Active Captain Discontinued - An Opportunity?

[coupdemistral]

First - my apologies for not chiming in earlier - I have been offline for a couple of days.

Second, since I have not made it clear earlier, I am the original developer of the squiddio_pi plugin, although of course I have gotten a lot of help along the way from other OCPN devs.

Third, I wanted to bring some clarification regarding content ownership and future directions. Squidd.io is a privately funded initiative, born out of the desire to create an open, crowd sourced (and crowd-owned) initiative repository of sailing Points of Interest (or Destinations, in squiddio speak).

The vision was to have this repository available not just online or through mobile apps, but also within the most popular open source navigation software, so the decision to write the squidd.io plugin for OpenCPN was an easy one. And a very successful one at that, I should add.

Given this vision, it goes without saying that the content created by users should be available to the entire sailing community without restrictions, including as someone mentioned, the ability to fork the database. The entire set of squiddio POIs has always been available through the plugin or directly through the web site, where one can download the entire set in compressed GPX format.

That said, I'd agree that this policy of open content has not been entirely made clear on the web site, and public discussion of this topic has been limited. To eliminate this confusion, we have recently modified the user agreement to reflect the fact that Member Content (which includes all the information available through the OCPN plugin) is governed by the Creative Commons BY-SA license agreement. As many of you know, this is the most widely used and least restrictive approach to making a data-set truly open source. One of the most important features of the CC license is that it's irrevocable, which means that the content downloaded at any point will always be available to the public should squidd.io be acquired or cease operating.

Please note that not all sQuidd.io information is covered by the CC license. For instance user personal information (email address, boat info etc.) is treated as confidential and not made available to the public. To avoid any confusion, we have identified the areas of the content that are Open Source by displaying the CC official logo in the relevant pages of the web site.

Finally, sQuiddio is - as of today - entirely free. User registration is required to submit some of the content, such as points of interest, but that's it. Will this always be the case? One can't say never, but - as of today we have no plans to start charging users for any of the current features of the service.

I hope this addresses some of the concerns around the long term availability of squiddio and its content. Thanks all for the great feedback. Keep it coming!

[Franziska]

As far as I can see a great statement, Coupedemistral!
Thanks!

[rgleason]

M.C. Thank you! This makes things much simpler for all of us. Squiddio has been a long time favorite simply because of the way it works.

I hope in the coming months some of the suggestions for plgin improvements can be implemented.

[sailjumanji]

Originally Posted by rgleason

M.C. Thank you! This makes things much simpler for all of us. Squiddio has been a long time favorite simply because of the way it works.

I hope in the coming months some of the suggestions for plgin improvements can be implemented.

How do I get Squiddo on my B&G Zeus 2? Not sure "all if us" really applies. Will just have to hope C-map chips continue to contain Active Captain feedback as of date of release.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by coupdemistral

First - my apologies for not chiming in earlier - I have been offline for a couple of days.

Second, since I have not made it clear earlier, I am the original developer of the squiddio_pi plugin, although of course I have gotten a lot of help along the way from other OCPN devs.

Third, I wanted to bring some clarification regarding content ownership and future directions. Squidd.io is a privately funded initiative, born out of the desire to create an open, crowd sourced (and crowd-owned) initiative repository of sailing Points of Interest (or Destinations, in squiddio speak).

The vision was to have this repository available not just online or through mobile apps, but also within the most popular open source navigation software, so the decision to write the squidd.io plugin for OpenCPN was an easy one. And a very successful one at that, I should add.

Given this vision, it goes without saying that the content created by users should be available to the entire sailing community without restrictions, including as someone mentioned, the ability to fork the database. The entire set of squiddio POIs has always been available through the plugin or directly through the web site, where one can download the entire set in compressed GPX format.

That said, I'd agree that this policy of open content has not been entirely made clear on the web site, and public discussion of this topic has been limited. To eliminate this confusion, we have recently modified the user agreement to reflect the fact that Member Content (which includes all the information available through the OCPN plugin) is governed by the Creative Commons BY-SA license agreement. As many of you know, this is the most widely used and least restrictive approach to making a data-set truly open source. One of the most important features of the CC license is that it's irrevocable, which means that the content downloaded at any point will always be available to the public should squidd.io be acquired or cease operating.

Please note that not all sQuidd.io information is covered by the CC license. For instance user personal information (email address, boat info etc.) is treated as confidential and not made available to the public. To avoid any confusion, we have identified the areas of the content that are Open Source by displaying the CC official logo in the relevant pages of the web site.

Finally, sQuiddio is - as of today - entirely free. User registration is required to submit some of the content, such as points of interest, but that's it. Will this always be the case? One can't say never, but - as of today we have no plans to start charging users for any of the current features of the service.

I hope this addresses some of the concerns around the long term availability of squiddio and its content. Thanks all for the great feedback. Keep it coming!

Good to hear these intentions. The terms of service on the site don't seem to reflect this yet.

[coupdemistral]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Good to hear these intentions. The terms of service on the site don't seem to reflect this yet.

see the section on Member Content in the user agreement.

"Member Content can be created, viewed, modified, downloaded, distributed and shared by you under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution and Share-alike License, and only through specific areas of the Site and Applications identified by the standard Commons Content official logos:"

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by coupdemistral

see the section on Member Content in the user agreement.

