Google collects not just the bits and bytes on the internet but it also publishes a great deal of the data collected in the real world. This so called Geo data is used in applications as Google Earth, Maps and Sketchup.
Last Thursday Google organized the first Dutch Geo Developer Day. I attended this Geo Day together with 250 other "Geo Developers". During this day we heard more about the new features in the Google Maps API. and other Geo applications.
In the morning we had a presentation from Bernhard Seefeld, Tech Lead Manager at Google. The essence of his presentation was that with the "basic" maps provided by Google we are only half way there. The maps are a good foundation. The maps only become useful after we add additional information to it. What they are actually saying is that Google provides the base ingredient for a mashup. As an example misdaadkaart.nl.
Two other things worth mentioning were Google's mission: "To organize the world's info and make it universally accessible and useful." and a quote on visualization: "The web is about opening access to information. Some information works much better with the right visual context."
The Google Geo-team added two new features to the Google Maps API. The Google Maps API is the programming interface developers use. The new features are:
- GeoRSS, GeoRSS can be used to add location information to objects or events. You could read about a political conflict in some unknown banana-republic but with the help of GeoRSS you can plot the news item on a map.
- KML support, KML is a file format used to display geographic data in an Earth browser, such as Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Maps for mobile. KML uses a tag-based structure with nested elements and attributes and is based on the XML standard. With KML it is possible to load dynamic data as an overlay on a map.
The next speaker was Brandon Badger, Product Manager at Google. He again stated that Google Maps is a blank canvas and that users (you, me and the other 499.998 users of Google Earth) should fill the gap with interesting geographical information.
The Maps API is free to use and on the question if the Maps API will remain ad-free the answer was: "we will not disappoint our 30.000 users". However there is a 50.000 API request limit per day.
The name KML comes from Keyhole Markup Language. Keyhole is the name of the digital mapping company Google acquired in 2004. KML support used to be only available for Google Earth users but since two week it is also available in the Maps API.
KML files can be exported from Google Earth but also from Picasa. What? Picasa? Yep that's what he said Picasa supports geotagged photo's. Imagine what you can do with your vacation photo's.
The third speaker was Remco Kouwenhoven. A city counselor in Groningen and owner of the Nederkaart mashup site.
His presentation was a walkthrough of some interesting Dutch mashups:
His future expectations:
- still in an early stage, too much gimmick like
- the future as marketing instrument is promising
- interaction between projectdevelopers, architects and the public cab on development plans
In the afternoon there were three workshops:
- Google Maps API
- Google Earth
- Sketchup
The workshop on the Maps API was more a Q&A session. The assignments and the workshop are on-line available.
The Sketchup workshop was more like a hands-on presentation. In less than an hour a house was build complete with views from different angles but also with different lighting. How is the light going to be in summer? Or at noon on a winter day? Sketchup makes it possible to look at your creation under these different circumstances. Pretty amazing. Needless to say that I was impressed by Sketchup as a sketching tool. The features shown in this product will have a big influence on other modeling tools.
Some links from my notes:
All in all it was an interesting and inspiring day, for homework I have a couple of ideas to work out ...