Wednesday, May 21, 2008

GeoRel - Could we make this a new standard?

Has anyone ever thought to re-purpose the rel attribute in HTML and RSS to contain Geo data?

On face value, rel = relationship and placing lat lng inside the rel attribute relates the content spatially.

Now browsers and RSS readers can simply show links based on their distance order from the reader. Using this with a location service (FireEagle, etc), the browser/reader could assess relevance and relationship geographically.

The main advantages are easy and lightweight representation of geospatial relationships in the semantic web. Should be both machine and human readable.

It could support existing formats - Simple GeoRSS, Latitude and Longitude, KML (provide link to KML file)

Here are some link examples below based on Mapicurious data. Look at properties for each link to see the "rel" tag in use.

1. Basic Lat Lng (lat lng separated by space and pairs by comma for paths and polygons)

California Football Players 2006
Chick-Fil-A in Southern California
Hof's Hut - Southern California Tradition

2. L:

California Football Players 2006
Hof's Hut - Southern California Tradition

3. Geohash

California Football Players 2006
Chick-Fil-A in Southern California
Hof's Hut - Southern California Tradition

4. Georeference:

California Football Players 2006
Chick-Fil-A in Southern California
Hof's Hut - Southern California Tradition



Simple Use Cases:

Mapping web site - Overlay links directly on a map based on GeoRel data. Show geographically relevant links to map content to user, based on user's location (including distance calculations).

News site - Arrange links based on geospatial relevance.

RSS Reader - Filter links to content based on location from reader.