[Mobile GIS] GIS on mobile devices

[Brent Fraser]

Andrew and all,

    I guess I'm trying to make sure I understand the problem/solution
limits.  The really interesting aspect of this is the smaller platforms
(cell phones, iPods!) have limitations on computing power, user interfaces,
etc.  And the large platforms (laptops) have portability problems.

  A related issue, I'd rather build on the effort of others, if it doesn't
have unacceptable limitations (hardware, operating system, licensing, etc).
So far I haven't found any existing Data Collection-centric Open Source GIS
applications.

 A start has been made (http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Mobile_Solutions) on
the Features/functionality and Formats, but nothing on interfaces yet.  I
think the features that are listed there are great, but will take some time
to build.  And I'm sure the list is not yet complete.  From a design
perspective, it's good to know what a feature-rich system would look like so
the appropriate sub-systems can be spec'd  and built, but on the other hand
I want to get a minimal application running ASAP.

Maybe we should start at the beginning (requirements?).  What features
should a Version 0.1 have?  What's the "Hello World" equivalent in Mobile
Data collection GIS?

Thanks!
Brent

>
> I think we can all talk in circles about the platform, OS, etc.
> However, this doesn't really accomplish anything more than get into
> continuous discussions of Palm vs. Handheld vs. Laptop vs. Micro and
> C++ vs. Python, and so on.
>
> Probably the better thing for this group would be to define desired
> funtionality, standards used, formats, interfaces, etc. And then let
> people go off and develop for their desired/necessary platform, in
> their language etc. As appropriate, groups can share code, libraries,
> ideas, designs, without forcing anyone/everyone to conform to a single
> toolset, etc.
>
> For example, I'd like to see the interface/functionality and standards
> chosen so that I could try and implement something on, say, a mobile
> phone running Python series 60, or a N770 tablet running Ruby &
> wxRuby, and so on.
>
> Just my thoughts on how we can move from what are actually low-level
> arguments, into higher-level discussions/definitions.
>
> Andrew