CoT XML Standard for Location Based Data
Cursor on Target (CoT) is an effort by military and governmental branches, FFRDCs (federally funded research and development corporations) and private companies to standardize an electronic portable data format to define location based data. I am the biggest geo-geek that I know, so obviously I was very interested when they contacted me about implementing their format into Where’s Tim. These guys have done a great job of making a simple schema (12 required fields) that is easy to implement. I blogged about doing something like this while ago, but these guys have the resources to get broad adaptation, so I’m very excited to be working with them
The first thing I’ve did was create an .aspx page that would render XML in the CoT format. The webpage is here, and the article with the code is here.
Is this a post about GPS, Dave? Wow, looks geeky …. well, it is, but it’s important. First of all thanks and a tip of the blog hat to my blogging friend Tim Hibbard for the info above. Tim’s a bonafide software architect and when he says something’s simple some of us may still be a little mystified, but trust me, this is a great thing for all sorts of mapping and GPS tracking ideas.
As I’ve posted several times in the past one of the problems with GPS and other location-based technologies is the fact that they can tell you “where” you are but “where” is not a well-defined term. We’re stuck with a plethora of differently designed maps, different map datum(s) (data if you’re a purist, whatever word you want to use for the starting point of a map) that define where on a map (more correctly a projection of data onto a map) actually is.
I’ve often tried to address this issue in my own small projects but to no avail. Typically programmers, software engineers, software architects and “Certified GIS Professionals) typically respond with one of two answers. “It’s too hard” or “You must hire us to convert all your positional data into a standard format we’ll develop and then we’ll build your application.”
XML is a specification and technique for expressing data in a format that can be read by any other machine (typically a computer) that is also programmed to read XML. They will both be using the same “dictionary”, if you will. I can output a file from the GPS unit on my car in a format that will let the GPS system of another manufacturer who uses a different “map” to plot the points on their map and we’ll both know “Where’s Tim?” .. or where the armored car or the truck with the explosives actually is.
Fascinating stuff, and even though government labs and government-funded research sometimes seems to move a little slowly, as Mr. Warhoe used to say, :Even a blind hog will find an acorn once in a while.”