[SGVLUG] mashups - maps

[Emerson, Tom]

> -----Original Message----- Of matti
> 
> it would be really cool to have a website
> where I can see all the interesting meetings
> (such as sgvlug) happening and have them
> shown on a map.
> 
> a website, where ... members submit meeting location and date, 

I just saw something like this on myspace [yeah, sad to say, even -I-
broke down and started a myspace page over the weekend...]  It was noted
as beta, and didn't exactly seem to be working anyway, but I imagine the
intent was similar to what you are thinking of (it was on the page where
people "announce" parties and stuff...)
 
> Does anyone have any leads/references to any
> Open Source projectscode which may do this??

Essentially, it appears the myspace one is piggybacking on google maps,
which I think would be a good thing [using a known, open, marking
system]  (err, it is "open", right?) and, to go a step further
(especially as they have a linux client) utilize google's "placemark"
file (i.e., use google earth at the client end to pick and display
locations)  From the looks of things, a placemark "file" is a pkzip'd
XML structure with the "details":

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.0">
<Placemark>
  <name>sgvlug meeting</name>
  <LookAt>
    <longitude>-118.1247000229854</longitude>
    <latitude>34.13612629187439</latitude>
    <range>62.6056268855717</range>
    <tilt>49.46086562446774</tilt>
    <heading>0.2569689793934925</heading>
  </LookAt>
  <styleUrl>root://styles#default+icon=0x307</styleUrl>
  <Point>
    <coordinates>-118.1247574750499,34.13607721323123,0</coordinates>
  </Point>
</Placemark>
</kml>

[there are other fields, of course, such as description, that would be
of benefit...]

With a little ingenuity, I'd imagine you could set something up where
you use google earth's "e-mail a placemark" feature to send the places
you've marked, and the recipient process automatically extracts and logs
the location; when viewing the "search results", the server would merely
re-create the list of locations and provide it as a .kml/.kmz file,
which (if configured properly) will cause the browser to open google
earth and display the contents of the file.