I'd like to create an app that allows a community of users to view and edit indoor maps which are then kept online.
I'm eager to learn about this kind of thing, and I've used plenty of online APIs from providers like Google, Yahoo, and Faroo - does anyone know how I could go about providing my own services like that? I've taken a class on database management, so I feel like I know a lot of the theory behind how to do this, and I'd like to actually apply it.
I'd like to do this without paying anything and without having to charge my users anything, but I understand that probably isn't realistic. How could I minimize costs? Would funding this with Kickstarter be realistic? How much would I need to raise?
I don't expect the databases to be huge... It should be pretty barebone, consisting of just sets of numbers describing coordinates and strings giving place names... It'll be up to apps utilizing the database (I intend to make the data free for other apps to use, too,) to come up with how to present the data and get logos and such.
Any tips for how to get started? I'm not doing something that's already been done, right? I looked around and it seems like all efforts to date to make indoor maps have had one of two issues:
1 - The apps made with their technology are too focused - they make an app that only shows data about airports, or only about malls, or only about one particular university, for example.
2 - The apps don't allow users to easily contribute and improve the map.
As a result, all efforts to date have sucked.
Thoughts? How should I get started with this?
I'm eager to learn about this kind of thing, and I've used plenty of online APIs from providers like Google, Yahoo, and Faroo - does anyone know how I could go about providing my own services like that? I've taken a class on database management, so I feel like I know a lot of the theory behind how to do this, and I'd like to actually apply it.
I'd like to do this without paying anything and without having to charge my users anything, but I understand that probably isn't realistic. How could I minimize costs? Would funding this with Kickstarter be realistic? How much would I need to raise?
I don't expect the databases to be huge... It should be pretty barebone, consisting of just sets of numbers describing coordinates and strings giving place names... It'll be up to apps utilizing the database (I intend to make the data free for other apps to use, too,) to come up with how to present the data and get logos and such.
Any tips for how to get started? I'm not doing something that's already been done, right? I looked around and it seems like all efforts to date to make indoor maps have had one of two issues:
1 - The apps made with their technology are too focused - they make an app that only shows data about airports, or only about malls, or only about one particular university, for example.
2 - The apps don't allow users to easily contribute and improve the map.
As a result, all efforts to date have sucked.
Thoughts? How should I get started with this?
