On Sep 12, 2007, at 12:24 PM, Andrew Turner wrote:
Depends on where you are - and like you point out with Wigle - it
comes down to the data.
True, it does come down to the data. Christopher started an effort to
collect location data for GSM cells at http://gsmloc.org/, and I
personally mapped most of the Denver area a few years back (for T-
Mobile) using my own software. Cellspotting has a similar database,
although I'm not sure if they have lat/long info for the cells.
The nice thing about GSM cells is that they probably don't change
quite as often as Wi-Fi hotspots, cover a larger area per cell, and
are present in more places. The drawback is that you have to collect
the data for each provider (maybe similar to Ian's duct-tape cell
bundle ;)
What, specifically, were the licensing qualms with Wigle? Multiple
people have said something similarly vague, but nothing specific as to
why.
It's basically as Dan said, they only allow use on one single
computer for one user, pretty much ruling out anything useful that is
web-based. They offer a commercial license, but I have no idea how
much they charge for it or what terms apply to that.
Martin
--
Martin May
CTO, Brightkite.com
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
T 720-299-4027
On 9/11/07, Martin May <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I've looked at the Wigle database about a month ago, and it seems
that while
the database itself is a great source for geocoded SSIDs (and more
importantly, MAC addresses), the licensing is somewhat restrictive.
With regards to the iPhone, another interesting question is
whether we can
access the API that the field test app i using to show currently
visible
cell towers with signal strength. This information could then be
used,
similarly to Wi-Fi, to geolocate the handset. Since the GSM
network has
better coverage than individual Wi-Fi networks, this could be a more
worthwhile technique
Depends on where you are - and like you point out with Wigle - it
comes down to the data.
What, specifically, were the licensing qualms with Wigle? Multiple
people have said something similarly vague, but nothing specific as to
why.
Martin
--
Martin May
CTO, Brightkite.com
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
T 720-299-4027
On Sep 11, 2007, at 6:16 PM, Mike Liebhold wrote:
There's news today that there might be something useful here for
building
iphone wifi geolocation:
http://code.google.com/p/iphone-wireless/ it looks like
it's possible to scan for an AP SSID:
http://code.google.com/p/iphone-wireless/wiki/Apple80211Scan
ideally, if you have a db of locations of AP SSIDs then all you
have to do
is scan and compare visible APs with known AP locations to
determine your
location.
so the question remains, (aside from the skyhook/loki commercial
db) what is
the best source of a db of geocoded wifi AP SSIDs? Drew, Is
wifimaps.com
the best, current source? also, I'm wondering if anyone has had
any recent
experience with the wigle db?
Drew from Zhrodague wrote:
Do you or any of these others publish the associated datasets, eg.
under
Creative Commons or other open license? Seems there's a problem
getting
critical mass of data for such efforts...
We're releasing the wifimaps.com data under the GPL, as soon
as we can
package it into a useful format!
The next question becomes -- what format do people want their
wifi
locations in? WFS? KML? Something made-up? Again, I'm looking for
some kinda
help on this project, as I'm in way over my head =_)
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--
Andrew Turner
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 42.2774N x 83.7611W
http://highearthorbit.com Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Introduction to Neogeography - http://oreilly.com/catalog/neogeography
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