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FREEMAP - Free mapping system - Update!

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01 / Original postFREEMAP - Free mapping system - Update!Nick Whitelegg · 15 Jun 2004 02 / This pagePosts 1–8Page 1 of 1 · chronological order 03 / Latest replyPost #8Simon Brooke · 23 Jun 2004

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Original section
UK and Europe
Published
15 June 2004
Last activity
23 June 2004
Original author
Nick Whitelegg
Posts
8
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Route planning

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  1. Original post
    Nick Whitelegg
    Archived post
    #1

    You may remember a couple of months ago I mentioned Freemap,
    my online paths database and mapping facility. Freemap
    allows you to generate a map of all the paths and features
    (hills, pubs, villages etc) in a given area.

    Well, in the meantime I've added several new features to the
    site including:

    - Distance measuring
    - Search by place name or by grid reference
    - More details on Freemap's background
    - Instructions for use

    and, importantly, if Freemap is ever to succeed in its goal
    of mapping the whole of the country:

    - Instructions for contributing your own GPS-surveyed data.

    Also, Freemap now contains a significant amount of real path
    data. In the past couple of months I've surveyed all the
    paths in the Fernhurst

    There are still things to do, including:

    - Add descriptions and photos of the landscape features
    shown in Freemap;
    - Improve the "look and feel" of the maps, and of the whole
    website on Internet Explorer (at the moment it looks
    significantly better on Mozilla and Opera than IE);
    - Add user options to enable site personalisation (colour
    scheme, whether to show all rights of way or just those
    open to cyclists/horseriders, etc)...
    - Add databases of suggested/contributed walks in a given
    area and (eventually) bed and breakfasts;
    - Widen the number of formats that Freemap accepts for
    upload. The GPX format is the key one I'll be looking at,
    being XML-based.
    - and of course, much more data!

    One piece of feedback I would appreciate from people with
    any knowledge of legal matters is the agreement for people
    uploading data (in order to avoid the upload of OS data) -
    this is on the "Contribute" page.

    See Freemap at freemap.org.ukfreemap.org.uk

    Nick

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  2. John Spencer-Ma
    Archived post
    #2

    Freemap allows you to generate a

    Quoted message said:

    map of all the paths and features (hills, pubs, villages
    etc) in a given area.


    <snipped>........

    Where exactly does this site cover. I tried 38 different
    locations from East Anglia to Snowden via Cornwall and
    Midlands. Each time I was informed that there was no data
    available. AND I used map references also.

    John S-M

    Report
  3. Nick Whitelegg
    Archived post
    #3

    [email hidden] (John Spencer-Mallory) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

    Quoted message said:

    Freemap allows you to generate a

    Quoted message said:

    map of all the paths and features (hills, pubs, villages
    etc) in a given area.


    <snipped>........

    Where exactly does this site cover. I tried 38 different
    locations from East Anglia to Snowden via Cornwall and
    Midlands. Each time I was informed that there was no data
    available. AND I used map references also.

    John S-M

    At the present time, it contains data for all the
    footpaths in the

    underlying software has the capability/potential to map all
    the paths in the UK. Obviously surveying them *all* is a big
    job, and isn't going to be done overnight! Really for
    Freemap to succeed, surveying the paths needs to be a
    collaborative effort - more details on the website.

    The areas I am targetting myself for surveying (as they are
    personally convenient for me) include:

    - areas within around 40 miles of Southampton, basically
    within a line joining Chichester, Guildford, Salisbury and
    Bournemouth;
    - the Peckforton Hills area of SW Cheshire.

    Other areas will depend on me having the time to get there.

    However, once complete it will be a real copyright-restriction-
    free alternative to the OS.

    Nick

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  4. Keith Willoughb
    Archived post
    #4
    Nick Whitelegg said:

    At the present time, it contains data for all the
    footpaths in the

    Quoted message said:

    underlying software has the capability/potential to map
    all the paths in the UK. Obviously surveying them *all* is
    a big job, and isn't going to be done overnight! Really
    for Freemap to succeed, surveying the paths needs to be a
    collaborative effort - more details on the website.

    What's the cheapest bit of GPS kit that would enable me to
    do my area?

    --
    Keith Willoughby flat222.orgkeith "When you're with
    me it's always summer"

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  5. Nick Whitelegg
    Archived post
    #5

    Keith Willoughby <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

    Quoted message said:
    Nick Whitelegg said:

    At the present time, it contains data for all the
    footpaths in the

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    underlying software has the capability/potential to map
    all the paths in the UK. Obviously surveying them *all*
    is a big job, and isn't going to be done overnight!
    Really for Freemap to succeed, surveying the paths needs
    to be a collaborative effort - more details on the
    website.

    What's the cheapest bit of GPS kit that would enable me to
    do my area?

    Best go to an outdoors shop and see if they have. Anything
    would do I'd have said.

    Nick

    Report
  6. Mark Thompson
    Archived post
    #6
    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    What's the cheapest bit of GPS kit that would enable me
    to do my area?

    Best go to an outdoors shop and see if they have. Anything
    would do I'd have said.

    Wouldn't some way of getting the points onto the computer
    using some standard or other be needed?

    Report
  7. Adrian Godwin
    Archived post
    #7
    Mark Thompson said:
    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    What's the cheapest bit of GPS kit that would enable me
    to do my area?

    Best go to an outdoors shop and see if they have.
    Anything would do I'd have said.

    Wouldn't some way of getting the points onto the computer
    using some standard or other be needed?

    Yes, you'd need a receiver that allows connection to a
    PC. As far as I know, the only that doesn't is the
    garmin geko 101.

    Offloading from the receiver and converting to a format
    used by freemap can be handled by one of several utilities
    - gpsbabel does most of them but there are alternatives.
    Many are free.

    -adrian

    Report
  8. Simon Brooke
    Archived post
    #8

    in message <[email hidden]>, Mark

    Thompson (') said:
    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    What's the cheapest bit of GPS kit that would enable me
    to do my area?

    Best go to an outdoors shop and see if they have.
    Anything would do I'd have said.

    Wouldn't some way of getting the points onto the computer
    using some standard or other be needed?

    Which is why there is a standard, namely NMEA-0183.

    --
    [email hidden] (Simon Brooke)
    jasmine.org.uk~simon

    Morning had broken, and there was nothing we could
    do but wait patiently for the RAC to arrive.

    Report

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