Hi folks.
I'd like to submit one idea that we got recently of a system that could be used to visualize the vitality of the developers community in our areas, and could also serve as a tool to better know how to contact those of us who travel a lot for free software...
Here is the little memo I wrote :
(ideas for a name : World Almost Real-time Developpers Positioning System)
This project aims at developing a system which would allow easy geographical representation of Free Software Developpers on the terrestrial globe maps. This would be a great way to represent the vitality of the Free Software community, as well as a contact tool which could help in joining people traveling alot.
This project was discussed by members of the french chapter of the FSF Europe and myself, on the way back from Essen, where the general assembly of the FSF Europe was held. It started as a joke, when we thought how cool it would be to have real-time localization of the Free Software developers if they had some GPS with them.
Even if we don't think that exact and real-time positioning is needed, it would still be cool to get some graphical representation (on a volontary based registration of the developpers when they arrive to a new location), and see those great migrations when community groups gather (GNU/Linux trade shows, GUADEC, Usenix, etc.).
The system would ideally consist in a web site with a database of each developer's last known location (and status / ways he can be joined, etc.), and a graphical representation system. This system could be implemented by providing ways for developers to enter latitude and longitude coordinates in a form (which they could get from public web sites converting city to coordinates... any available ?). It would then give the user access to maps of earth/continent/countries, etc. which would represent the people in those areas, and maybe the moves since last positions. This would draw trajectories and/or spots of variable width that could be rather cool (imagine that you see all these people arriving to the LSM for Debian Conference, then migrating to the LinuxTag, etc.).
Allright, I think my description is long enough.
Any comments, suggestions of implementation, or known patent records that this project would infringe ? ;)
Best regards.
Olivier Berger oberger@april.org [010515]:
Hi folks.
I'd like to submit one idea that we got recently of a system that could be used to visualize the vitality of the developers community in our areas, and could also serve as a tool to better know how to contact those of us who travel a lot for free software...
Here is the little memo I wrote :
(ideas for a name : World Almost Real-time Developpers Positioning System)
This project aims at developing a system which would allow easy geographical representation of Free Software Developpers on the terrestrial globe maps. This would be a great way to represent the vitality of the Free Software community, as well as a contact tool which could help in joining people traveling alot.
A good example of such maps is on the debian website that uses Xplanet (xplanet.sourceforge.net).
This project was discussed by members of the french chapter of the FSF Europe and myself, on the way back from Essen, where the general assembly of the FSF Europe was held. It started as a joke, when we thought how cool it would be to have real-time localization of the Free Software developers if they had some GPS with them.
Even if we don't think that exact and real-time positioning is needed, it would still be cool to get some graphical representation (on a volontary based registration of the developpers when they arrive to a new location), and see those great migrations when community groups gather (GNU/Linux trade shows, GUADEC, Usenix, etc.).
The system would ideally consist in a web site with a database of each developer's last known location (and status / ways he can be joined, etc.), and a graphical representation system. This system could be implemented by providing ways for developers to enter latitude and longitude coordinates in a form (which they could get from public web sites converting city to coordinates... any available ?). It would then give the user access to maps of earth/continent/countries,
Lists of coordinates exists, I've one in a series of Atlas on paper, but not in text or db format. If someone knows (Bernard?)...
etc. which would represent the people in those areas, and maybe the moves since last positions. This would draw trajectories and/or spots of variable width that could be rather cool (imagine that you see all these people arriving to the LSM for Debian Conference, then migrating to the LinuxTag, etc.).
It could be possible but the onliest problem is data! I belive all of the tools exists (see Freegis.org).
@+
-- BNJ http://plume.sourceforge.net http://lln.udev.org
Allright, I think my description is long enough.
Any comments, suggestions of implementation, or known patent records that this project would infringe ? ;)
Best regards.
