-------- Original Message --------
Subject: KML as a lightweight geographic data format [was Free, open
source map publishing tool - gdal2tiles]
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 08:38:43 -0500
From: Andrew Turner <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
note: I'm changing the subject to indicate the current discussion of this
thread.
On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 10:27:32 -0600, Angie Cope <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Nicholas, I think all Andrew was trying to say is KML has its place and
>> is
>> evolving more and more every year .
>
>Granted it has its use, but in terms of a format for public institutions
>to provide data, it is not the most useful or optimal. KML is foremost a
>publishing format.
>
>Re "...into into a more sophisticated GIS tool". I feel i must comment on
>this often made statement.
>
>Hmmm. Does Google Earth provide for sophisticated querying of data,
>processing and reformatting of the data? No. This is fundamental to the
>operation of a GIS.
>
>Google Earth is in no way a GIS, it is not now and very probably never
>will be.
Thank you [whomever]. You're correct that I wasn't proposing "replacing" these
other formats with KML. But that KML serves an, as yet unfulfilled, need.
First, lets not confuse KML with Google Earth. They are separate things
(data format, and visualization tool, respectively). And while KML to date
has been designed around visualization in GE, it is becoming broader then
that. It is, in fact, being targeted as a lightweight geographic data format
for visualization.
There are other tools adding support for KML that do support 'sophisticated
querying of data, processing and reformatting of the data'. To name a few:
GeoServer, MapBuilder, Galdos Software, Mapufacture. And even ESRI is adding
import/export capability for KML.
>provided via GISs and even prosumer applications. GE will be a thing of
>the past in a few years.
This comment doesn't make sense to me. Google Earth is a geographic
visualization tool, a "spinny globe". You think tools for 3D visual display
of geographic information will go away? In fact, personal computer speeds
are increasing in such a way that can make something like GE available on
your mobile phone (already demoable)
>
>GE is primarily about providing a means to allow public viewing of
>proprietry data as a lure for the public to look at advertising. Sure the
>public is allowed to add their own content over the top in a limited and
>controlled way (read the GE T&Cs). However, overall GE is of very little
>use and would go as far as to suggest thats its creation is one of most
>detrimental developments that has occurred within the GI industry, since
>if gives many GI novices the false idea that it is what geographic
>information analysis is about, when it is no such thing.
If you think making geographic data easily accessible and understandable by
the public is a bad thing, then GE is bad. On the other hand, if you see it
as a tool that has enlightened the public as to the *importance* of GIS and
geographic data. For example, why it's useful for first responders of
disasters to have satellite imagery quickly.
> Using GE is
>rather like going to a museum and looking at the exhibits there. You can
>look, you can draw them, and you might in a limited way be able to
>interact with them. But you cannot take them home, modify them, analyse
>them in complex ways, cut bits off them, change their colour combine them
>with other items, to create something enirely new. This is what a modern
>full-featured GIS allows with your own GI.
You should play with Google Earth, and other associated tools more. This is
possible. You can also display your own KML and WMS within GE. But this is
moving beyond the initial discussion of the usefulness of KML for public
distribution of geographic information.
>
>But this is what is happening.
>
>To return to the original objection, public libraries should be providing
>scans of maps etc in standard open image file formats (tiff/geotiff, .JPG,
>JP2, ECW) which people can already use and view, without the need for
>loading them onto GE and in doing encouraging use for a privately owned
>facility.
This is what the World Digital Library is doing
(http://www.worlddigitallibrary.org), Minnesota Historical Society
(http://www.mnhs.org) and many many more. However, their interface is
usually relegated to "keyword" searches. What if I want to find every map
that includes Wichita, Kansas?
Now, if the library included a KML output of their map collection, as Ground
Overlays, or even just box outlines, then I could easily pull that KML into
a spinny globe or slippy map and quickly do queries with that - or pull into
a more powerful GIS tool that would import the maps and then let me manipulate.
The point is, KML is lightweight enough that it is usable by the public,
currently with a very popular, easy to use, *free* tool (google Earth), but
also an open standard that can be implemented by anyone for their own uses,
be they public "fun" facing, or more expert.
Andrew Turner
neogeographer
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