INTERNET-DRAFT                                     Vancouver Webpages
<draft-daviel-html-geo-tag-06.txt>    July 2003 (Expires Feb 2004)

               Geographic registration of HTML documents

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
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   Drafts.

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   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt

   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.


Abstract

   This memo describes a method of registering HTML documents with a
   specific geographic location through means of embedded META tags. The
   content of the META tags gives the geographic position of the
   resource described by the HTML document in terms of Latitude,
   Longitude, and optionally Elevation in a simple, machine-readable
   manner. This information may be used for automated resource discovery
   by means of an HTML indexing agent or search engine.


1.  Introduction

   Many resources described by HTML documents on the World-Wide-Web are
   associated with a particular place on the Earth's surface.  While
   resource discovery on the Web has thus far focussed on document title
   and open-text keyword searching, in these cases it may be beneficial
   to facilitate geographic searching. Examples of this kind of resource
   include pages describing  restaurants, shipwrecks, retail stores etc.
   Consumers may use this information in order to select the closest
   facility, and in order to navigate towards a resource by road, on



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   foot or by other means.

   This draft describes a method of adding static location data to
   legacy HTML documents using a construct that is familiar to many HTML
   authors. It is intended to be concise, unambiguous, simple to use and
   compatible with existing editing tools.  The intended use is to
   provide location data to Web robots that typically revisit pages
   every few weeks.

   It is anticipated that in many cases this location data will be added
   manually by persons unfamiliar with GIS terminology or metadata
   standards. For this reason a minimal data set with few options is
   preferred over a more complex and extensible one.

   The method described in this draft is not intended to preempt
   existing or future metadata encapsulation schemes which may better
   serve the needs of a particular community, such as geographic
   information systems (GIS).

2.  Coordinate Systems

   Resource positions on the Earth's surface should be expressed in
   degrees North of Latitude, degrees East of Longitude as signed
   decimal numbers.

   Where the precision of the coordinates is such that the datum used is
   significant, typically more precise than one kilometre distance,
   positions should be converted to the WGS 84 datum [3]. Elevations, if
   given, should be in metres above datum.  Positions given by a GPS set
   [4] with datum set to "WGS 84" will in most cases be adequate, of the
   order of 15 metres accuracy in horizontal position and 25 metres in
   elevation.

   It should be noted that elevations referred to  the WGS 84 geoid will
   in some areas differ appreciably from those measured with respect to
   local datum in coastal regions, which may be Mean High Water Springs,
   Mean Sea Level, Higher High Water or a similar reference level, and
   will differ substantially from "ground level". Use of elevation is
   not recommended unless its value may be reliably determined.


3.  Implementation

   HTML markup should be added to the document in the form of a META
   statement. This should be placed in the document head in accordance
   with the HTML 4 specification [1].  There are three GEO identifiers:
   The identifier "geo.position" is used for  Latitude, Longitude and
   optionally Elevation data.



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   The identifier "geo.region" is used for the country subdivision code
   from ISO 3166-2 [10].
   The optional identifier "geo.placename" is used for a free text
   representation of the position, for example "city, province" or
   "town, county, state".

   For resources within the United States and Canada, the "geo.region"
   identifier as given by ISO 3166-2 is typically constructed from the
   2-character country code [5] as used in Internet domain names, and
   the common 2-character State/Province codes [8][9], joined with a
   hyphen, for example "CA-BC" for British Columbia, Canada.

   Where the official subdivision code is unknown, the 2-character
   country code alone may be used in "geo.region", for example "DE" for
   Germany.

   The "geo.placename" identifier should not be used for indexing
   purposes, due to possible ambiguities in naming convention, language,
   word ordering and placename duplicates. It may be used for
   descriptive purposes.

   If the resource described is localized to a country or region, but
   not to a single point, the "geo.region" identifier may be used alone
   without a corresponding "geo.position" identifier.

   It is the intention of this draft to provide a means to associate a
   single point with an HTML document. Some consideration should be
   given to the choice of location when describing a resource, given
   that positioning mechanisms may provide an accuracy of the order of
   ten metres in horizontal position. For instance, when describing a
   retail store or small business, it may be more meaningful to give the
   position of the street entrance rather than the centroid of the
   property.


   Although the HTML specification [1] states that the name field is in
   general case-sensitive, these GEO tags should be recognized by
   compliant agents regardless of case.  Coordinates should be ordered
   (Latitude ; Longitude) as for RFC 2426, RFC 2445 (vCard and iCal
   specifications) [6][7].  If elevation is given, coordinates should be
   ordered (Latitude ; Longitude ; Elevation).  (This is at variance
   with common GIS practice, but better matches the intended audience of
   this Draft.)

   The Metadata Profile "http://geotags.com/geo" may be used as defined
   in [1] to define the geo tag properties.

4. Examples



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     <head profile="http://geotags.com/geo">
     <meta name="geo.position" content="48.54;-123.84;115">

   describes a resource 115 metres above datum at position 48.54 degrees
   North, 123.84 degrees West, while

     <meta name="geo.position" content="-10;60">

   describes a resource at position 10 degrees South, 60 degrees East.

