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11 Juin 2010
Trips MicroContent
A long time ago I started a blog with walks that I made. Unfortunately it was a lot of work to keep this blog updated, so nothing happened for 5 years. I moved my attention to Google Maps and started keeping a record there of trips by foot or by car. Initially this was for experimenting with maps, etc, but I realised that I could do more with it. So time to start rethinking the subject.
First: what are we talking about. I do not have a nice definition, but Trips MicroContent captures a sequential movement by a person, such that it can be repeated by another person. Sounds pretty abstract, but that makes it more interesting.
And this can be seen as MicroContent. It can be contained in a single file (KL for instance). And this file can be published on Internet, so it will get a permalink (an URI). It has a title, description, etc. In fact we could write up a XSD for it. Such a KML can be viewed in a local MicroContent client (Google Earth), uploaded to a MicroContent Service such as Google Maps. And there are many other services that accepts this file format.
Without being exhaustive a Trip MicroContent contains fields, such as a title, a description, transportation means used, participants to a trip, date executed, duration of trip and most important a sequential list of geographic locations. This list shows how the trip was executed. Some of these locations are special and are called waypoints. Such the begin- and endpoint is a waypoint. Also locations where the participants used directions to go another way are waypoints. If photos or videos are taken during a trip, then one could define these as waypoints. The possibilities seem limitless.