[rujoy]

Hello!
We are developing universal platform for LBS and Location ID services and applications. In fact, it is a free web service (SOAP,REST) able to solve some certain conceptual problems in developing and using navigation technologies.

We intent to encourage 3rd-party developers to use our technology, so we are going to open API, SDK sources and to provide support for developers.

Here is a very brief description:

Problem:

At the moment we have a great range of gps-enabled devices – handhelds, automotive GPS devices, cellphones ..etc. Navigation techniques and technologies are constantly improving, maps are getting more accurate and detailed. You can even use full 3D view to find your route.
So, finding a route is not a problem now. But where should you go? Actually one have a few options:
1) POIs, provided by your navigator manufacturer – very limited choice, inaccurate and outdated.
2) Enter your destination address by hand. You should know exact address (so you have to write it down beforehand). What should you do about spelling in case of being in Finland, for example?
3) Import your own POIs into GPS navigator. Did you ever know how to do it?
Try to imagine Internet without search engines, portals and hyperlinks at all; your web browser comes with pre-installed bookmarks, but you can’t add your own. All you can do is to use those bookmarks or to enter web-site address manually.

Present problem is the lack of methods and technologies for exchanging location-based information between users, web sites and different navigation devices.

Brief system description:
Emark is:
- a set of open services, standards and APIs for writing and adopting applications aimed at exchanging, processing, storing and accessing location-based information.
- Standardized way for description of locations – POIs, HTFU information, etc. build upon industrial standards - XML, GML, vCard.
- Service-oriented architecture, build upon SOAP (and possibly REST in the future). Any internet-enabled device can use it in the same ways.
- A transparent way to exchange location information between different web sites, communities, software, mobile and gps devices.

From the user’s point of view, eMark is a great way to search, collect and organize POIs, create and exchange them with other users, empowered by ability to access them from any device in any place.

From developer’s point of view, eMark is a handy and easy to use framework responsible for storing, accessing and exchanging location based information. Web developers have great presentation level frameworks like Google Maps, so eMark should be a great companion. eMark is great for building web communities.

From manufacturers point of view, eMark is a robust and easy way to empower their devices by community-driven and user customized POIs.

More information to come...

If you found it interesting, feel free to ask questions

[rujoy]

Good evening!
Actually, it is late night in Moscow =)
If you are interested in the problem, I’m are open for discussion, because I do think we have an ability to solve certain GPS/POI/Location ID problems and i hope you are interested i it too.
I’m sorry for my terrible english beforehand, but I think we would understand each other =)

Ok, here if some other information injection I'm looking forward for some examples from our developers, i hope i'll get it next

what is emark
a) First of all, it is Location ID format – it describes certain location.
Most interesting parts of eMark format are:
- UID. Unique ID. If you get it, you can fetch whole eMark any time, with up-to-date information. Treat it as IP address in networks or domain name in Internet.
- Information block: we have chosen vCard (XML formatted) as a main format for informational block. But also we are going to provide possibility for describing location other ways – most of time simple string would be sufficient.
- Multilanguage information. English description is mandatory.
- Geo info (lat-lon) in GML format. First of all, it is industry standard at the moment. Second, we can use 2D points, 3D points, lines, polygons. Also it provides standards for describing datum and other complex geographic things.
- Other useful, such as creation/modification dates, owner/creator information, access control list, digital signature, etc…
Most of fields are not mandatory, but there are some - UID, english description, geo-info, etc..
Yes, we do have common things with kml, gpx, gml, but we do think we have combined best of them and also have added some other vital things.

b) eMark is an internet service (SOAP/REST). So you can get eMark you are interested in - any time, any place. Actually, we are addressing “POI generation and delivery problem” – we do really think it is the main problem in GPS enabled devices, mapping services and software.
First of all, we are going to encourage internet community to use our service. For example, you can imagine this: you are going fishing next weekends, so you go to some of fisherman’s sites for good locations (in Wales, for example). Couple of buttons pressed – you got it on your nokia device. Next, you want to find a place not far to stay in overnight – so you should find yourself in global search or some “hotel” sites – couple of buttons pressed – you would also got em in your own gps.
Certainly you should invite two best friends of your own – Jim owns Garmin, Clark got only Google maps on PC. No problem – one can view eMark different ways.

Any eMark created worldwide (new café in St Petersburg), in any possible way (standalone client, community site, gps tracker, etc…) is available for searching and viewing instantly.

We do understand it is very hard to convince manufacturers to use emark standard, so, we are going to provide on-the-fly eMark conversion to different standards (kml, gpx, garmin poi). Also we are developing SDKs for different languages and platforms to ease integration.

c) Usermaps – it is much alike google’s customized maps, but it is much more universal. Actually, it is much alike IMAP, but with emarks instead of emails. As in IMAP case, you can get your mail(emark)box any place any time, any device. In the example described above you should store eMarks you have chosen in your usermap, synchronizing your nokia over internet later.

That's it (in brief=)). I can give you plenty of usecases, and i'm sure you can find them by yourself.

We are looking for community opinion, ideas and support . You're welcome! =)