FW: Revisiting HTML map use cases & requirements - Feedback needed!

Dear SDWIGers,

This is a one-time cross-post from the Maps for HTML Community Group list.

Please see the note below from Amelia Bellamy-Royds, who is helping us start and keep the conversation with the Web standards community going, especially regarding Web maps’ standardization efforts.

Although some of you are already members of the Maps for HTML Community Group (thank you!), I request that should you want to contribute to the conversation (in the mailing list or on GitHub), please join our CG.  Not only does that help us assure correct IP management for standards development (perhaps already covered by membership in SDWIG), but by our numbers it shows that there are people and organizations interested in standardization of Web maps.

Thanks,
Peter


Peter Rushforth

Technology Advisor
Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation
Natural Resources Canada / Government of Canada
peter.rushforth@canada.ca<mailto:peter.rushforth@canada.ca> / Tel: 613-759-7915

Conseiller technique
Centre canadien de cartographie et d’observation de la Terre
Ressources naturelles Canada / Gouvernement du Canada
peter.rushforth@canada.ca<mailto:peter.rushforth@canada.ca> / Tél: 613-759-7915

From: Amelia Bellamy-Royds <amelia.bellamy.royds@gmail.com>
Sent: April 16, 2019 3:06 PM
To: public-maps4html@w3.org
Cc: Rushforth, Peter (NRCan/RNCan) <peter.rushforth@canada.ca>
Subject: Revisiting HTML map use cases & requirements - Feedback needed!

Hello Maps for HTML group members,

My name is Amelia Bellamy-Royds. I'm an invited expert & spec editor in the W3C's SVG, CSS, and ARIA working groups. Since January of this year, I've been under contract to the Geomatics team at Natural Resources Canada (Peter Rushforth's group), to help move forward with the Maps for HTML proposals.

A big part of moving forward is convincing more people that the web would be better with native support for interactive maps.  For that reason, one of my major projects is to re-write and expand the "Use Cases and Requirements" report.

Last Friday, we quietly posted the first part of my work online: https://maps4html.github.io/HTML-Map-Element-UseCases-Requirements/

I'd now like to ask for your feedback.

The first thing you will notice is that the report is incomplete!  Most sections are just placeholders.  But I hope there is enough included that you can understand what I am trying to do.

Key goals of the report are to:

  *   Show that web maps are a standard pattern on the web, and that there is clear consensus about what an interactive web map should do.
  *   List, in detail, what features or capabilities are included in the standard web map.
  *   Identify aspects of web maps that could be improved by having a built-in browser feature for web maps, instead of having to rely on JavaScript libraries.
  *   Suggest areas of potential collaboration with people working on other web proposals.
The “Introduction” <https://maps4html.github.io/HTML-Map-Element-UseCases-Requirements/#introduction> and “Guiding Principles”<https://maps4html.github.io/HTML-Map-Element-UseCases-Requirements/#principles> sections of the draft report explain this in more detail.

Next step is to complete the missing sections & to discuss what should be included or not.  Discussions should happen in GitHub issues, so that we can keep them organized by topic & close the issue once changes are made: https://github.com/Maps4HTML/HTML-Map-Element-UseCases-Requirements/issues/


I'll be opening some issues today to get the discussion started (actually, Peter has already started a few discussions this week!), but I also want many more contributions from you.

I'm looking for issues or suggestions on any of the following areas:

  *   Organization — Does the structure of the report make sense? Can it be more clear?
  *   Use cases — What are website authors and website users trying to do with a map?  I'll open up discussion issues for all the placeholder use cases I've included, but that's only the start.  I'm trying to describe the use case in very broad terms (like “Display pop-up HTML annotations about a map feature”) with specific real-world applications in the description.
  *   Example tools — Which existing web maps should we review to show what is common (or at least possible) on the web today?
  *   Priorities / tags — What factors should we use to measure whether something is “good for the web”?  What specific costs and benefits do we need to consider?
  *   Capabilities —  What specific features/capabilities of the technology (browser or JS framework) are required to make a use case possible? Is this capability already common in web maps (using the example tools as reference)? Are there problems with the way it is implemented in the example tools? Which tags apply? Should we consider this a requirement?
Again, I've got some placeholders in the draft, and a few have detailed write-ups. But, those are all still open for discussion. And there are many more to include.
(Of course, typos & suggested fixes to the code are also welcome! You can file an issue or make a pull request for those.)

I don't have the extensive background in cartography and spatial data that many of you do. So I'm hoping for lots of contributions from the group to help with that.  I will also be reaching out to contacts in the web developer community, and the web standards / web browser communities, to try to get more feedback from that side.  Please also share the draft & requests for feedback with your colleagues & contacts!

The original use case report, that Peter wrote, is still online<https://maps4html.github.io/HTML-Map-Element-UseCases-Requirements/draft-2015.html> for reference.  I want to eventually include all those ideas in the new report, with the more rigorous structure.

Of course, feel free to get in touch with me directly if you have any concerns or suggestions that you're not yet ready to share publicly.

Best regards,
Amelia Bellamy-Royds