The web is built upon a small set of languages that are present everywhere. Besides HTML, Javascript is the most common technology around here. So it is not a surprise that web cartography adapts this technology and uses the native javascript object type to store its vector data. The specification is called GeoJSON (for Javascript Object Notation) and extends the JSON model with geometry fields. But if you ever needed to write some lines of Javascript, you’ll know that it’s brackets can drive you crazy. So why would someone want to write table-like structures in such a quirky format? The simple answer is: Parsing is easy with the standard web tools. But if you want to write it on your own, you are normally tied to use a full fledged GIS System to save the geo-objects as GeoJSON file.
This is now over. Tom MacWright from Mapbox has written a nice and clean Web-Editor for GeoJSON Data where you can create, edit and save your GeoJSON-Layers without opening QGIS, ArcGIS or whatever GIS you are normally using, if any. It uses the Mapbox Streets Base Layer and Leaflet as map viewer and editor. Besides, you can edit the meta data, paste in your own GeoJson, download your work as a file or save it as a Github Gist (Code Snippet), where you can store it and link it online.
