The Department of Product & Systems Design Engineering – University of the Aegean has a maritime tracking web site that is a Google mashup of ship collision avoidance data. This is AIS data (What is AIS?) That is collected by VHF receivers feeding a PC connected to the I’net. The software used is FOSS and handles the NMEA (same as often used for a GPS to PC connection) reports.
Since receivers connected to the I’net are rather difficult to arrange mid-ocean, the mashup is best for coastlines and port areas. The website has a lot of pictures to go with ship names and course or position information.
The Wikipedia entry on the Automatic Identification System notes that the International Maritime Organization has condemned the irresponsible publication of AIS data as a safety issue.
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