. Have a existing database of places visible to everyone If a place doesn’t exist, you can create it

Foursquare (Gowalla, Brightkite) Allows you to “check in” to places. Have a existing database of places visible to everyone If a place doesn’t exist, you can create it Foursquare gives “Mayorship” to the person who visits a place most often, also “Badges” to encourage activity

mapme.at places

mapme.at places Launched in January

mapme.at places Launched in January Existing places show on a map on your homepage

mapme.at places Launched in January Existing places show on a map on your homepage “map yourself” at a place

mapme.at places Launched in January Existing places show on a map on your homepage “map yourself” at a place Also available from mobile: http://mapme.at/me/mobile

How does it work?

How does it work? Cloudmade reverse geocoder returns POIs

How does it work? Cloudmade reverse geocoder returns POIs Store entries in mapme.at DB with the OSM ID

How does it work? Cloudmade reverse geocoder returns POIs Store entries in mapme.at DB with the OSM ID Users can mark places as favourites with optional short label

How does it work?

How does it work? Non-existent place? User can still create an entry

How does it work? Non-existent place? User can still create an entry Places can be private or can be shared with others

How does it work? Non-existent place? User can still create an entry Places can be private or can be shared with others If user shares a place with everyone, they give us permission to add it to OSM

Third party services

Third party services Lots of sites have their own database with their own IDs

Third party services Lots of sites have their own database with their own IDs mapme.at currently tries to match Foursquare venues onto OSM IDs using the venue name

Third party services Lots of sites have their own database with their own IDs mapme.at currently tries to match Foursquare venues onto OSM IDs using the venue name Releasing a tool soon to allow manual matching

Third party services Lots of sites have their own database with their own IDs mapme.at currently tries to match Foursquare venues onto OSM IDs using the venue name Releasing a tool soon to allow manual matching Resulting Foursquare to OSM ID mapping will be released

Third party services Lots of sites have their own database with their own IDs mapme.at currently tries to match Foursquare venues onto OSM IDs using the venue name Releasing a tool soon to allow manual matching Resulting Foursquare to OSM ID mapping will be released More services coming soon too

How does this help OSM?

How does this help OSM? New data from user submissions to ﬁll gaps

How does this help OSM? New data from user submissions to ﬁll gaps New mapping data linking OpenStreetMap to external services

How does this help OSM? New data from user submissions to ﬁll gaps New mapping data linking OpenStreetMap to external services More users coming to OpenStreetMap from mapme.at

Why bother mapping yourself?

http://vimeo.com/10636282

http://vimeo.com/10636333

Thankyou http://mapme.at/ http://blog.mapme.at/

http://blog.mapme.at	674
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	2
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com	1

How I built a location-based social app

by John McKerrell on Jul 09, 2010

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

3 Embeds 677

Statistics

How I built a location-based social app — Presentation Transcript