[buro9]

I'm not sure I'd regard it as read only.

Whilst it's true a lot of data appears to be read only (of the kind, what is where?), even geological features change given enough time (or little time if we're talking water features in a world of global warming).

Given that what we're discussing is mostly man-made features, such as physical buildings and the businesses that occupy them... these are open to change. Buildings get built, demolished, and far more frequently modified.

And then there are problems like "Where can I park?". Most parking in London is street parking rather than car parks, and parking restrictions change frequently enough that it isn't static data.

Once you concede time is a dimension that affects spatial information, you open yourself up to far more interesting possibilities: What is happening nearby? Where are my friends? There's traffic up the road, what's causing it and should I detour?

This is massively changing data. It could be expressed as a read-only stream of 'events' that 'occur' at different places (check-ins, tracking data)... but the data is refreshed so frequently that storing as a read-only audit trail of events just disguises the fact that people will perceive the information as permanently changing.

I think the hardest part of dealing with geospatial data is ensuring that it is fresh enough to be valuable data. And that is to work from the point of view that everything changes constantly.

[gord]

yes.. I didn't mean to say location information is time-static.. I want there to be better tools / web UI to supply current location information. So the person in the street can flag something, and other people can make use of that.

By 'read-only' I mean its not easy for people to supply location information thats current. I put into Lokenote app an expiry date tumbler - eg. Street party for a few hours, blocked drain for a few days, building site for a few weeks.

Because of overhead at the moment, youd probably only enter location information that is going to be there for a long time.. but if it were easier to share that, wed see a more dynamic and relevant picture over smaller time scales.

Wikipedia, etc, have made an effort to standardise so that wiki articles can be tagged to a location, but I think theres a whole mass of less formal information thats really useful thats not being captured or used - ants would leave pheremones to signal other ants, we currently leave paper notes on lampposts, there should be a better way.