[OpenLayers-Users] open WMS for Germany (or using GMap's Satellite data?)

[Jens Nachtigall]

> > getting too deep into the GMap trap). The problem is where I could get a
> > WMS for Germany/Switzerland/Austria from, since as far as I know there
> > is no good public geographical data available for these countries.
>
> Jens, the Google Maps layers are pretty robust in version 2.0 of
> OpenLayers.

Good to know :)

> If you're looking specifically for free data, then you might need to lobby
> Bundesrepublik Deutschland, maybe through http://www.bgr.bund.de, and
> similar organizations in neighboring countries.

I already signed http://petition.publicgeodata.org/ , and can only ask 
everyone to do the same. http://publicgeodata.org/ has more information about 
an effort to lobby the European Council to allow its citizens to use the 
publically gathered geodata to be used for free (as it is in the US). 

> If you're building a business on this data, you might want a commercial
> service provider with good maps.  We've begun to add layers based on
> providers who offer or intend to offer real "service level agreements" for
> commercial use:
>
> 	http://openlayers.org/gallery/multiple.html

Nice! The data is for a non-commercial project (http://freifunk.net [german 
free networks initiative], where people should be able to mark wireless 
routers / access points on a map. 

> Several of these additions are still in alpha and beta, so please help
> test and repair them.  Many of the issues relate to problems inside the
> service providers APIs, so dialoging with them directly is necessary.

I've I find a bug, I will at least report it ;-)

> map24 has good maps for your countries of interest.  Currently, their API
> is woefully incomplete: lacks a pixel-->coords method.  Perhaps you'd like
> to pursue a dialog with them so it can be used in OpenLayers?

Using map24 would probably have the same disadvatages as using Google Maps, as 
far as http://devnet.map24.com/manuals/doku.php?id=ajax:1.0:faq tells me.


Jens