🤖 AI Summary
This paper addresses the lack of lightweight, privacy-preserving, and decentralized spatial referencing mechanisms on the Internet. We propose Pingmark—a plain-text-based, universal spatial semantics protocol. Pingmark uses the trigger symbol “!@” to encode physical locations as coordinate-free, user-identifier-free short textual strings (e.g., `!@Zhongguancun Tower, Beijing`). Clients resolve these strings locally and instantaneously into standardized URLs by invoking open map APIs, requiring no registration or reliance on proprietary mapping services. Its key innovation lies in abstracting geographic context into human-readable, shareable, and machine-parsable text primitives—extended with optional timestamps for spatiotemporal expressiveness. We have completed the Pingmark Protocol Specification (PPS) v0.1 and implemented a reference parser, validating its usability across diverse scenarios. This work lays the foundation for an open, interoperable spatial semantics infrastructure.
📝 Abstract
Pingmark defines a universal textual protocol for expressing spatial context through a minimal symbol: !@. Rather than embedding coordinates or using proprietary map links, Pingmark introduces a semantic trigger that compliant client applications interpret to generate a standardized resolver link of the form https://pingmark.me/lat/lon/[timestamp]. This allows location expression to function like existing textual conventions - @ for identity or # for topics - but for physical space. The protocol requires no user registration, relies on open mapping technologies, and protects privacy by generating location data ephemerally and locally. This paper presents the motivation, syntax, and design of the Pingmark Protocol Specification (PPS v0.1), its reference resolver implementation, and the long-term goal of establishing Pingmark as an open Internet standard for spatial mentions.