Ok, hopes for a Bruce Lee javascript smack down were thwarted when Andrew started off with "this is Where 2.0 101".

Started out with a quick run over the common formats - GeoRSS, KML and Microformats.

Microformats - additional HTML markup that are conventions for geolocating content. geo & adr for lat/long and address.

High-speed review of REST with "spiffy diagram"

Must do some reading on Atom - maybe have lunch with local Atom fan-boy Sean Gilles

What is Mapstraction?

Javascript mapping API wrapper covering least common denominator functionality across 9 or so map platforms. Essentially a layer of indirection that will allow you to change the back-end (i.e. Google Maps to Poly9) without breaking your application.

It can do image overlays - which is nice because you can then push very dynamic data (i.e. data that can't be tiled) into the map.

Nice tile layer schema for roll-your-own tile services

GeoRSS and geojson direct consumption.

Support Filtering by a range of things - category, date etc.

It does not break terms of service - it still uses the underlying API's, so the tile providers are cool with using this.

Still allows you to go below Mapstraction to the underlying provider. So, you'd be able to write most of the site in Mapstraction, then jump down into some VE/GM specific stuff if you need to (obviously this limits how you can change between the back-ends)

OpenSearch: Expose the search interface for a website directly into a browser search. Details at opensearch.org. OpenSearch-Geo - extensions to support location strings. Supports location name, lat/lon + radius, bbox.

This is very cool - need to push this into some of our sites.

Mapstraction is BSD license so do what you like.