Re: [Slashcode-development] [Slashcode-general] GeoRSS and Google Maps API Plugins for Slash

[Alexandre L. <ale...@ec...>]

Hi,

Larson, Timothy E. wrote:
> It would have to be defined somewhere on the site, but that would be
> done by the admins during setup, and only once.  If this GeoRSS thing i=
s
> that big already, I imagine someone somewhere has already done some of
> the work: defining the boundaries of countries, states, cities,
> landmasses, etc.  You'd just have to pick the ones that work for you,
> and fill in the gaps.

It's getting complex here since there are numerous possibilities. This=20
could be done directly using "RSS to GeoRSS Converter" from Geonames.org:
http://www.geonames.org/rss-to-georss-converter.html
However, I still feel a custom-made list of locations that can be=20
ordered as wished would still be more useful/convenient.

As for zip code geocoding, I don't know much myself about this, but I=20
know it's pretty easy. See
http://technology.slashgeo.org/article.pl?sid=3D06/01/21/054201
and
http://technology.slashgeo.org/article.pl?sid=3D06/06/15/1312224


>> In what way? To search the stories? To filter them on an index view
>> (as you could filter by author, or by topic?)=20
>=20
> Precisely!  That was my original vision for how it would work in that
> low-pri request.  It would be a fourth piece of data along with topic,
> section, and author.  One would be able to filter the homepage on
> location just as with those three. =20

Humm.. this raises an important issue. Do you want slash to manage the=20
'spatial queries' or let the user's GeoRSS reader do the job? I tend to=20
opt for the GeoRSS reader, since those will evolve/improve way faster=20
than slash does. The Slash engine could allow basic searches on archives=20
using a bounding box.

Logically, a GeoRSS feed shows only geolocated stories. Slashdot has=20
only 10 RSS items in its list, this means the slashdot map of georss=20
stories will be most of the time empty. This is bad. However, I guess=20
it's possible to map on the slashsite more than only the published RSS=20
items (see Shane's work-in-progress http://slashgeo.org/maps.pl ).=20
Probably showing the last 25 geolocated stories would make sense. The=20
exact number could be a var.


Alex
--=20
Alexandre Leroux, M.Sc., Ing.
Environnement Canada / Environment Canada
Centre m=E9t=E9orologique canadien / Canadian Meteorological Centre
Division de la r=E9ponse aux urgences environnementales /
Environmental Emergency Response Division
ale...@ec...