Leaflet.js by default supports Cloudmade’s awesome map tiles. The Open MapQuest project also provides beautiful tiles, which are now used at OpenStreetMap.org. To use these tiles all you have to do is to change the map preamble as follows.

The Cloudmade maps layer looks like this.

Change the preamble to.

Leaflet.js is by far the best, simple and beautiful interactive mapping library that I’ve come across. The following code snippets will let you get started quickly with Leaflet.

Define the head of your HTML file as:

Inside the body, within the script tag:

And to add a marker with pop-up information:

Last day we got a call from Mr. Kevin Kishore of the New Indian Express. The next day, we found ourselves featured on the third page of the New Indian Express Calicut edition.

Geohackers shows the way in Open Mapping

About two years ago, in an open map party held in Hyderabad, some geeks sowed the idea of forming an open technology mapping consultancy team. Now, the idea has grown into a full-fledged, non-profit, open technology mapping consultancy team called Geohackers.

The team, which consists of seven active members and several contributors, gives consultancy services on open mapping for different organisations and projects, free of cost. The team is also contributing to the Open Street Map, a project to make free and open maps.

“With the belief in the ideology that information has to be free, we undertake consultancy works and training for students on cartography,” said Sajjad Anwar, a coordinator of the open map team and a student of the MES College of Engineering, Kozhikode. The contributors include several technology freelancers and techies, working in different parts of the world, he said.

Explaining that the Geohackers might be the first consultancy service on open mapping in the country, he said, “We thought about starting an open mapping consultancy team to impart the ideology of open mapping to the people, as the need of such a consultancy is high in the country.”

The team is involved in several open mapping projects such as Assistance for Maps for Making a Social Change project and Heritage Walks.in project.

“The first project was sponsored by two NGOs- Centre for Internet and Society and Tactical Tech and we have conducted several workshops and training classes for the social workers on how to use open maps. The training and workshops were held in New Delhi and Ahmedabad,” he explained.

“Heritage Walks.in is a unique project to help tourists. People can download maps from the website www.heritagewalks.in for free,” he said.

At present, the mapping of heritage sites in Ahmedabad, Kozhikode, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram has been completed.

“The project is aimed to cover the whole India. More heritage sites will be added to the website shortly,” he said.

For mapping purpose, we use GPS devices and free satellite images. The open mapping foundation has contributed two such devices for the purpose, he said.

We were pleased to be at National Institute of Technology Calicut on their annual FOSS meet-up, FOSSMeet 2011. Spoke for an hour about OSM and Open Mapping technologies. Introduced Potlach 2 as we found that Bing satellite imagery had a good coverage of the campus area.

People loved Potlatch 2 and we got them mapping right from the hall. Nothing much happened after the 2 hour session. There were other interesting events running in parallel. The presentation is here.

About Maps for Making Change Workshop:

The workshop will allow a select group of activists and supporters of social movements and campaigns in India to start developing digital maps that they can use in their advocacy work, under the expert guidance of international digital mapping rights activists, Indian mapping experts, design professionals and techies with an interest in activism. The workshop is organised by the Centre for Internet and Society and Tactical Tech, in cooperation with MediaShala at NID. The second workshop of the Maps for Making Change project will take place at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, from 1 until 3 February 2010. Read More

Fort Cochin is the earliest recorded settlement on the Malabar coast, with its beautiful colonial bungalow peppered with Dutch, Portuguese and Malabar architecture.The many small winding streets with lovely old houses is truly a treasure trove. Vasco Da Gama Square, Dutch Cemetery, Maritime Museum, Santa Cruz Basilica etc. The tourists are armed with a Cochin heritage walk route map, which is old and incomplete. The walk is long and has many adventures and awesome stuffs which someone would miss worthwhile including the narrow path lined with little fish stalls and the Chinese fishing nets on the sea beyond them.
GeoHackers have decided to map the entire walk, and tag it in a suitable way which would help the tourists flowing down to enjoy the essence of Fort Cochin. A good quality map of the region would be printed and put up on several parts of the entire walk. These maps would have overlay information regarding distance, time, must see places, quick tips, etc. Please pull in more suggestions using comments.

Event documented here:
Sajjad’s Blog
Arky’s Blog