The geoURI scheme

A new version of the “geo” URI specification was discussed at the IETF’s 74th meeting in San Francisco. As more and more applications pop up around the internet, the GEOPRIV working group recognized that there is definitely a need for a simple, short, but yet standardized way to refer to a spatial location.

Following the 20 minute presentation of the new draft version (which primarily incorporated some clarifications regarding WGS84, and the semantics of coordinates reflecting the poles), the working group was asked whether it would want to accept the “geo” URI draft as an official working group item.

The draft was accepted with overwhelming concensus, and will soon be renamed to reflect the working group adoption. That also means we’re a big step closer towards publication of the document as a draft standard RFC.
In other news, an esteemed colleage of mine discovered that Google’s mobile operating system “Android” already supports the “geo” URI! So anybody who happens to use such a phone (or has installed the emulator) can already make use of web pages containing “geo” URIs - once they are clicked, the phone starts the mapping application, and pans to the location indicated in the URI.

This is the first wide-spread implementation we’re aware of - see the relevant API documentation page. We’re quite excited, and looking forward to more platforms containing early implementations of the URI scheme.

The Internet Draft specifying the “geo:” URI has been updated, the new version is already available from the IETF draft archives.

The new version 01 (which is the second version after 00) removes the “query” part of the URI, as this was pretty much underspecified in the initial version, and has proven to be rather controversial. Since it does not actually identify the spatial location, but provides meta information (like location classification & type, preferred map scale) we decided to remove it from the specification.

Please note that this is work in progress, which also means that any feedback is appreciated.

The Internet Engineering Task Force is currently hosting it’s 68th meeting in the Hilton Hotel, Prague, Czech Republic.

The geo: URI proposal is on the agenda of tomorrows session of the Geographic Location/Privacy working group:

• GEOPRIV WG meeting
• March 22, 2007, 9:00 - 11:30
• IETF 68, Hilton Hotel Prague, Room “Congress I”

According to the agenda, the presentation of the “geo” URI scheme is scheduled for about 10:55.

For remote participation, session audio will be available via the IETF audio streaming effort (Channel 1), a supplemental Jabber discussion room at geopriv@jabber.ietf.org can be used as a backchannel for remote participants to ask questions and provide feedback.

Slides of the presentation

The first version of the geo-URI specification is now available as an Internet Draft on the IETF web site (announcement). An Internet Draft is the first step towards publication of a specification as an RFC.

The draft specifies syntax, format and semantics of the “geo” URI - it also requests registration of the respective Uniform Resource Identifier scheme (”geo:”) from IANA.

The draft will be presented during the session of the GEOPRIV (”geographic location and privacy“) working group on the 68th IETF meeting, taking place March 18-23, 2007 in Prague. The GEOPRIV session is currently scheduled for Tuesday, March 20, 0900 - 1130. Audio streaming will be available from here.

Comments and feedback on the Internet Draft is appreciated.

More and more protocols and data formats are being extended by methods to add geographic information. However, all of those options are tied to that specific protocol or data format.

A dedicated Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) scheme for geographic locations would be independent from any protocol, usable by any software/data format that can handle generich URIs. Like a “mailto:” URI launches your favourite mail application today, a “geo:” URI could soon launch your favourite mapping service, or queue that location for a navigation device.

Making the format as simple as possible allows to jot down “geo:” URIs, like you jot down email addresses today. An example for a simple “geo:” URI (St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna, Austria) could look like:

geo:48.208333,16.372778
(you browser will not be able to handle this Link yet, of course)

This blog is about the development of the “geo:” URI scheme. The first goal is the publication of an Internet Draft withing the IETF, probably progressing it to a RFC, and having the URI scheme registered with IANA.