Home      Discussion      Topics      Dictionary      Almanac
Signup       Login
GeoRSS

GeoRSS

Overview
GeoRSS is an emerging standard for encoding location as part of an Web feed
Web feed
A web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation, which is performed by an Internet aggregator...

. (Web feeds are used to describe feeds ("channels") of content, such as news articles, Audio blogs
MP3 blog
An MP3 blog is a type of blog in which the creator makes music files, normally in the MP3 format, available for download. They are also known as "musicblogs" or "audioblogs". MP3 blogs have become increasingly popular since 2003...

, video blogs
Vlog
Video blogging, sometimes shortened to vlogging or vidblogging is a form of blogging for which the medium is video, and is a form of Internet television. Entries are made regularly and often combine embedded video or a video link with supporting text, images, and other metadata...

 and text blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order...

 entries. These web feed
Web feed
A web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation, which is performed by an Internet aggregator...

s are rendered by programs such as aggregator
Aggregator
In general internet terms, a news aggregation website is a website where headlines are collected, usually manually, by the website owner. Examples of this sort of website are the Drudge Report, and the Huffington Post...

s and web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...

s.)
The name "GeoRSS" is derivated from RSS
RSS
RSS is a three-letter abbreviation that can stand for a wide variety of terms:-Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:...

, the most known Web feed
Web feed
A web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation, which is performed by an Internet aggregator...

 and syndication format.

In GeoRSS, location content consists of geographical points, lines, and polygons of interest and related feature descriptions.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'GeoRSS'
Start a new discussion about 'GeoRSS'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum
 
Encyclopedia
GeoRSS is an emerging standard for encoding location as part of an Web feed
Web feed
A web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation, which is performed by an Internet aggregator...

. (Web feeds are used to describe feeds ("channels") of content, such as news articles, Audio blogs
MP3 blog
An MP3 blog is a type of blog in which the creator makes music files, normally in the MP3 format, available for download. They are also known as "musicblogs" or "audioblogs". MP3 blogs have become increasingly popular since 2003...

, video blogs
Vlog
Video blogging, sometimes shortened to vlogging or vidblogging is a form of blogging for which the medium is video, and is a form of Internet television. Entries are made regularly and often combine embedded video or a video link with supporting text, images, and other metadata...

 and text blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order...

 entries. These web feed
Web feed
A web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation, which is performed by an Internet aggregator...

s are rendered by programs such as aggregator
Aggregator
In general internet terms, a news aggregation website is a website where headlines are collected, usually manually, by the website owner. Examples of this sort of website are the Drudge Report, and the Huffington Post...

s and web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...

s.)
The name "GeoRSS" is derivated from RSS
RSS
RSS is a three-letter abbreviation that can stand for a wide variety of terms:-Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:...

, the most known Web feed
Web feed
A web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation, which is performed by an Internet aggregator...

 and syndication format.

In GeoRSS, location content consists of geographical points, lines, and polygons of interest and related feature descriptions. GeoRSS feeds are designed to be consumed by geographic software such as map generators. By building these encodings on a common information model, the GeoRSS collaboration is promoting interoperability and "upwards-compatibility" across encodings.

At this point, the GeoRSS collaboration has completed work on two primary encodings that are called GeoRSS Geography Markup Language
Geography Markup Language
The Geography Markup Language is the XML grammar defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium to express geographical features. GML serves as a modeling language for geographic systems as well as an open interchange format for geographic transactions on the Internet...

 (GML) and GeoRSS Simple. GeoRSS GML is a formal Open Geospatial Consortium
Open Geospatial Consortium
Founded in 1994, the Open Geospatial Consortium is an international voluntary consensus standards organization. In the OGC, more than 370+ commercial, governmental, nonprofit and research organizations worldwide collaborate in an open consensus process encouraging development and implementation of...

 (OGC) GML Application Profile, and supports a greater range of features than GeoRSS Simple, notably coordinate reference systems other than WGS84
World Geodetic System
The World Geodetic System is a standard for use in cartography, geodesy, and navigation. It comprises a standard coordinate frame for the Earth, a standard spheroidal reference surface for raw altitude data, and a gravitational equipotential surface that defines the nominal sea level.The latest...

 latitude/longitude. There is also a W3C
Geography Markup Language
The Geography Markup Language is the XML grammar defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium to express geographical features. GML serves as a modeling language for geographic systems as well as an open interchange format for geographic transactions on the Internet...

 GeoRSS serialization, which is older and partly deprecated but still the most widely used.