"Member Content can be created, viewed, modified, downloaded, distributed and shared by you under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution and Share-alike License, and only through specific areas of the Site and Applications identified by the standard Commons Content official logos:"

That's good. The terms of service are labeled Last Updated: March, 12 2014, but they look like they are newer.

[rgleason]

Good!

see the section on Member Content in the user agreement.

"Member Content can be created, viewed, modified, downloaded, distributed and shared by you under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution and Share-alike License, and only through specific areas of the Site and Applications identified by the standard Commons Content official logos:"

I think we are all hoping that M.C. and squiddio are hugely successful and continue for our lifetimes in this way! It makes things much easier for all of us. Now a difficult question. Is there any need to create a github repository for the opensource user data? Just thinking of the loss of GoodHarbor data and all user's time and effort.... This is a difficult question and it does involve more programming and equipment.

[CaptTom]

Just looking at the squidd.io web site, I'm not really clear on how it operates. Are there any AC-style reviews, or just "star" ratings? I didn't see any, but maybe it's just because my local area doesn't have many entries at all.

Are there data fields for things like dockage or mooring rates, approach depths, VHF channel, available services, nearby facilities, fuel prices, etc?

Also, what's with all the flikr photos and links?

[coupdemistral]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

Are there any AC-style reviews, or just "star" ratings?

most of the info on the destination page is user-editable by clicking on the green "edit" link. The edit page has a Google map which can be used to adjust the exact location of the destination, and three tabs, that allow you to specify some basic info about the destination (phone number, email address etc), write and intro paragraph, or add a number of keyword-value pairs that provide additional information. All this updates the Destination page once the edits are saved.

User reviews are entered in the form of user comments in the Media Feed, at the bottom of the page.

Are there data fields for things like dockage or mooring rates, approach depths, VHF channel, available services, nearby facilities, fuel prices, etc?

yes - that's what the above keyword-value pairs are for. With this approach, you have an unlimited number of potential attributes to define the destination. Just type anything you wish, e.g. "Toll Free Number" as a keyword, then the enter the corresponding value. There is a type-ahead filler in the keyword field that shows commonly used keywords (e.g. Guest Berths for a Marina, or holding for an anchorage), but you can enter what you want. Again, all these are shown on the Destination page

Also, what's with all the flikr photos and links?

photos are one of the objects that can be posted to the Media Feed, in addition to comments and reviews, since they are a great way to provide a visual dimension to the destination page. Users can upload their photos. In absence of user-supplied photos, we have pre-populated the media feeds of many destinations with photos from the public domain or services like Panoramio (discontinued) or Flickr based on lat/lon coordinates. As users add their own, the new ones will replace the old ones

There is also a mechanism to provide photos and comments through social media (see the link at the bottom)

More info in the FAQ

Hope this helps

[Franziska]

Using the Squidd.io OpenCpn Plugin you can right click anywhere in the nav chart and add a location very easily with the menu appearing.

[rgleason]

Originally Posted by Franziska

Using the Squidd.io OpenCpn Plugin you can right click anywhere in the nav chart and add a location very easily with the menu appearing.

Yes, it is very easy to do when you have an internet connection.

I would like to be able to add POI when offline, extemporaneously. Then be able to upload them when connected to the internet. It would probably increase the number and quality of POI. There might be some additional things to do with each POI when uploading the POI. I think this could be handled in some way.

Also it would be great if the POI were shifted to a layer similar to what the OcpnDraw does, using ODnavobj.xml file. I guess squiddio could use a SQnavobj.xml file? Jon Gough's excellent plugin would have a lot of the necessary code and he might lend a hand too. --Perhaps it could use the OcpnDraw ODnavobj.xml? but then would that plugin have to be installed and active? Maybe not. These are questiions...

The other item would be adding an ability to toggle show/hide of the Log when sending and recieving Logs from friends.

The squidd.io website is quite easy to use and very sophisticated I think.

[rgleason]

Added FAQ About the Website

From M.C.'s post
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2594629

[coupdemistral]

Originally Posted by rgleason

I would like to be able to add POI when offline, extemporaneously. Then be able to upload them when connected to the internet. It would probably increase the number and quality of POI. There might be some additional things to do with each POI when uploading the POI. I think this could be handled in some way.

I agree this would be a very useful feature. I will make sure it's reflected in the tracker (as I will do for all other feature requests and bugs that have been reported in this thread - thanks to those that have already recorded a few)

This is one area where I may need some help from more experienced OCPN devs than me. For instance, what facilities exist within OCPN (that are exposed to plugins) to temporarily save info to a file? Should we just use a temp gpx file or similar?

Also it would be great if the POI were shifted to a layer similar to what the OcpnDraw does, using ODnavobj.xml file. I guess squiddio could use a SQnavobj.xml file? Jon Gough's excellent plugin would have a lot of the necessary code and he might lend a hand too.

Ditto. Sounds like I should pick Jon's brains on this one.

The other item would be adding an ability to toggle show/hide of the Log when sending and recieving Logs from friends.

Noted

The squidd.io website is quite easy to use and very sophisticated I think.

Thanks - lots of room for improvement though, as always....

[Franziska]

The offline log saving will be a useful item. Good idea.

One more.
Could you add an option to adjust logs manually after posting please?
I tried saving a location on the websites Google Maps chart. It did not work and when I entered it manually I had not enough digits after the comma.
So the boat is now in the middle of France and not at the coast in Cordemais.
Would be nice to correct things like this later.