Groundspeak Portal

With more and more iphone/blackberry/android type phones having cameras with built in GPSs, and people using them to snap photos for waymarks, it would be really sweet to streamline the waymark process by uploading the photo for a waymark first, and having the coordinates, country, state all filled  in automatically from coordinate information in the photo.

Not all waymarks can be created this way.  If I'm taking a photo from a distance for the waymark, I'd  need to tweek the coordinates,  but for many it would be a good start.

chilehead:

With more and more iphone/blackberry/android type phones having cameras with built in GPSs, and people using them to snap photos for waymarks, it would be really sweet to streamline the waymark process by uploading the photo for a waymark first, and having the coordinates, country, state all filled  in automatically from coordinate information in the photo.

Not all waymarks can be created this way.  If I'm taking a photo from a distance for the waymark, I'd  need to tweek the coordinates,  but for many it would be a good start.

While I like your other idea about being able to upload from a URL, this one baffles me. To incorporate the 'auto-complete' feature of the coordinates being used to determine what state/province they are in would require extremely accurate shape/.kml files to be created by Groundspeak. There is no real benefit compared to having the end user enter this data themselves.

BUT... I will say that I wish the automatic default of using the info from your profile as the Country & State/Province would be fantastic.

BQ

The benefit is I'm a lazy guy and would like as much filled in as possible.  I don't think Groundspeak would have to create the shape/kml files themselves.  Something already exists.  If you upload a photo to flickr or picasaweb, they can figure out the country,  state and nearest town.  I have no idea how they do that, but thought there might be some standard database available to do this.

the blue quasar:

BUT... I will say that I wish the automatic default of using the info from your profile as the Country & State/Province would be fantastic. BQ

I might go with country but I am not really in favor of defaulting state, mainly because I have done waymarks in 6 or 7 states in the last few weeks and only a couple of those in my home state.  I rather it reject my waymark because it does not have a state than accept one with my home state and have it wrong, I do that enough by myself without automated assistance.    Now if it would default country and state to the last one I used it would probably be ok as I tend to enter several from a state in a row.

I'd just be happy if I could default the co-ordinates of the waymark from one of my geotagged images. That would save me some of that hard to remember typing.

Although having the Country filled in automatically would remove that annoying page refresh every time I select Canada. I tend to use the tab key a lot when filling in forms and you don't know how many times I've selected Canada, hit tab and then the O key so I can get Ontario filled in quickly ... just to find my country is now showing as "Oman".

northernpenguin:

I'd just be happy if I could default the co-ordinates of the waymark from one of my geotagged images. That would save me some of that hard to remember typing.

Although having the Country filled in automatically would remove that annoying page refresh every time I select Canada. I tend to use the tab key a lot when filling in forms and you don't know how many times I've selected Canada, hit tab and then the O key so I can get Ontario filled in quickly ... just to find my country is now showing as "Oman".

This is a behavior that I have noticed as well I would select United States and then hit tab to the states drop down box. The page then refreshes, and focus goes back to the previous box of country. It is annoying. I hit t for Texas and get Taiwan.

The trick is wait a split second and hit Tab a second time to select the state again.

ggmorton:

This is a behavior that I have noticed as well I would select United States and then hit tab to the states drop down box. The page then refreshes, and focus goes back to the previous box of country. It is annoying. I hit t for Texas and get Taiwan.

The trick is wait a split second and hit Tab a second time to select the state again.

I wait a second or two after selecting the country for the state box to change from not applicable to a wider box with Alabama (I think). That saves the selecting twice.

BruceS:

the blue quasar:

BUT... I will say that I wish the automatic default of using the info from your profile as the Country & State/Province would be fantastic.

BQ

I might go with country but I am not really in favor of defaulting state, mainly because I have done waymarks in 6 or 7 states in the last few weeks and only a couple of those in my home state.  I rather it reject my waymark because it does not have a state than accept one with my home state and have it wrong, I do that enough by myself without automated assistance.    Now if it would default country and state to the last one I used it would probably be ok as I tend to enter several from a state in a row.

You, my good friend, are likely the exception to my idea.

BQ

the blue quasar:

BruceS:

the blue quasar:

BUT... I will say that I wish the automatic default of using the info from your profile as the Country & State/Province would be fantastic. BQ

I might go with country but I am not really in favor of defaulting state, mainly because I have done waymarks in 6 or 7 states in the last few weeks and only a couple of those in my home state.  I rather it reject my waymark because it does not have a state than accept one with my home state and have it wrong, I do that enough by myself without automated assistance.    Now if it would default country and state to the last one I used it would probably be ok as I tend to enter several from a state in a row.

You, my good friend, are likely the exception to my idea. BQ

I guess one of the reasons I am against defaulting states is just look at how many waymarks ended up in Alberta and Alabama when the state used to default when people chose the country. Now if it was some kind of setting which said default state to home state it might be ok, then I could turn it off when I am doing my I away waymark.  However by having it default to the last country and state used would work for both traveling people and non-traveling people.  The person that does not travel would select their home state and it would stick just as if it was defaulted to their home state.

northernpenguin:

I'd just be happy if I could default the co-ordinates of the waymark from one of my geotagged images. That would save me some of that hard to remember typing.

Although having the Country filled in automatically would remove that annoying page refresh every time I select Canada. I tend to use the tab key a lot when filling in forms and you don't know how many times I've selected Canada, hit tab and then the O key so I can get Ontario filled in quickly ... just to find my country is now showing as "Oman".

Every now and then I create a Calgary waymark in Afghanistan...followed by three C's a delay then an A.

 

KE

northernpenguin:

I'd just be happy if I could default the co-ordinates of the waymark from one of my geotagged images. That would save me some of that hard to remember typing.

Although having the Country filled in automatically would remove that annoying page refresh every time I select Canada. I tend to use the tab key a lot when filling in forms and you don't know how many times I've selected Canada, hit tab and then the O key so I can get Ontario filled in quickly ... just to find my country is now showing as "Oman".

Problem is, unless I'm taking a macro or extreme close-up, or am waymarking a viewpoint (e.g. Cityscapes),  the coordinates of my camerea are NOT the coordinates of the site/object being waymarked!!  In my view, coordinate should always be taken as close to the object/site as possible, NOT from the camera vantage point, which could be across the street or even further away depending on the size and location of the site.  Trying to tweak these is just a guess and more of a pain than entering them in the first place.

The drop down menu for location:  Yep, I had one recently in the Solomon Islands, or something.  I've also had the country/state disappear and had to reenter it.

Wish there were a way to customize the drop down menu.  Do you know how annoying it is for someone outside the United States to have to scroll down through a long list of countries?  Or, to scroll down to find one's state?  I suppose there is no way to do it, but it be great to have it default to a country or state.  Same for the N,S - E, W coordinates  - a pain always to have to change those if one is not N and W!

silverquill:

Problem is, unless I'm taking a macro or extreme close-up, or am waymarking a viewpoint (e.g. Cityscapes),  the coordinates of my camerea are NOT the coordinates of the site/object being waymarked!!  In my view, coordinate should always be taken as close to the object/site as possible, NOT from the camera vantage point, which could be across the street or even further away depending on the size and location of the site.  Trying to tweak these is just a guess and more of a pain than entering them in the first place.

One day, when practically all cameras have GPS capabilities, the next feature will be to do the coordinates of the SUBJECT as opposed to the coordinates of the CAMERA.  I'm sure this could be determined via data gathered by focus (or at least autofocus) and projecting from the camera's coords.