GeoRSS can be used to extend both RSS 1.0 and 2.0, as well as Atom
Atom (standard)
The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating web resources.Web feeds allow software programs to check for updates published on a...

, the IETF
Internet Engineering Task Force
The Internet Engineering Task Force develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C and ISO/IEC standard bodies and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite...

's latest standard for feeds.

Examples


Here's a GeoRSS Simple example using Atom.


xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss">
Earthquakes
International earthquake observation labs

2005-12-13T18:30:02Z

Dr. Thaddeus Remor
tremor@quakelab.edu

urn:uuid:60a76c80-d399-11d9-b93C-0003939e0af6

M 3.2, Mona Passage

urn:uuid:1225c695-cfb8-4ebb-aaaa-80da344efa6a
2005-08-17T07:02:32Z
We just had a big one.
45.256 -71.92


Here is a schema fragment for a GeoRSS GML encoding for RSS 2.0


xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss"
xmlns:gml="http://www.opengis.net/gml">

http://maps.google.com
Cambridge Neighborhoods
One guy's view of Cambridge, MA

00000111c36421c1321d3
Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:16:31 +0000
Central Square
The heart and soul of the "old" Cambridge. Depending on where you
stand, you can feel like you're in the 1970s or 2020.

rajrsingh




-71.106216 42.366661
-71.105576 42.367104
-71.104378 42.367134
-71.103729 42.366249
-71.098793 42.363331
-71.101028 42.362541
-71.106865 42.366123
-71.106216 42.366661






00000111c365564928974
Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:17:50 +0000
MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
rajrsingh



Here is example of W3C geo GeoRSS


media="screen"?>
xmlns:geo="http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#"
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">

USGS M5+ Earthquakes
Real-time, worldwide earthquake list for the past 7 days
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/
U.S. Geological Survey
Thu, 27 Dec 2007 23:56:15 PST

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 05:24:17 GMT
M 5.3, northern Sumatra, Indonesia
December 28, 2007 05:24:17 GMT
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2007llai.php
5.5319
95.8972




Examples of GeoRSS Implementations


Example feeds
Usage and implementation
  • Google Maps
    Google Maps
    Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...

    : Google Maps API blog posting on Google support for the Simple, GML, and W3C Geo encodings of GeoRSS
  • Yahoo Maps, a reference on using GeoRSS in the Yahoo Maps Web Services.
  • Virtual Earth
    Virtual earth
    Virtual earth may refer to:* Virtual ground - the node of an electrical circuit that is maintained at a steady reference potential, without being connected directly to the reference potential....

    : Microsoft Virtual Earth support for GeoRSS geo, simple, and GML.
  • GeoPress WordPress and MovableType plugins for adding GeoRSS to your blog.
  • GeoRSS Module Drupal module for adding GeoRSS to your Drupal website.
  • Mapufacture GeoRSS Feed Aggregator.


Open source projects
  • OpenLayers Demo using the OpenLayers GeoRSS parser. GeoRSS geo and simple are supported.
  • Worldkit Both GeoRSS Simple and GeoRSS GML are supported.
  • GeoServer
    GeoServer
    GeoServer is an open source server written in Java that allows users to share and edit geospatial data. Designed for interoperability, it publishes data from any major spatial data source using open standards...

  • The OGR Library
    GDAL
    GDAL is a library for reading and writing raster geospatial data formats, and is released under an X/MIT style Open Source license by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. As a library, it presents a single abstract data model to the calling application for all supportedformats...

     provides support for read and write access to GeoRSS data.

Products
  • Cadcorp GeoRSS built into Cadcorp SIS.
  • CubeWerx WFS The new release of the CubeWerx OGC Web Feature Service product supports GeoRSS GML.
  • Ionic/Leica Geosystems The use of GeoRSS in Ionic redSpider products
  • Bay of Islands Contains GeoRSS information about local accommodation
  • MarkLogic Provides support for geospatial queries using GeoRSS/Simple markup.


Fun Sites Based on GeoRSS

See also

  • Geospatial Content Management System
    Geospatial Content Management System
    A Geospatial Content Management System is a Content Management System where objects can have a Latitude, Longitude position to be displayed on an online interactive map...

  • Atom (standard)
    Atom (standard)
    The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating web resources.Web feeds allow software programs to check for updates published on a...

    , the IETF's XML-based Web syndication format.
  • RSS
    RSS
    RSS is a three-letter abbreviation that can stand for a wide variety of terms:-Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:...

    - Really Simple Syndication.

External links