Re: [Therion] Cave Overlays on Google Maps Web Sites

[John Pybus]

Wookey wrote:
> It may be cool, but it's not much of an aspiration whilst google earth
> remains proprietary software. I'm sticking to Free viewers we have
> some control over. 

One option is to target NASA whirlwind instead of/in addition to 
GoogleEarth.  WW is open source and uses free NASA data.  The current 
1.3.x versions use .net & DirectX, so are windows only.  The upcoming 
1.5 release is a reimplementation in java and JOGL which will be cross 
platform.  It has currently entered a limited distribution alpha test; a 
public beta is due in the next few weeks.

> Similar problem with the map data. It's not ours, we can't do what we
> want with it (like publish the results in a journal). We can't use it
> offline, and so on (correct me if I am wrong on any of this). So it's
> (very) nice, but also highly limited.

There are some sources of free map data (at least in the UK). 
www.openstreetmap.org has increasing coverage, and scans of the out of 
copyright 1940s/50s New Popular edition OS maps are available at 
www.npemap.org.uk under a Creative Commons non-commercial license.

In fact npemap.org.uk are using the maps to create an unencumbered 
geolocated DB of UK postcodes.  Which is a good thing generally, so I 
recommend going along browsing to a place you know the postcode for and 
adding a bit more data.  See 
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1936557,00.html

John
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