     <meta name="geo.placename" content="London, Ont">
     <meta name="geo.region" content="CA-ON">

   describes a resource in London, Ontario, Canada, while

     <meta name="geo.placename" content="London">
     <meta name="geo.region" content="GB">

   describes a resource in London, England (Great Britain).

   The HTML attributes "lang", "dir" may be used to define the language
   and directionality for the "geo.placename" identifier as defined in
   [1], for instance

     <meta name="geo.placename" lang="fr" content="Londres">

5. Semantics


   Values for latitude and longitude shall be expressed as decimal
   fractions of degrees.  Whole degrees of latitude shall be represented
   by a decimal number ranging from 0 through 90.  Whole degrees of
   longitude shall be represented by a decimal number ranging from 0
   through 180.  When a decimal fraction of a degree is specified, it
   shall be separated from the whole number of degrees by a decimal
   point (the period character, ".").  Decimal fractions of a degree
   should be expressed to the precision available, with trailing zeroes
   being used as placeholders if required.  A decimal point is optional
   where the precision is less than one degree. Some effort should be
   made to preserve the apparent precision when converting from another
   datum or representation, for example 41 degrees 13 minutes should be
   represented as 41.22 and not 41.21666, while 41 13' 11" may be
   represented as 41.2197.

   Latitudes north of the equator MAY be specified by a plus sign (+),
   or by the absence of a minus sign (-), preceding the designating
   degrees.  Latitudes south of the Equator MUST be designated by a
   minus sign (-) preceding the digits designating degrees.  Latitudes



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   on the Equator MUST be designated by a latitude value of 0.

   Longitudes east of the prime meridian shall be specified by a plus
   sign (+), or by the absence of a minus sign (-), preceding the
   designating degrees.  Longitudes west of the prime meridian MUST be
   designated by a minus sign (-) preceding the digits designating
   degrees. Longitudes on the prime meridian  MUST be designated by a
   longitude value of 0.  A point on the 180th meridian shall be taken
   as 180 degrees West, and shall include a minus sign.

   Any spatial address with a latitude of +90 (90) or -90 degrees will
   specify a position at the True North or True South Poles,
   respectively.  The component for longitude may have any legal value.



   The vertical coordinate (Elevation)  must be expressed in meters
   above WGS-84 datum. Points having zero elevation must not have a
   negative sign.


5.1 Interpretation

   Whitespace within a position value shall be ignored.

   An interpreting agent shall internally mark position values either
   valid or invalid.  If a position is marked invalid, it shall not be
   used to index or qualify the containing document.

   A position having a Latitude greater than 90 degrees, or less than
   -90 degrees, shall be marked invalid.

   A position having a Longitude greater than 180 degrees, or less than
   -180 degrees, shall be marked invalid.

   Where a value is given for geo.region, and the latitude and longitude
   values given for geo.position fall outside the recognized boundaries
   of this region, the position may be marked invalid. For example, if a
   region of "US" is given for a location in the US mainland, the
   position may be marked invalid if the Latitude is negative or the
   Longitude is positive.

   No formal reliance shall be placed on the precision implicit in
   position data.  It is likely that few content providers are qualified
   to determine reliable precision or accuracy data, and may use
   position data from other sources which does not give the datum.

6. Formal Syntax



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   DIGIT = %x30-39   ; 0-9
   PLUS = %x2B       ; +
   MINUS = %x2D      ; -
   DECIMAL = %x2E      ; .
   SEMI = %x3B       ; ;
   CRLF = %x0D.%x0A  ; return, linefeed
   SP = %x20         ; space
   HTAB = %x09       ; tab
   WSP = SP / HTAB   ;
   LWSP = (WSP / CRLF WSP)  ; linear whitespace
   UCASE = %x41-5A   ; A-Z
   HYPHEN = %x2D     ; -
   USCORE = %x5F     ; _
   country = 2UCASE  ; 2-letter code from ISO3166
   region =  1*3UCASE / 2DIGIT  ; region code from ISO3166-2
   TEXT = <any OCTET except CTLs, but including LWSP>
   placename = 1*TEXT
   delimiter =  SEMI

   latitude =   [ MINUS / PLUS ] 0*2DIGIT [ DECIMAL *DIGIT]
   longitude =  [ MINUS / PLUS ] 0*3DIGIT [ DECIMAL *DIGIT]
   elevation =  [ MINUS / PLUS ] 0*DIGIT [ DECIMAL *DIGIT]
   position = latitude <delimiter> longitude [ <delimiter> elevation ]

   georegion = country [ HYPHEN / USCORE region ]

   HTML syntax:
   <meta name="geo.position" content="<position>">
   <meta name="geo.region" content="<georegion>">
   <meta name="geo.placename" content="<placename>">



7.  Applicability

   As stated in the introduction, certain HTML documents may be
   associated with a geographic position, while other documents are not.
   For proper use of the GEO tags as described in this draft, the
   resource described in an HTML document should be associated with a
   particular geographic location for the lifetime of the document.  The
   tags may thus be properly used to describe an object fixed on the
   surface of the earth (or more properly, fixed in position relative to
   the surface of the earth) such as a retail store, a mountain peak or
   a railway station. They may not be used to describe a non-localized,
   moving, or intangible object such as a multinational company, river,
   aircraft or mathematical theory.

