MapWiki: A Map-based Content Sharing System for Distributed Location-dependent Information

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new map-based content sharing system ’MapWiki’ for ubiquitous content distribution. In MapWiki, users can publish location-dependent information on the map as Wiki contents which contains links or inline images of the objects in the ubiquitous environment by simple formatting rules. The status change of the content are updated on the map in real-time which enables users to communicate between real field and virtual environment. Publishers and receivers are authenticated using social network to ensure the trustfulness of the content. We have implemented MapWiki on Google Maps and evaluated its effectiveness. We also propose a distributed P2P-based content management method to manage location-dependent information of GMapWiki. In this content management method, each user stores his or her own location-dependentcontent in the local computer. This P2P-based content management method realizes scalability, flexibility and privacy of the GMapWiki system. We have enhanced a P2P networking method called ‘LL-Net’ to implement a prototype system and confirmed its feasibility.