Comments on: More fun with APIs http://behind.aotw.org/2006/08/22/more-fun-with-apis/ the backwash of a digital history project Sat, 13 Mar 2010 04:09:41 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Harry http://behind.aotw.org/2006/08/22/more-fun-with-apis/comment-page-1/#comment-2066 Harry Wed, 23 Aug 2006 17:32:43 +0000 http://aotw.org/blog/2006/08/22/more-fun-with-apis/#comment-2066 Brian, Checked it out, played with it, and I dig it. BTW, the timeline still doesn't work for me. Has anyone else had trouble with it? Brian,

Checked it out, played with it, and I dig it.

BTW, the timeline still doesn’t work for me. Has anyone else had trouble with it?

]]> By: William J. Turkel http://behind.aotw.org/2006/08/22/more-fun-with-apis/comment-page-1/#comment-2058 William J. Turkel Wed, 23 Aug 2006 13:27:11 +0000 http://aotw.org/blog/2006/08/22/more-fun-with-apis/#comment-2058 Brian, pretty sweet! I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but MetaCarta has a <a href="http://labs.metacarta.com/GeoParser/documentation.html" rel="nofollow">placename API</a> that might be useful. Brian, pretty sweet! I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet, but MetaCarta has a placename API that might be useful.

]]> By: Jim Studnicki http://behind.aotw.org/2006/08/22/more-fun-with-apis/comment-page-1/#comment-2057 Jim Studnicki Wed, 23 Aug 2006 13:16:20 +0000 http://aotw.org/blog/2006/08/22/more-fun-with-apis/#comment-2057 Brian: Good stuff. For CW applications, I find the USGS 24K topo maps to often be the most useful (e.g., for locating cemeteries), and they're unfortunately missing from the Keyhole / Google Earth dataset. The TIGER USGS dataset is implemented by Topozone.com (an oldie but goodie) and you can search all of its place / names there. I wrote a similar integration to Google Earth's data awhile back, except I'm directly rendering KML as a link off of my existing location pages. You've got to have Google Earth installed, of course, but I'd already written my own front-end to the TerraServer data and didn't feel the need to re-invent the wheel. One problem I have with user-entered data on Google Earth is that it's not globally searchable (unless they've changed it lately; last time I checked you could post links to your .kml files on a message boards of sorts but its usefulness was extremely limited). I understand the reason -- any user-entered content provides an entry point for spam, and for garbage / incorrect data to be entered -- but if Wikipedia can demonstrate that the model can work, it can be done. The most immediate application I can see for this is a proximity-based application where one can be shown all existing markers inside the current window once inside a certain zoom range. Think of popping up markers on each monument within the current 100m square of the battlefield, or plotting all cemeteries with CW interments within x miles. -- Jim Brian:

Good stuff. For CW applications, I find the USGS 24K topo maps to often be the most useful (e.g., for locating cemeteries), and they’re unfortunately missing from the Keyhole / Google Earth dataset. The TIGER USGS dataset is implemented by Topozone.com (an oldie but goodie) and you can search all of its place / names there.

I wrote a similar integration to Google Earth’s data awhile back, except I’m directly rendering KML as a link off of my existing location pages. You’ve got to have Google Earth installed, of course, but I’d already written my own front-end to the TerraServer data and didn’t feel the need to re-invent the wheel.

One problem I have with user-entered data on Google Earth is that it’s not globally searchable (unless they’ve changed it lately; last time I checked you could post links to your .kml files on a message boards of sorts but its usefulness was extremely limited). I understand the reason — any user-entered content provides an entry point for spam, and for garbage / incorrect data to be entered — but if Wikipedia can demonstrate that the model can work, it can be done.

The most immediate application I can see for this is a proximity-based application where one can be shown all existing markers inside the current window once inside a certain zoom range. Think of popping up markers on each monument within the current 100m square of the battlefield, or plotting all cemeteries with CW interments within x miles.

– Jim

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