A Brief List of Mapping Tools

There are many mapping technologies, tools and organizations out there, and it is not always apparent how they compete with each other or complement each other. This list will hopefully aim for breadth over depth -- emphasizing how things work together or not, instead of details about what they do.

things to define

• GIS - "geographic information system": "a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographical data ... sometimes defined as 'geographical information science' or 'geospatial information studies' to refer to the academic discipline or career of working with geographic information systems. In the simplest terms, GIS is the merging of cartography, statistical analysis, and database technology." see  wikipedia

• slippy map -- essentially the ubiquitous web map technology. a grid of small static images ("tiles"), with javascript allowing the user to drag the map as well as zoom in and out; dynamically loading new map tiles as the map is panned and zoomed. see  http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Slippy_Map
• tiles -- "square bitmap graphics displayed in a grid arrangement to show a map." see  http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tiles
• WMS -- "Web Map Service" -- a standard protocol for serving georeferenced map images (tiles) over the Internet that are generated by a map server using data from a GIS database. see  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Map_Service
• TileCache? -- an open source software syste, that is probably the most famous, popular, and widely used WMS server.  http://tilecache.org/
• Mapnik -- "open source toolkit for rendering maps." Mapnik is probably the most widely used software for generating map images from geographic data. It can be used with WMS servers like TileCache? and accepts many data formats as inputs. see  http://mike.teczno.com/notes/mapnik.html

• TileStache? - an open source tool serving essentially the same purpose as TileCache?, but intended to be easier to use in some ways. created by Stamen Designs
• Cascadenik -- allows one to create fully customized map images using a CSS like syntax for specifying style rules for things like colors and text. built on top of Mapnik. also from Stamen Designs.  https://github.com/mapnik/Cascadenik/wiki/Cascadenik
• TileDrawer? -- a service that puts together Mapnik and Cascadenik, making it easy to setup your own WMS service to provide custom map tiles. also from Stamen Designs.  http://tiledrawer.com/

• Open Layers -- an open source software library primarily built in javascript that allows one to create web-based mapping applications. Typically uses a WMS server to render a slippy map basemap and provides other interactive controls to a user. Also accepts inputs in a number of formats in order to plot additional data on top of the basemap.
• Open Street Maps -- a wiki-type system that collects street map data from users all over the world and generates. works readily with Open Layers

• Google Maps -- kind of a combination of Open Layers and Open Street Maps in one, but instead of being open source and wiki-like, is closed and proprietary. Provides a basemap of international street map data as well as satellite imagery. Also provides a javascript library similar to Open Layers that allows one to create web-based mapping applications.
• Google Earth -- similar to Google Maps, but instead of only providing a top-down slippy map basemap, provides a 3D navigable interface

• ModestMaps? -- an open-source library for interactive maps. designed to be small, lightweight and friendly for designers. kind of a competitor with Open Layers and the Google Maps API. works on different platforms like Flash and Processing. developed by Stamen Designs.  http://modestmaps.com/
• Leaflet -- an open-source JavaScript? library for mobile-friendly interactive maps. kind of a competitor with Open Layers and the Google Maps API. made by a company called CloudMade?.  http://leaflet.cloudmade.com/

• Geographic coordinate system - for example, WGS 1984
• Projected coordinate system - for example, UTM, Mercator, Dymaxion

• GEOS
• PROJ.4
• GDAL - processes satellite imagery through a band format

• ogr2ogr -  http://www.gdal.org/ogr2ogr.html - allows a shapefile to be added to PostGIS

• Shapefile - corresponds to the "geometry" column in PostGIS ... actually 4 files
• KML - kind of a lite version of a Shapefile
• KMZ - kind of a compressed version of KML that allows one to more easily bundle many KMLs together.
• GeoJSON

• OSGeo - and essentially all the projects listed on their website
• ESRI
• Stamen

• GeoDjango?

• CloudMade?'s Leaflet
• SimpleGeo?

• Hypercities
•  Tile Mill

• Menris - ICIMOD ???