Africangeogeek, spatial geekery in Africa

Well, Kenya is positioning itself to be one of the worlds major ICT hubs in Africa. The ministry of Information and communication are busy trying to get Kenyans to create content. Well this being a spatialists blog we also need to look at geo-content. Well does Kenya publish alot of geo-content. To my surprise, Kenya has a lot of geo content, only that it is in the hands of either organisations or government. We all know how organisations are not ready to part with some of the content they created. But then came the idea why not release the content, but under a licensce where a revenue sharing model is agreed upon?

The Kenya National Spatial Data Infrastructure has alot of data, but holding on to it. I think it is our right to access government data, spatial data for that matter. Unless it is information on Abdul Faizal. On realeasing such data, people come up with innovations on how to use the data, and thus commercializing up to the extent of covering the initial mapping costs?

Well i can say that Kenya has had a good 2009 in terms of Spatial developemt.In April we had Wherecamp Africa then Google also had the Google Earth Outreach training in Novemeber. We also had the Map Kibera project. The Africa GIS event though not in Kenya , i think was very successful and good for the continent. Ushahidi is also putting Africa on the map. All in all 2010 will be a year to watch.

You may be asking, what the heck will africangeogeek be doing? well currently i am working on a mapping aspect of Drumnet. It is  done. This year i will release some two spatial applications. I am not telling what they do? Both are in progress and will soon be calling upon beta testers.. watch this space.. 2010 is the year,.

Well, i am currently working on a project called Drumnet. Drumnet is a platform that seeks to provide farmers with an ecosystem where their input marketing is synchronized by their out put marketing. Kenya is dependent on Agriculture. To provide farmers with the necessary tools to make informed decisions is very important.

The software has a mapping component. Here is where  i come in. Since it is a closed system, We are providing a link to Google Shared maps. The ideal situation would have been to use the Google maps api, but as we all know, Google does not want log in restrictions. We on the other hand need them since we need to identify the different farmers. The system is complete, except for a couple of bugs. Of late i have been travelling up and down to train Agrovets, who will in turn train farmers(their clients). Well, spatial data is a very useful means through which management information can be represented. Question is why not to farmers? Well, from my farmers training, through the system, it was their first time to hear or even learn of Google maps. For some it was their first time before a computer.

This is the challenge, where to begin. Before moving to training spatial applications one has to ensure that they have some grounding on computers. This is not easy and takes longer for them to grasp. Some of the very common maps functionality we take little time to execute, actually take ages in the case of farmers. why, well they first need a grounding on computers.

Then came the idea, i do not want to keep traveling to train a new set of farmers every now and then. Then came to my mind, is there a way through which native mobile phones eg 3310 Nokia, may be used to transfer and share spatial information? Maps are practically graphs, native C++ libraries got graphs, why not the case for non smart phones? Just a thought? what are your views?

Well, Google did take us through google map maker, and i though wow, the tool is very nice. I were to work for google as a geo-officer, i would be happier since work has been made easier. I recently say a facebook status update by a geo friend of mine, (Jubal , this is you), and brought out the issue of licensing the Google Map Maker data. Well as usual with facebook, update, i did not bother much, until when a sleep, something just hit me. Google Maps has terms and conditions. I realized that Google Maps actually has licensing, and the license costs around 80,000KSH. Then the thing came to my mind, how come as a user of map maker, i am not entitled to any of that 80,000/=, the best way to go about this is to remove the licensing, make tha data open source. If this licesnsing model conticnues, i might just quit using it.

During the Earth outreach programme, this Tuesday, i happen to meet with one of my fomer univeristy lecturers. He told me, the Googlers encouraged them to use map maker for one of their projects. Which is mapping schools access to ICT facilities. I brought it to his attention that once they publish that information on map maker, it is pushed to Google Maps and later on to Google Earth. So what does this exactly mean. It means, for people who get funded to undertake certain projects, map maker is not the way to go. How can the donors certify that it is actually your work to do the mapping and not Google who did the mapping?. As a donor the last thing i would like to see is the data you collected being freely handled by Google ,and Google earning some revenue from it. The best way i think for the lecturer is to use their data as a KML overlay. The other fact, is why not enable mappers license the data they contribute? It can be free or for a price? In this case, i could go to my home town of Meru, Map the whole of it and earn some revenue from this. The other option is just to make all the mapping libraries open source regardless of log ins and stuff.

Well whats your say?

Google recently held the Google Earth Outreach Programme Trainers of Trainers programme at the ILRI campus. The programme is very helpful. I found it fast and takes one to the basics. So for a techie like me, i had done a couple of their assignments in no time. Well i did learn some useful stuff. Especially on KML timelines. This i found very very interesting and keep an eye open, will release a small app making use of that. The other thing that knocked me off is the network link. I always used to see this thing but never bothered my self to figure out what it is. I normally have a script that creates a kml file from my postgis database. How do i render this on Google Earth synchronously, well this is what that link does.

The other thing i learnt was on why JSON and XML are preferred in certain instances. This has always been a hazzy issue for me but i finally got it. It depends with the level of interactiveity you need from the system. This is relative on a couple of factors.I also liked the practice session on fusion tables and its intelligence. I have never worked with it before and loved the reports it would give me. The merge function was also another thing i liked. Hopefully my work will now reduce. The idea of virtual tours was also pretty nice. I liked it. Then there was the techie’s session, we looked at some KML specification. I had no clue on the time stamp. I also got to learn the difference on Timestamp, when attached to a view and when attached to a POI.

