An approach to mobile collaborative mapping

With the advent of Web 2.0, users now expect to be able to customise, edit and share information from any online device. These capabilities are unavailable in many geographic information applications and where it is, it is far too difficult to use. Satellite navigation devices and software are also not flexible enough in this regard. Current satellite navigation technology enables users to view maps and navigate easily. However, it does not support information sharing and marking-up maps with symbols other than routes and locations. Currently, a popular desktop solution to this problem is Web 2.0 Mashups, which enable implementers to correlate information from several web data sources into one coherent application. Mashups also have their caveats, as they are beyond the capabilities of lay users and, being web-based, they are not location aware and do not support mobility. This paper presents Mobile Collaborative Mapping (MCM), a browser-based location-aware collaborative map editor to address these shortcomings through a simplified editing system and revision based storage server and discusses its application in an e-Science scenario of use and the capabilities of the current MCM prototype.