Da var siste hånden lagt på verket, rapporten er sendt til trykking og det som skal produseres av jallemikk er produsert. Da gjenstår det bare å hente oppgaven, samle underskrifter og levere i morgen. Dere, mine kjære lesere, får tilgang til oppgaven allerede i dag. Håper dere ikke finner noen feil, det er for seint nå! 🙂

Oppgavens tittel er “Map 2.0 – User Interaction in Web Mapping Sites”, og jeg tror vi kan la abstractet tale for seg når det gjelder hva den handler om:

This thesis examines the intersection of Web 2.0 and Web Mapping sites, Map 2.0. The topic is examined by focusing on the aspect of user interaction and user generated content, a key web 2.0 principle. The specific topic of geotagged images, images with enclosed geographic location, is the main topic.

Web 2.0 is a term used to describe emerging trends in web sites, such as user generated content, social web sites, tagging and interfaces on multiple devices. Several web 2.0 companies, such as Google, has entered the field of Web GIS by launching web mapping sites. These are web sites that offers an interactive map and related information. The GIS specific aspects of these sites are divided in three tiers: spatial databases, map servers and map clients. Several open standards for all these tiers are defined, providing for a wide range of available components that can be used to set up a web mapping site.

The GIS community has in the later years shown an interest in user generated content, or volunteered geographic information. The best known example of this is geotagged images, but it is noted that most services utilizing these does not have a GIS connection. The process of geotagging images can be done either automatically, by using a camera with GPS capabilities, or manually, through a map interface. The quality and simplicity of such interfaces are important, but an examination revealed that there are room for improvements. In addition it is a challenge to utilize the information this added data provides.

In order to examine these a prototype solution for geotagging images and presenting them in the context of a trekking portal is made. The main idea is that the geotagged images should be used to enhance the experience of browsing available routes and cabins in the Norwegian wilderness. The concept of nearness is exploited to derive relationships between images and spatial objects, using the GIS principle of buffer analysis. Focus is on how these relationships are presented, using both maps and textual representations, and how these can be linked.

The prototype makes use of the PostGIS spatial database and the Google Maps API. The PHP programming language is used in combination with JavaScript to manage both server and client side processing. A goal of the prototype solution is to use the spatial database to carry out GIS operations. The quality of the final prototype is assessed, the findings calls for further investigation on the quality of map data, usability concerns and performance issues.

In general, the final prototype show how user submitted content can be relatively easy utilized in a specialized web mapping site. The findings show that it is feasible to implement such a solution for the use of geotagged images in a public web page, and as the current use of geotagged images is rather crude it is believed that a solution such as the one developed is a step in the right direction.

Foretrekker du norsk, og litt mindre tekniske detaljer ligger et “populærvitenskaplig sammendrag” på http://docs.atlefren.net/masteroppg/, dette havner vel på NTNU sine sider med tiden.

Er du fortsatt ikke skremt bort kan du laste ned hele oppgaven fra docs.atlefren.net, der en 178 siders pdf fil, lisensiert under CC BY-ND lisensen.

Og ja, hadde satt pris på om eksempelapplikasjonen, selv om den ligger fritt tilgjengelig på nett, ikke bombes med requests etc. Har lite lyst til at den skal gå ned i sommer, mens jeg driver med andre ting, slik at sensor ikke får testet den. En titt kan vel uansett ikke skade. Altså: bruk hue, ikke gjør noe dumt, det er jo snakk om en prototype!

Ellers tar jeg gjerne imot kommentarer og konstruktiv krititkk, her på mail eller via andre kanaler! Ha en god sommer folkens!