Hello list,

I spoke to Ivor today at the inaugural London Javascript Night about a new library we've spun off from OpenStreetMap (www.openstreetmap.org) called Mapstraction (www.mapstraction.com).

Basically, Mapstraction is a minimal layer of javascript which defines a common interface to Google Maps, Yahoo Maps and MS Virtual Earth. In the future it will also provide a javascript interface to OpenStreetMap. The idea is that you can use the Google Maps API now, because it's great, but if their terms and conditions change, or they start serving ads in maps, or Yahoo has better maps, or whatever, then you can switch provider with one line of code. (We decided not to clone the Google API exactly, but it's very similar).

Clearly, it's a foot in the door for OpenStreetMap (which should suit open projects like Open Guides) but if you have a business model predicated on free maps from Google you might also be interested.

In order to make sure we're writing useful code, we'd like to offer to look at the Open Guides maps code (and hopefully convert it to Mapstraction) - can somebody point me at the right bit? Also, if anyone's interested in helping out, please visit our site and join the mailing list: www.mapstraction.com

Thanks for your attention,

Tom.