[OSGeo-Discuss] Symbology/styles exchange

[Andrea Aime]

Olivier ERTZ ha scritto:
> Hi,
> while you read my little answer, just imagine a big smile on my face, 
> because what you describe in your call is something that really 
> motivates me. I was currently doing a kind of same investigation, and 
> Osmarender, Kosmos, MassGIS Wiki on SLD, ... could all be added to your 
> starting list, and I came to the same conclusions : having a symbology 
> and styling platform to share would be great, and I sign up with two 
> hands. So, I'm ready to help in building a wiki page to write the 
> specification of such a platform. 

Well, personally I don't have much time, but the idea is engaging.
What I would like to see in such a platform is:
- easy to get into it. Register and contribute
- have some focus on the contribution license, it is important
   that whoever shares decides how others can reuse his work
- peer review (voting system)
- comments, possibly treaded -> a discussion on each contribution
- forum, where people can discuss map making more in general
- visual, everything we talk about (style, symbols, softwares, data)
   should be accompained by at least one screenshot, the screenshot
   should appear in all listings
- categorized, so that if I'm interested in symbols I know where
   to go... maybe we more than one way to categorize stuff,
   think point symbols vs fills but also geology vs road maps

The kde-looks.org plaftorm seems to offer all of the above with
little/no effort. If there is no dedicated team to build a new
site going to that platform seems a good way to test out the
concept with little investment.
The one thing I don't like much about kde-looks.org platform
is that I don't understand well its licensing issues, if any,
and the fact that a map styling site would be better owned
by OSGEO.

But in the end, I'd prefer to see one site with some chance
of success despite some issues, that a lengthly discussion
about tools, people that want to make them up with different
technologies, and end up with nothing done because all the
energy is lost in discussion, if you know what I mean.

I'm more of looking for technologies that provide all
of the above (or most of the above) out of the box and see
what comes out by comparing them.

> Of course, OSGeo_map_symbol_set is 
> then to be taken in consideration, and for sure people who wrote this 
> wiki page will feel concerned...

I don't believe there should be any concern... the page can
get its representation in a such a community based site, or
be an alternative to it.

Cheers
Andrea

-- 
Andrea Aime
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org
Expert service straight from the developers.