How to start learning MAP (or spatial?)

Question

I'm newbie in map (or spatial data?) technology. For starting point, I want to know the terms, what it is, how it work. I also want to kno how tostore map data(lat, long, etc).

Maybe, some simple (for newbie) tutorial and down to earth book could help, as I don't know anything about it. Another suggestion and tips/trick when working with maps also welcome.

Answer 1

I think the explanations on kowoma.de will help you. I have used it in a lecture called "Mobile Computing" and it explains the basics very well.

Part of it is available in English, too (especially the introduction to GPS and lat/longitude). Other important topics like map projections and reference systems are not (yet?) translated (see German version here).

Answer 2

I have an example showing how to calculate distance using Spatial Data methods in SQL Server 2008. This is just a very basic tutorial, though. But is does take you step-by-step through adding a geography type to a table, updating it with latitude / longitude coordinates, where to obtain some data that translates zip codes to latitude / longitude and the SQL UPDATE statements for getting this into your database, and the SQL query for calculating distance.

The scenario it illustrates is that you want to add a "find nearest store near you" type feature to your client's web site, though it only takes you to the point of creating a SQL query for this purpose.

This tutorial is nothing fancy, though, just a very brief "how to" guide. Also, I wrote it before SQL 2012 came out, using SQL Server 2008 in the examples, so it may need some revision (which I plan to do when I get some more free time). It is on my web site here:

http://www.scottreis.com/Spatial-Data-What-Is-It.aspx