GeoNames Web Application

[Alberto Amaro]

Hello!

I've been working in a web solution to query and discover the main GeoNames information required to the IATI 2.01 location element.
I think, of the options proposed to report locations, that GeoNames is probably the more accessible.

This web can be very useful to assist in the identification of a place using the GeoNames Database and, besides, to see where are these GeoNames coordinates located in a Google Map.
Even, to compare and verify the precision of these two geolocation services.
(As you know in the GeoNames Database it is possible to update or modify a place information if you see that it is erroneous).

To work with this Web Application first you must register in the GeoNames web (it is very fast and free) and save your GeoNames username in the "Config" tab of the Web.
This username is used to query the GeoNames web services.

In any case, all the instructions and explanations are in the "About" and "Config" tabs.

This is the link:
http://www.iablog.info/geonamesQW

Any comments will be welcome.
Best regards

Alberto Amaro

[Joshua Powell]

Hi all,

Great to see more options becoming available to support the updated standard!

Just to tack on - we've been working on a similar application which we are hoping to open source shortly (pending agreement with funders). You can see the staging version here: http://gcp.adstg.org/ (just select a project to open the interface). We took the approach of being able to use a config file to change the fields used, which are mandatory, etc. so that it can hopefully grow if the standard evolves. 

We've also built in the functionality to draw polygons/lines in the map, but that is currently turned off in this configuration. Similarly, the capability to map the points onto a web service with the ADM polygons (from GAUL, GADM, etc.) is currently configured off, but exists to collect based on the standard.

Best,

Josh

Josh Powell Director of Innovation jpo...@developmentgateway.org  jpo...@aiddata.org   Cell: +1 410-960-5423  1110 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 500 Washington, DC 20005  www.developmentgateway.org

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[Reinier Battenberg]

Blame it on Bill for encouraging me to write this email.

There are 2 issues I would like to touch upon.

- Though it seems very cool to use the Google API to georefence your data,
please familiarise yourself with item 2 in the Terms of Service (yes, nobody
reads these normally). It very clearly states:

"Unless you have received prior written authorization from Google (or, as
applicable, from the provider of particular Content), you must not: (a) copy,
translate, modify, or make derivative works of the Content or any part
thereof;"

Now, I am not a lawyer, but I think it reads: if you use our sofware to
georeference your IATI dataset (which is a derivative work) you breach our
Terms of Service. Which I think, this being a doing good business we are in,
is not what we should be doing.
Unless each of us get written approval that is.

- I am still a bit confused by people's focus on Geonames only. Now that you
can also write to Geonames (which is great), there are still very big
advantages for the use of OpenStreetMap as well:

- OpenStreetMap is a map. That just saves the not-so-techie people a LOT of
work when they want to use georeferenced data. With (also) using the OSM
gazeteer you are quite certain that what you geoference also shows up on a
map, when you link to it.

- OpenStreetMap has many many tools that allow people who work on projects to
map the infrastructure they are supporting. Something that all organisations
should very much support their people in the field doing. You visit a hospital,
you put it in OSM. Want to know why? Ask the people who were looking for
clinics in the Ebola affected countries last year. They had absolutely no clue
where they were when they needed the information. And I am quite sure all of
these clinics at some point in their existence had an NGO worker with a
smartphone visiting.

- The community. There are 2 massive initiatives that are updating OSM in
areas where most aid is spent. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap team and the
MapGive http://mapgive.state.gov/ iniative, led by the US government. These
initiatives are committed to making OSM useful for all IATI publishers active
in the Global South. That looks like this:
Juba:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/4.8471/31.5976

Kita, Guinea and surrounding.
http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=12/13.0388/-9.4635

Sure, there is room for improvement, but there is also a lot of people who
would like to help with that.


Just my 2 cents before the weekend starts.