   The geographic position given is associated with the resource



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   described by the HTML document, not with the physical location of the
   document [2], or the location of the company responsible for
   publishing or hosting the document. Thus, in some cases the country
   code used in "geo.region" may differ from the country code forming
   part of the host address in the document URL.

   Since the position given is associated with the content of the
   document, not the author, publishing and document conversion tools
   should not cache position data or store it in a template.

   In cases where the object being described is an area, such as a lake
   or a building, the position of the object should not in general be
   given to greater precision than the width of the object. If desired,
   features within the object may be described in another page and their
   position given with greater precision. In the case of an object such
   as a place of business, where only one page exists, the position of
   the entrance may be given rather than the position of the centroid.


8.  Security Considerations

   This draft raises no security issues.

   The intended use of GEO metadata as described in this draft raises no
   privacy issues beyond those associated with normal use of the Web.
   Concern for privacy requires that personal information, such as a
   private address or location, not be published without the consent of
   the subject, and that due care be taken in the design of access
   control mechanisms when such personal information is present on an
   Internet-connected data storage system. It is axiomatic that
   information including location data published on a public Web page is
   public, and that location-based queries may suggest the present or
   future location of the person making them in the same manner that
   text queries may suggest personal interests or plans.

   It is suggested that publishing tools clearly indicate when
   potentially sensitive metadata that is normally not visible, such as
   position, author's name or address, is published to a public area.


   Use of GEO metadata in an incorrect manner or in a
    manner other than that described may raise privacy issues. For
   instance, a publishing  system that incorrectly places the author's
   location on every page, and a mobile device which transmits its
   current location, both raise  potential privacy issues.  An example
   of such a mobile device is an embedded diagnostic system in an
   automobile. Automatic inclusion of position data may lead to the
   users location being determined remotely.  In such a case, the device



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   should be equipped with appropriate encryption and access controls to
   ensure the privacy of the user.  Specification of such access
   controls is outside the scope of this draft.



9.  Internationalization considerations

   The "geo.placename" tag content is free text, and should obey the
   internationalization rules of HTML 4. "lang" and "dir" modifiers may
   be used to specify the language of the content. Multiple instances of
   geo.placename may be used with different "lang" modifiers.
   Geo.placename content is coded using the character set of the
   containing document.

   Geo.position and geo.region tag content should use US-ASCII or UTF-8.

10.  References

   [1]  Raggett, Le Hors, Jacobs, "HTML 4.01 Specification",
        http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/ , W3C, December 1999

   [2]  Davis et al., "A Means for Expressing Location Information in
        the Domain Name System", RFC 1876, January 1996
        http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1876.txt

   [3]  United States Department of Defense; DoD WGS-1984 - Its
        Definition and Relationships with Local Geodetic Systems;
        Washington, D.C.; 1985; Report AD-A188 815 DMA; 6127; 7-R-
        138-R; CV, KV;

   [4]  ARINC Research Corporation, "Navstar GPS Space Segment /
        Navigation User Interfaces", IRN-200C-002, September 1997

   [5]  International Organization For Standardization / Organisation
        Internationale De Normalisation (ISO), "Standard ISO
        3166-1:1997: Codes for the Representation of Names of
        Countries and their subdivisions -- Part 1: Country codes",
        1997.

   [6]  Dawson & Stenerson, Internet Calendaring and Scheduling Core
        Object Specification (iCalendar), RFC 2445, November 1998
        http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2445.txt

   [7]  Dawson & Howes, vCard MIME Directory Profile, RFC 2426,
        September 1998
        http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2426.txt




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   [8]  United States Postal Service, Official Abbreviations -
        States and Possessions,
        http://www.usps.gov/ncsc/lookups/abbr_state.txt

   [9]  Canada Postal Guide, Province and Territory Symbols
        http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/b03-e.asp


   [10] International Organization For Standardization / Organisation
        Internationale De Normalisation (ISO), "Standard ISO
        3166-2:1998: Codes for the Representation of Names of Countries
        and their subdivisions -- Part 2: Country subdivision code",
   1998.


11. Acknowledgments Rohan Mahy and Patrik F"altstr"om of Cisco Systems,
   for semantics.

12.  Author's Address

   Andrew Daviel, BSc.
   Vancouver Webpages, Box 357
   185-9040 Blundell Rd
   Richmond BC
   V6Y 1K3
   Canada

   Tel. (604)-377-4796
   Fax. (604)-270-8285
   mailto:andrew@vancouver-webpages.com

   Felix A. Kaegi
   Dipl.Informatik Ing. ETH (M.Sc.)
   Friedensgasse 51
   CH-4056 Basel
   SWITZERLAND
   +41 61 383 10 01
   felix_kaegi@hotmail.com

13. Full Copyright Statement

      Copyright (C) The Internet Society (date).  All Rights Reserved.

      This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
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      or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
      and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
      kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are



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      included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
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Daviel,Kaegi                                                   [Page 10]