Google mapping spec now an industry standard
Here is an extensible example of XML.
(Google mapping spec now an industry standard)
Keyhole Markup Language(KML) is an XML-based language schema for expressing geographic annotation and visualization on existing or future Web-based, two-dimensional maps and three-dimensional Earth browsers. KML was developed for use with Google Earth, which was originally named Keyhole Earth Viewer. It was created by Keyhole, Inc, which was acquired by Google in 2004.
Members of an industry group called the Open Geospatial Consortium have approved Google’s KML technology as an open standard for describing some geographic data. Google now hopes that its status as an official standard will decrease barriers to further adoption.
“What OGC brings to the table is…everyone has confidence we won’t take advantage of the format or change it in a way that will harm anyone,” said Michael Weiss-Malik, Google’s KML product manager. “The goal is to prevent market fragmentation,” in which different technology uses different standards.
Furthermore, as we learned from the article ‘XML Foundation’, by using KML, the contents and information can be reused in many different ways. We can expect to see a new era blossom of personal map publishing.
(Unfortunately, many internet-service companies in Korea still close their services to other players and have their own data format, so that keep their status quo. Even some of them do not have intention to apply the basic concept of XML to the website, not separating content and presentation. I think, this defensive and passive attitude will cause IT companies to remain more isolated.)
Longhao Wang Said,
September 14, 2008 @ 3:55 pm
KML is also very popular for online geographic data exchange among web users. GPS devices now can also export data in KML format, so people can share their outdoors activities (like cycling and jogging) over Google map, such as http://www.bikely.com/ and http://wikiwalki.com/ and so on.
Each GPS device manufacturer used to have its own proprietary format, like Garmin and Magellan, and different formats are incompatible. Thanks to the popularity of Google Earth and Google Map, mainstream GPS manufacturers begin to support KML, thus users with different devices could share their experience on the web, and exchange GPS data freely. (I had been working on this kind of web-GIS application for a year.)
This may help to illustrate the use of XML in data format standardization, and subsequent data exchange enable by this standardization.
Benjamin Said,
September 15, 2008 @ 10:21 am
Props to Mano!
INFO 202 Fall 08 Blog » XML Insurrection in Norway Said,
October 4, 2008 @ 1:24 pm
[...] all stakeholders involved in an information exchange. I also wonder about KML (in response to Jin Young Baik’ blog): there have been numerous geospatial XML formats around for years — some [...]