Rgds

Reinier

--
rgds,

Reinier Battenberg
Director
Mountbatten Ltd.
www.mountbatten.net
tel: +256 758 801749
twitter: @batje

[Sarah Johns]

Has anyone got a real-life example of 2.01 location data in an XML format they can share? For example, I'm using the location called Garhi Baghbanan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan and using GeoNames to code it: http://www.geonames.org/maps/google_33.924_71.685.html 

I have some questions and an example of the XML below:

Would the location-id code be the Geonames record number 1178885? 

And would the Description narrative be Village? 

Is the administrative code a repeat of the location-id code? The example on the IATI Standard website seems to indicate it is: http://iatistandard.org/201/activity-standard/iati-activities/iati-activity/location/administrative/

Would PPL be the Feature-Designation?

Lastly, how would I work out the administrative level? When I click on hierarchy in geonames, it gives me Kyhber Pakhtunkhwa as the ADM1. Does that make Garhi Baghbanan level 2?

Here's what the XML would look like, based on the info at http://iatistandard.org/201/activity-standard/iati-activities/iati-activity/location/

<location ref="PK-KHYPAK">

     <location-reach code="1" />

     <location-id vocabulary="G1 code="1178885"  />

     <name>

                <narrative> Garhi Baghbanan </narrative>

     </name>

     <description>

                 <narrative> village </narrative>

     </description>

     <activity-description>

                 <narrative> health centre </narrative>

     </activity-description>

     <administrative vocabulary="G1" level="2" code="1178885"  />

     <point srsName="http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4326">

<pos> 33.92439 71.68456</pos>

</point>

<exactness code="1"/>

<location-class code="2"/>

<feature-designation code="PPL"/>

</location>

Hope you can help!

Sarah

[Sarah Johns]

Hi Josh, this is a really useful link, thank you! I've just used it to find some location information, and it's great that it's set up with the IATI elements.

May I ask what the background source for the information is? ie. GAUL, geonames etc?

Cheers, Sarah

[Joshua Powell]

Hi Sarah,

We're using geonames at the moment for this, and have the functionality to calculate the intersection of the lat/long with a boundary layer to calculate the ADM in which it falls (we use a combination of GAUL, GADM, etc. although of course licensing causes a lot of issues with re-distribution, which is an area around which I'd like to see more advocacy from the IATI community).

The collection form itself is configurable, so organizations working with a sub-set of the 2.01 fields could adjust accordingly, and it can remain flexible for future IATI updates (e.g. the blessed day when we move beyond point data to include more complicated geographies!)

Best,

Josh Powell Director of Innovation jpo...@developmentgateway.org  jpo...@aiddata.org   Cell: +1 410-960-5423  1110 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 500 Washington, DC 20005  www.developmentgateway.org

[Joshua Powell]

Hi Sarah,

A few comments in-line below. Hope they're helpful (and someone else feel free to step in, as well)!

Josh Powell Director of Innovation jpo...@developmentgateway.org  jpo...@aiddata.org   Cell: +1 410-960-5423  1110 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 500 Washington, DC 20005  www.developmentgateway.org

On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 4:51 PM, Sarah Johns <sarah.lou...@gmail.com> wrote:

Has anyone got a real-life example of 2.01 location data in an XML format they can share? For example, I'm using the location called Garhi Baghbanan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan and using GeoNames to code it: http://www.geonames.org/maps/google_33.924_71.685.html 

I have some questions and an example of the XML below:

Would the location-id code be the Geonames record number 1178885? 

Yes, specifying vocabulary as well 

And would the Description narrative be Village? 

Could be - it's essentially a space for clarification of the location name (e.g. when there are multiple locations with the same name) 

Is the administrative code a repeat of the location-id code? The example on the IATI Standard website seems to indicate it is: http://iatistandard.org/201/activity-standard/iati-activities/iati-activity/location/administrative/

 No, the ADM code should be a unique identifier for the parent ADM(s) of that location. For example, "1168873" for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa if you use the geoname ID, or preferably you would use some other source for the ADMs (OSM, GAUL, GADM, UNSALB, etc.)

