OpenStreetMap-based places database and API.
This is a project by Manton of Micro.blog. Check to see if he discussed it in the IndieWeb chat channels in more detail. esp wrt use for check-ins ==> he did, first on #2022/07/20 Also mentions jonhays.me as co-creator. A stated purpose is indeed to move away from using 4sq
Meridian is not a full replacement for check-in services like Foursquare. It’s also not a blogging platform. It does not keep track of where someone has been. Those are features that could be built as separate platforms on top of Meridian.
Meridian does not itself support check-ins like 4sq of old. It could be build on top of Meridian.
Blogging platforms may also wish to take Micropub API requests and route portions of the data through Meridian for updating places automatically as posts are created.
Meridian here suggests to potentially submit data by posting to your blog with micropub (presumably adding a lat-long or venue name) and have the micropub parsing also run data through Meridian's API. I suspect, like with Media, this introduces some non-trivial multiple-rounds of interaction with a micropub client, to get and update the right venue. This is also a potential path to do check-ins on my blog
Meridian is designed around solving 2 specific problems: Finding nearby places given a user’s current latitude and longitude. Public places like restaurants, coffee shops, parks, grocery stores, landmarks, basketball arenas, and airports. Contributing new places back to OpenStreetMap as users create new places that they need to use or check into. The best way to expand OpenStreetMap’s database is to have good clients that anyone can use.
Meridian wants to solve a) finding places given a current lat-long b) create a new place on a certain lat-long.
If configured with an OpenStreetMap account, adding or editing places will push those changes back to OpenStreetMap in the background. Otherwise the changes will be stored locally.
Meridian can be used to push changes to OSM under my own account.
Checkins and ItinerariesBoth of this represent similar things: I was in a place, or I moved from a place to another. I like the flexibility of having both types of contents and in the future I would love to have an interactive map
Itineraries as content type. I have some check-ins on my site (dubbed Plazes after that early app), and deeply miss Dopplr (even as travel stalled early 2020 due to the pandemic, and I don't know if travel will return in the same way to my life, given climate impact and surge in online collab). Can I envision Itineraries on my site as content type? Dopplr kept that within a trusted network, how do I do that on my site? Where would the type of coincidental meet-ups come from that made Dopplr so immensely valuable.