Please check out TheNewNodeMap. It's a work in progress to provide SWN with some decent, GPL'd mapping software.

The old NodeMap is dead! Long live TheNewNodeMap.

You can see the old map at: http://ofb.net/seattlewireless/

As you can see, this map relied on MapBlast. MapBlast has since followed the lead of the other mapping engines and started using encrypted url's, which locks us out. While you wait for the TheNewNodeMap you can use the text WhereToGetOn list.

WirelessLinkNetworkMap -- birds eye view and 3D views of the current network

WirelessFrequencyCoordination -- Band plan of current network and hotspots

We are currently looking at our options.

Although it may be easiest to go with the mapserver by MattHickey and many other groups have adopted it (nyc, ptp, bc), several issues have come up.

Why is rolling our own ideal?

SeattleWireless is not only a cool project for us Seattleites, but is a project that is being replicated across the world. Many people here contribute to our R&D because we are creating a standalone network and trying to create a good portable standard.

To keep this project portable (and interesting), I think that having a GPL or OSS license for our mapping software is key. It should also avoid using MapBlast or any other commercial map service as we could run into legal problems. Although we will use US specific map data, we should try to make it possible to use this outside of our small portion of the world.

Beyond that,

Comments:

For the near term, I think we should switch to this Seattle Wireless Net Nodes ala PersonalTelco's map. Notice the Create a node link. Name your node on that map like this seattlewireless:Node25Nw67, where the Node25Nw67 is the Wiki name for your node on this Wiki. -- JayPrimePositive

We should give MattHickey a chance to release his map software, at the very least we will have an existing code base to borrow from or extend. I would find it useful to add some type of network monitoring to the map server that can automatically determine the node status via snmp or icmp. --RichardLotz

Yeah, network monitoring would be cool! I would be happy to contribute my programming efforts to that project. You RichardLotz are right imo, it would be much better to have GPL'ed source and certainly not to rely on any InterNet service to make it work. -- JayPrimePositive

Perhaps a description of what the mapping software needs to be able to do would be useful? That way, if open-source GIS projects like GMT aren't good starting point alternatives to rolling-you-own, we'll at least know why.

If any of these packages would be useful, combining efforts with the developers of that package would elminate duplicated effort and expand the userbase (and thus the strength and utility) of both the SeattleWireless project and the relevant open source GIS project.

Checkout http://maps.personaltelco.net/group_nodes?group=SeattleWireless. We have our own listing on maps.personaltelco.net now! Make sure you list your group as SeattleWireless. -- TomO'Hern

Check MapServer ... OpenSource, integrates with PHP, works great.. Here's a sample app using MapServer. I think this is exactly what you guys are looking for; plus it looks great.. You'll be the envy of all the other wireless groups ;)

-- beau.gunderson@overlakehospital.orgjhkj

The Zhrodague WiFi Mapserver is mapping output from Netstumbler, using mapserver. Upload your findings, and see it plotted on the map! http://mapserver.zhrodague.net

Seattle Wireless node map using APRS (Amateur Position Reporting System) technology on Expedia maps. Once loaded you can use the map pull down to view the nodes overlayed on a Terraserver image of Seattle. Or select Mapblast or Tiger maps. Alt-Click allows zooming in for street level detail.

This will also show local APRS Amateur Stations as they are heard on 144.39 MHz.

See LocalAmateurRadio for more details. Here's the raw APRS for Seattle Wireless. This was created from an XML data file.

vodall@jnos.org

http://www.nodedb.com soon to be opensource, and can import/export by xml

I fear that the NodeMap project is suffering from a classic case of scope creep. Many have contributed great ideas that should be included in our utopian mapping system; but in doing so, we haven't come very far in the implementation. Furthermore, considering the number of mapping systems currently available (free/open or not), I would propose that we should place a greater focus on gathering and organizing relevant data in a way that could be imported into any generic mapping system. We should maintain a NodeTable in a simple format (not specific to a particular mapping system) so that the data can be easily imported into any mapping system that suits any particular need. To start, we should outline the data elements that need to be collected and organized. I've started this on the NodeTable page.)

(I see that much of this data is already available on each individual node page, but the data on each node page is not standardized in a way that would be easy to extract into a table.)

Once this data is gathered, it could be exported and be converted to any format for further analysis using potentially any available mapping system. Maps should be shared to help others learn what features are available in the various mapping products. If we eventually discover a specific mapping system that meets our needs, we could then deem it as the "official" mapping system for SeattleWireless. But to crown a mapping system with that title prior to testing would be premature.

Some mapping systems for consideration include (again, feel free to add to this list):

-- RodneyRutherford

NodeMapping (last edited 2008-04-13 16:37:41 by localhost)