Open geocoder from Steve Coast and Microsoft

17 February 2012 Geoff Zeiss

Steve Coast has just unveiled a project he has been working on last month called open geocoder.  A geocoder finds geographic coordinates by matching addresses and other string data.  He sees a lacuna in the geospatial arsenal for an open geocoder that provides

  • A simple list of strings and matching bounding boxes, all in the public domain
  • A simple interface to add geocodes or fix existing geocodes
  • An API to provide results to 3rd party sites
  • A mechanism for saving unmatched strings (to be fixed later)
  • Unambiguous IP licensing (the bounding boxes are derived from imagery owned/licensed by Microsoft)

Presumably the geocodes are to be contributed by the community such as the OpenStreetMap folks.  James Fee gives an example of how the geocoder works.

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss has more than 20 years experience in the geospatial software industry and 15 years experience developing enterprise geospatial solutions for the utilities, communications, and public works industries. His particular interests include the convergence of BIM, CAD, geospatial, and 3D. In recognition of his efforts to evangelize geospatial in vertical industries such as utilities and construction, Geoff received the Geospatial Ambassador Award at Geospatial World Forum 2014. Currently Geoff is Principal at Between the Poles, a thought leadership consulting firm. From 2001 to 2012 Geoff was Director of Utility Industry Program at Autodesk Inc, where he was responsible for thought leadership for the utility industry program. From 1999 to 2001 he was Director of Enterprise Software Development at Autodesk. He received one of ten annual global technology awards in 2004 from Oracle Corporation for technical innovation and leadership in the use of Oracle. Prior to Autodesk Geoff was Director of Product Development at VISION* Solutions. VISION* Solutions is credited with pioneering relational spatial data management, CAD/GIS integration, and long transactions (data versioning) in the utility, communications, and public works industries. Geoff is a frequent speaker at geospatial and utility events around the world including Geospatial World Forum, Where 2.0, MundoGeo Connect (Brazil), Middle East Spatial Geospatial Forum, India Geospatial Forum, Location Intelligence, Asia Geospatial Forum, and GITA events in US, Japan and Australia. Geoff received Speaker Excellence Awards at GITA 2007-2009.

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