Why Soundtrails Version 2.0 May Be Adopting KML As Its Format For GeoSpacial Audio Experiences

And a Good First Introduction to the KML GeoSpacial Format

A Little Bit About Soundtrails

Soundtrails is a cultural and tourism app in the geo-locative storytelling and place making genre (yes, that is a genre).

The Soundtrails app was originally released into the app stores in 2015.

https://soundtrails.com.au/

This article describes (some of) the decision (-making process) for utilising KML as the data format for the 2020 rebuild of the Soundtrails platform.

Soundtrails utilised a proprietary format for its API of “soundtrail” and “hotspot” data, but for the rebuild we want a more open approach.

Why Use KML

In 2020 we are looking at utilising the KML (Keyhole Markup Language) originally developed by Google, but later adopted by the OGM (Open Geospatial Consortium).

The reasons given on the OGM site for accepting KML reflect the reasons Soundtrails is looking into using the standard :

• That there be one international standard language for expressing geographic annotation and visualisation on existing or future web-based online and mobile maps (2d)…