When you move to a new place, it's very useful to have maps tailored to your interests available at the click of a mouse or tap of a smart phone. The following projects are great examples of more personal local maps:
These resources are fantastic, adding independence and providing a counter to the homogeneity of massive worldwide maps such as Google and Bing.
How can I best implement this on a small scale for a local organisation?
For example maps are needed to locate fruit trees for an urban agriculture project such as abundance.
The criteria are as follows:
- Low price or free
- User friendly, allowing more than 1 person to contribute
- Scalable
- (preferable but not essential) levels of security so sensitive information is only viewable by some people
The options I have considered for such a tasks, along with +s and -s are:
- QGIS Cloud: + works on very accessible GIS, free. - seemed glitchy, not necessarily user friendly or easy to add new features for new users
- Create geojson files and serve them from Github, using OpenLayers on the client side to process the files, allowing different layers to be added/removed (I have actually experimented with this on, adding a couple of shop polygons not yet on OSM or Google Maps) + simple, lightweight and free, - not user friendly - must edit geojson files externally
- Geoserver: I've used this before, and enjoyed it until AWS, my remote server, started charging me + scalable, user interface, security levels - potential costs, - overkill for a small project.
- MapQuest Open + uses pre-existing OSM data, - seemed limited in terms of functionality
Which of these would you recommend?
Have I missed any better options from the list?
And how should I organize different tools to work harmoniously together in the final solution?
Will try to keep people updated with progress on this as I think there is a real need for development of interactive local and community maps.
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