-- Olivier BERGER - Secrétaire de l'association APRIL APRIL (http://www.april.org) - Vive python (http://www.python.org) Pétition contre les brevets logiciels : http://petition.eurolinux.org _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion@fsfeurope.org http://mailman.fsfeurope.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discussion
On Tue, May 15, 2001 at 11:14:27PM +0200, Henrion Benjamin wrote:
The system would ideally consist in a web site with a database of each developer's last known location (and status / ways he can be joined, etc.), and a graphical representation system. This system could be implemented by providing ways for developers to enter latitude and longitude coordinates in a form (which they could get from public web sites converting city to coordinates... any available ?). It would then give the user access to maps of earth/continent/countries,
Lists of coordinates exists, I've one in a series of Atlas on paper, but not in text or db format. If someone knows (Bernard?)...
There is a nice system which does mapping from IP to geo coordinates: netgeo. It us used for several projects I know of, eg. the Folding@home project (http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/Cosm/maps.html). You can find netgeo at CAIDA:
http://www.caida.org/tools/utilities/netgeo/
Cheers//Frank
On Wed, May 16, 2001 at 01:12:16AM +0200, Frank de Lange wrote:
There is a nice system which does mapping from IP to geo coordinates: netgeo. It us used for several projects I know of, eg. the Folding@home project (http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/Cosm/maps.html). You can find netgeo at CAIDA:
it is not free software and IMO (as I understand the web page) it will not become free software. There are two free software web mapping applications: MapServer (MIT License) and MapIt! (LGPL). The latter is designed to present points of interest on raster maps. The first is a full-blown application.
http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/index.html http://www.mapit.de/
Cheers
Jan
Frank de Lange a écrit :
On Tue, May 15, 2001 at 11:14:27PM +0200, Henrion Benjamin wrote:
The system would ideally consist in a web site with a database of each developer's last known location (and status / ways he can be joined, etc.), and a graphical representation system. This system could be implemented by providing ways for developers to enter latitude and longitude coordinates in a form (which they could get from public web sites converting city to coordinates... any available ?). It would then give the user access to maps of earth/continent/countries,
Lists of coordinates exists, I've one in a series of Atlas on paper, but not in text or db format. If someone knows (Bernard?)...
There is a nice system which does mapping from IP to geo coordinates: netgeo.
Well IP to coordinates is fine... but, I don't think that this kind of tool can be helpful (reliable) because internet network-location (IP) might not represent physical location (VPNs, multinational ISPs, etc.). I'd prefer a manually (kinda) updated database...
Anyway IP adresses can be used automatically if no other manual input was submitted from some time ? ...
All this makes me think that the system would have to know the default location of a developper, so that he/she updates the DB when going on vacation / to a conference for some time and doesn't have to update it when back home... the system would go back to normal location if not receiving any new input in some delay...
Does it make sense ? ... too off-topic ? ... time to create a project on savannah ? ;)
Henrion Benjamin a écrit :
Olivier Berger oberger@april.org [010515]:
Hi folks.
I'd like to submit one idea that we got recently of a system that could be used to visualize the vitality of the developers community in our areas, and could also serve as a tool to better know how to contact those of us who travel a lot for free software...
Btw, I added this project as a long term task on savannah (https://savannah.gnu.org/pm/task.php?func=detailtask&project_task_id=156...)
Here is the little memo I wrote :
(ideas for a name : World Almost Real-time Developpers Positioning System)
This project aims at developing a system which would allow easy geographical representation of Free Software Developpers on the terrestrial globe maps. This would be a great way to represent the vitality of the Free Software community, as well as a contact tool which could help in joining people traveling alot.
A good example of such maps is on the debian website that uses Xplanet (xplanet.sourceforge.net).
The page is http://www.debian.org/devel/developers.loc, for those curious.
Great ! Exactly the kind of stuff I'd like to see... with some dynamics and customization of the views...
It could be possible but the onliest problem is data! I belive all of the tools exists (see Freegis.org).
Also what I think... not a big deal for the great hackers around here ;)
As for the data (you mean the localisation information of each volunteer member of the system ?)... we'll find a way to input (for instance by mail)...