I am working on a mapping project where, once deployed, we will be looking to gather VGI or crowdsourced geographic information from a specific group of Edmontonians. Ethical issues aside (I am looking at Matt Wilson's Critical GIS Reading List) I am trying to get my head around the technology that I will need to deploy to enable a customizable, flexible and light stack for displaying a number of map layers, and collecting point, line and polygon data as well as a narrative that may accompany these spatial data. I considered a deployment of Ushahidi's Crowdmap, but feel that it does not offer the speed and UI / UX flexibility that we need. The stack I am considering, and would like feedback and suggestion on, is:
- PostGIS as the database
- QGIS + TileMill – to process and style the base-map and layers, and to make the MBTiles.
- PHP Tile Server – To serve the MBTiles onto the internet.
- Leaflet JS – for the UI/UX design
- OSM's iD Editor - for the VGI component to manage the contribution of spatial data.
I have some questions regarding this:
- Is this the best / easiest way to go?
- Can the iD Editor be linked to PostGIS, or is there a better way in this instance to glean VGI?
- What role can GeoJSON and GitHub play in this stack?
I am still getting my head around this and would appreciate any thoughts.
UPDATE 02 December 2013
I received some good discussion and suggestions for a platform via Twitter from Alan McConchie and Hugh Stimson (Hugh pointed to his Salish Sea Spill Map as a map that incorporates VGI - it's an interesting project and cool map):
I plan on breaking down both uMap and MapStory, and will update this post again with my results.
uMap Update on 03 December can be found here.