The classes were pretty nice and interactive. Acouple of guys there belonged to the NGO communicty. except one or two. I also got to learn the GeoRSS can not be enbeded in Google Reader. It can be read by Google Maps and Google Earth. My initial idea, was that in my reader a map would be displayed with the POIs. But this is not the case.

Thanks to ILRI the food and tea was great, though next time they need to understand that milk is very necessary. Si “turungi” na  “Kahawa thungu” pekee.(That means, black tea and black coffee only). I also got a google tee. It was great. I also got a cert. “Weee Weeee”. Though the only day google got the chance to buy me dinner, i threw it away. Did not find them inviting enough. There was like a wall between the attendees and the Googler’s. Though i found Sean very nyc and know his stuff. The other completly techie stuff i learnt was on projection. This is something that has always bugged me. Learnt to always use standard projection.

All in all it was great.

The long awaited launch of Google Maps Navigation beta has been released. I watched with awe, their official video and was indeed impressed. Many questions also came to my mind. Does the application work in Kenya? well something i am sure about is that the traffic data is not available. Well what are the features of this product, you must be like asking yourself. Well the feature list is here, www.google.com/navigation.. well this app runs on Droid, which i believe is like a PDA/phone.. i am getting tempted to acquire one. here is the link on the droid phone http://phones.verizonwireless.com/motorola/droid/?cmp=google-maps&utm_source=google&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=maps, the other issue with Google’s release of this is that it might cut the sales and thus revenues for Tom Tom and Garmin devices. On 29th the shares of these two companies dropped.

Well the other factor in the ecosystem that has been there between TeleAtlas and Navteq, who provide Google with the data that they use currently. This means that the value of navigation will be eroded. Peolple will nto be ready to part with money for navigation sevices.

Well what does this mean for Cloudmade, i i still believe that Cloudmade’s model which is vertical is better than Google’s horizontal model. Look, Google’s flagship products are Google Earth, Google Maps, they are are standard and one specification fits all unlike Cloudmade that gives developers options

Cloudmade are signing developers within key categories that they believe will drive massive volume. This is a real micro-segmented approach, aimed at driving traffic to thousands of narrow verticals. We’re already seeing this scale.

The other factor is Cloudmade’s style editor, that enables people to define styles of their maps, spot the difference, Google’s http://bit.ly/1i2N8m. and Cloudmade’s http://bit.ly/3HJiRh

Google is taking the fight to the people in the ecosystem, well the other people in the eco system have now not decided to take the wait and see attitide. Well for the time being i also adopt that attitude.

This passed me by a couple of days, but the great question most cartographers should be asking is what the heck is new here? For those with no clue on geoserver, it is an opensouce(yea thank God it is) software server. It is written in Java and allows users to share and edit geospatial data. It’s default map source is openlayers ,for the geeks who frequent this blog with no geo bias, well geospatial app may need specialized server to run them. geoserver is just one of them, mapserver is another as well as ESRI’s  ArcGIS server. The beauty about geoserver is its interoperability. it pushes any major spatial data source using open standards.

So what’s new..

I think for guys who have never messed up with GeoServer, i will later on write on how to set it up and how you can use it. Well the major one is its new web administration interface, this is like a leap in faith. This web interface is based on the wicket framework. The wicket framework is based on apache web server This framework lends it a huge advantage. It makes it very extendible. So developers get ready to write your components and plugins,and they will be added dynamically to the existing GeoServer architecture.

The other complex feature is its support for application schema’s. Well this is very important more so on the front of standardization. These application schemas are a form of Geographic Markup Language based on a particulat domain more. Question i can not answer is if one can mix up the different schemas or one is tied down to one when in use?

Well apart from that is stabilizing the software. With the release of this, i am thinking of making use of it in some project. Question is whose project? got a project, get in touch

Well, we have hit the ground running. This is an effort to map sub saharan Africa’s largest slum on map. I am very much interested in this project. Not only because of the mapping but also the fact that the information will be very necessary to NGO’s and Government. Well, i remember once the Prime Minister Raila Odinga, stated that there are very many NGO’s in Kibera and some are more into profiteering than assisting the people of kibera.
How, will this project change that, well we hope to map NGO’s and facilities existent in Kibera, these provides better accountability to the people.
Another benefit i foresee here is location of NGO’s and more so their distribution. is there a pattern in their distribution. this can be important to evaluate their objectives and more so if they are helping alleviate poverty.
It will also help know the different NGO’s in the area and what exactly they do. It will also be good for poverty tourism. Poverty tourism is increasing. People travel miles just to come and see Africa’s largest sub saharan slum. they could as well do with an online map.visit for more info www.mapkibera.org

Well, this blog is dedicated to spatial enthusiasts in Africa and all over the world. we we look at how spatial enabled applications, or Geo for that matter can be used to alleviate poverty in Africa and how Africa is making use of this technology. We will also have a look at location based services in Africa and give enthusiasts info on location intelligence. Currently i am a freelance  geo grapher and looking for a stable job. also a geek obsessed with writing code, for the sake of my self support and residence fees, i also have ended up doing non spatial applications. might have to mention them here though. enjoy your read