[Ideas for GoSC 2011] Geospatial Data and Mapping

@sumitk talked to me about this at DrupalCon Chicago last week. I am not sure how I should be presenting ideas, but I will throw a few out there here. Geospatial data, mapping, GIS, etc are very big in the web and mobile worlds, and people expect data to be geolocated these days, but there is still lots of work to be done in Drupal core and in Drupal contrib in getting a more cohesive, consistent experience around these concepts.

• Let's get some basic building blocks for geospatial data in core. Drupal has no concept of geospatial data, and even with the new PDO-based abstraction layer, it not that straight-forward on how to make a home for this data. So, this could include, but not limited to, putting geospatial types in Drupal core, adding basic query mechanisms for geospatial data, putting a basic geo field in core. See Add support for more field types to schema API.
• I am a lead developer on the Drupal OpenLayers module, and we could use lots of help here. This module is becoming the definitive mapping solution in Drupal because of its flexibility and ability to use any different kinds of data sources. Some specific areas that need help are UI/UX/Usability, stabilizing code, adding more refined features and behaviors for mapping.
• Also, I am starting a new project, called the Mapping module, that is attempting to abstract out the how mapping libraries, such as OpenLayers or Google Maps, are integrated with Drupal. There are many concepts in mapping that are similar, regardless of the library used, and most modules attempt to do the same thing when it comes to this sort of integration: create a data structure/object in PHP that translates well to the library, then send it over to JS for processing. This is still in its infancy, so could use lots of help here.