Would PPL be the Feature-Designation?

Yes 

Lastly, how would I work out the administrative level? When I click on hierarchy in geonames, it gives me Kyhber Pakhtunkhwa as the ADM1. Does that make Garhi Baghbanan level 2?

This is tricky using geonames alone. For example in Pakistan, there are multiple ADM levels (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divisions_of_Pakistan), but Geonames appears to only have the first ADM level entered (while in many other countries geonames has ADM1-ADM3, and in some it is out of date, etc...). This is why the tools we've been working on are designed to mash up geonames (although, as Renier rightly points out, OSM is at least equally appropriate) with up-to-date ADM boundary sources. This is a full-time job in itself, as countries are frequently re-districting and/or have quite difficult-to-find ADM boundary files (one country recently requested that we pay $30,000 in exchange for a copy!)

[Amaro Cormenzana, Alberto]

Hi!

Sorry for the delay to answer Reiner.

And for the length of text, but I think that this is a subject that all of us needed to be clear before starting with Geolocation.

 

Excuse me but I don't understand your comment about the Google Terms of Service.

Please let me give you the reasons because I would like to avoid the fact of confusing other users about the simple utility of my web.

 

1.       The geolocation final results offered by this Web Page  (ID, coordinates and name) are all extracted from the GeoNames Database. I’m not using these data from Google, obviously, because Google is not between the Geo Databases proposed by IATI specification.

 

The Google API it is only used to help the users in the visual identification with a map and internally (in the Places Location Tab) to make a first approximation of the name of a place to a GeoNames location.

 

2.       But, in any case, I’m surprised about your evaluation of the Google Terms of Service because the sentence that you have commented is applied to the API (the software libraries and services), but not to the information from Google Geocoder.

Could you imagine the millions of apps and webs that are working with the Google API showing a map?

 

If I’m wrong I will appreciate a more deep discussion to clarify this terms because it is very important.

 

Let me append here a short text of the Google Terms of Service about API Clients to reaffirm it:

 

a. API Clients and Monitoring

 

The APIs are designed to help you enhance your websites and applications ("API Client(s)"). YOU AGREE THAT GOOGLE MAY MONITOR USE OF THE APIS TO ENSURE QUALITY, IMPROVE GOOGLE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES, AND VERIFY YOUR COMPLIANCE WITH THE TERMS.

 

 

On the other hand, please excuse me again, but it sounds strange your second point: lightly against GeoNames and pro OpenStreetMap. Because according IATI specification the two of them (and other options) have the same good consideration to be used (and after a serious discussion to decide it, I’m sure).  

 

I could understand that there could be some preference between them but in this case probably it would be more helpful to identify it in the Specification. Something like “please try to use this one and if it is not possible, use the other one”.

 

I’m not specially a GeoNames fan but its web services are very good to find all the information required to IATI. Certainly I’ve worked with satellite and map information for more than five years in the past and I can identify the GeoNames weaknesses and strengths, as it happens with OpenStreetMap.

 

But, from my experience, believe me that when you need to encourage technical people about the importance of adding geolocation information in their projects, they require something very fast and accessible to get this information.

That is the only aim of GeoNames Web Page.

 

Best regards.

 

Alberto Amaro

 

 

 

 

-----Mensaje original-----
De: iati-te...@googlegroups.com [mailto:iati-te...@googlegroups.com] En nombre de Reinier Battenberg
Enviado el: viernes, 27 de marzo de 2015 16:46
Para: iati-te...@googlegroups.com
Asunto: Re: [IATI Tech] GeoNames Web Application

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[Laia Grino]

Hi Josh - and all, 

InterAction isn't in the position to lead advocacy on this issue (we lack the necessary expertise), but we would be very keen to support any such effort! Our own efforts on NGO Aid Map have been hampered by this, as you well know. 

Best,

Laia