Vision        2

Background and Problem Statement        2

Goals        2

Approach        3

Roadmap        4

Milestones years 1-5        4

Milestones years 6-11        5

Appendix        6

Terminology and Jargon        6

About Bocoup        6

Stakeholders        6

Contextual History of Web Maps 1997 - 2019        7

Vision

By 2033, the web platform will include standard mapping features; web maps frameworks will include standards based accessibility features, will perform well, preserve privacy, and make map authoring easier for users.

Background and Problem Statement

Geospatial information on the Web is fragmented, inadequately covered by Web standards, and lacking interoperability and accessibility. This raises significant barriers to its effective and equitable use.

In 2016, Peter Rushforth laid out a vision for maps on the web, and started the Maps for HTML community group at the W3C. In 2020, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) engaged Bocoup to conduct a review of MapML specification. Bocoup attended the W3C-OGC Workshop on Maps for the Web, delivered a report, and published a case study.

In November 2021, NRCan re-engaged Bocoup to establish a rationale and conceptual framework for accessible map rendering by Web browsers, and create an implementation plan. Bocoup conducted a landscape analysis, static analysis on web maps usage in HTTP Archive, engaged and interviewed web maps framework authors, and GIS experts, and surveyed web developers. A summary of this research was published in Bocoup’s Maps or HTML Research report. This roadmap contains the implementation plan resulting from this work.

Goals

1. Engage communities impacted by maps as key stakeholders in the design of web maps
2. Improve accessibility for web maps
3. Improve performance of web maps
4. Allow for privacy-preserving interaction of web maps
5. Make it easier to author web maps
6. Make geospatial data indexable on the web

Approach

According to our research, 16% of web pages use maps, but 84% of surveyed map makers don’t have the necessary tools to make accessible maps. This was strongly echoed in follow up interviews, which also called out performance issues in existing web mapping tools. These findings indicate a need for standardized accessible web maps.

Bocoup identified three viable approaches to standardize web maps (covered in the above linked research document), and presented these findings to browser implementers. Implementers encouraged taking an iterative approach to standardizing maps, and focusing on buy-in from map frameworks during the process. Based on this feedback and standards development experience, Bocoup recommended the third approach from the research document, “the iterative approach”. The iterative approach includes:

1. Research and co-design
2. Closing gaps in web frameworks
3. Specifying each feature needed to finish closing gaps
4. Soliciting and incorporate additional review (polyfill implementation)
5. Implementing the feature in Chromium, WebKit, Gecko
6. Writing wpt tests in parallel to implementation
7. Adding new standards to map frameworks
8. Writing user documentation on MDN
9. Maintaining standard and implementation
10. Communicating changes to the stakeholder communities

Roadmap

The tables below describe a high-level eleven-year roadmap for the Web Maps ecosystem infrastructure partnership, including 16 key milestones.

Milestones years 1-5

Milestones years 6-11

Appendix

Terminology and Jargon

• GIS - Geographic Information System
• Basemap - background non-editable, geo-referenced image that gives point references on a map.
• GeoJSON - format for representing geographic data, such as coordinates or points and any metadata said point(s) have.
• Polygons - a closed line or perimeter that represents an area.
• Map Projection - a mathematical model that transforms the locations of features on the Earth’s surface to locations in a two-dimensional representation.
• Tile - Spatial unit by which geographic data is organized, subdivided, and stored in a map library.
• MDN - Mozilla Developer Network, the documentation site for web developers.
• Gecko - The browser engine used by Firefox.
• Webkit - The browser engine used by Safari.
• Chromium - the browser engine used by Chrome, Samsung Internet, and other browsers.
• OGC - Open Geospatial Consortium.
• W3C - World Wide Web Consortium.

About Bocoup

Bocoup is a mission and values driven web platform firm that partners with tech companies, nonprofits, and governments on design, engineering, standards development and strategy.

Stakeholders

• NRCan
• Bocoup
• Igalia
• Google
• Microsoft
• Mozilla
• Apple
• Samsung
• W3C
• OGC

Contextual History of Web Maps 1997 - 2019

The following table shows a list of historical web maps milestones between 1994 and 2019.