Traveling Down the Information Backroad

One site that I didn’t show in my SCOCACON session because of time is Panoramio. This is a site I really like because it is all about geotagged landscape photos, and there are plenty of great pictures to be seen on the site. The geotagging features are by now fairly standard: either geotag your EXIF data using a GPS or Data logger, or use the Panoramio map to drag a picture to the proper point.

Panoramio is not nearly as community oriented as flickr, but you can search for photos by tags, places, or browsing a Google map. Searching is slightly strange as compared to other mapping sites. You can’t search for huntington wv but you can search for huntington and then click through a series of dropdown menus to get where you need to go. I think this needs to be improved. As far as I can tell, you can’t search for photos of a specific user, but once you find a photo that you like, you can click on the username to see all of that user’s photos. There is a link to download a KML of the photos, or to view on Google maps. Here is a link to my Panoramio photos in KML format:

My Panoramio Photos KML file

Here is a KML file of recently added/popular photos

Also in Google Earth you can turn on a Panoramio layer, by first going to the Layers panel in the left column, expand Geographic Web. and then check the box for Panoramio.

To view Panoramio photos on the Google Maps site, click the MyMaps tab, scroll down to Featured content, and then check the box for Photos from Panoramio. This feature, while useful is not as fast as viewing Panoramio photos in Google Earth.

I also want to point out that every panoramio photo that you see by using the layers in Google Earth or Google Maps are approved before they are added. The process took at least two monthe before some of my pictures were officially added. The approval process does not count when you are viewing a user’s gallery in KML. All of that user’s photos will show in their own KML file.

I think you’ll find that the photos in Panoramio are generally of a higher quality thean what you will find doing general searches for geotagged photos in flickr. I also like the Google Earth features.

technorati tags:panoramio, geotag, flickr, google earth, google maps, photography, kml, kmz, geoweb

With the end of SCOCACON and my upcoming session at eTech in February, I’ve added a new category to this blog called The Geoweb. I have some stuff related to my session to post, but first, here’s some new Google Maps features that have been added:

Terrain View
You can access the new terrain view by clicking it’s button on the far right. You may be wondering what happened to Hybrid view. It is now accessed by clicking the Satellite view. A dropdown checkbox will allow you to toggle whether you wish to see mapped roads and other features:

I’m sure some people will not like this change because you have to click twice to change from satellite to hybrid or vice-versa. I like it because the map is not cluttered at the top with too many buttons.

MyMaps Collaboration

The next new feature is that users of the MyMaps feature can collaborate with invited users. You access the collaborate feature by clicking a hyperlink in the left column of your map:

The collaborate link will open a new window that will look very familiar to users of Google Docs.

This is a great feature for teachers and students to work on projects together. While many schools don’t provide email accounts for students, a box can be checked to allow anyone to edit the map, and that could be used until a project is finished.

[tags]google maps, geotag, terrain, collaborate[/tags]

Yes, I dropped my “Al Gore wannabe” presentation and went back to Powerpoint for my session Tuesday afternoon at SCOCACON ’07. As I got into authoring my session, I realized that for the first time in any session I’ve done before, I’m going to have to do quite a bit of “live” demonstations using some desktop software and web 2.0 apps on the web, and the software I was working with isn’t really setup to go back and forth between other applications.

What’s going to make this even more interesting is how I handle it with my vision problems. It’s one thing to do bullet points and screenshots, but finding my way around stuff on my laptop is going to be challenging for me. I’m very self-conscious when people are waiting for me to complete a computing task. I just hope it doesn’t make me seem unprofessional.

Some other tidbits:

• I may try to do a blog/vidcast post from day one (Tuesday) of the conference.
• I purchased a Flip Video Ultra that I can use for the above  Some people are addicted to drugs or alcohol. For me it’s gadgets and Mountain Dew.
  
• The lights here at home are dimming as a result of charging all of the batteries I need for the Conference. OK, that’s a slight exaggeration.
• I have many new geo-related things to post about after I do my session
  

technorati tags:scoca, powerpoint, flip video ultra, vidcast, geotag

A page on Flickr for every place in the world « Flickr Blog

This is fickr’s new tool for viewing geotagged photos.I think it’s wonderful, and a great time killer. Viewing photos on the standard geotagged filckr map only shows you thumbnails that are sometimes hard to see, and you must click the thumbnail to see a larger versionof the photo.

The Places feature works by simply typing in a location. You see one large photo, two-rows-at-a -time thumbnails, “featured photographers of the area, and related flickr groups. Next to the large photo is a clickable arrow that will display a photo from the bottom rows in succession. If you mouse over to the right on the bottom rows, an arrow will appear that allows you to display the next two rows of geotagged photos.Amazingly to me, when I first searched for photos here in Huntington, a Photo of mine was displayed, and my flickr WV group was listed at the bottom. I’m not listed as a featured photographer. Looks like I need to take more pictures around town.

I searched other towns I’ve photographed, but what I really enjoyed was seeing what shots others have taken in the same area. One shot i particularly liked in Piketon, Ohio was a night shot of a train at a railroad crossing.

[tags]flickr places, photography, flickr, geotag, geotagging, map, flickr groups[/tags]

I found the MoFuse site last week, and it will take RSS feeds of your websites and convert them for “live” use on mobile device browsers. You can also add static content and a logo image to spruce up your mobile site. I was easily able to add the feed from this site, plus my flickr photo feed.

One nice addition that MoFuse supplies is a code snippet that you can drop into your blog’s header file that will automatically redirect mobile users to your MoFuse domain.

[tags]windows mobile, pocket pc, mofuse, wordpress[/tags]

The SCOCA Conference begins the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, and for the first time I’m nervous about my presentation and my photographic duties.

I’ve posted previously that I’m using new software to create my presentation. The software is good, but it takes a lot more time to create than using the old familiar Powerpoint. I’m also going to need to practice more because the timing is very different without bullet points. I also have been creating the presentation in a 16:9 (widescreen) ratio as opposed to the standard 4:3 ratio. and I’m not sure if it will look large enough on a standard slide screen. If you are attending the Conference, my session will have lots of information on tools I’ve held back mentioning on this blog, just so they will be new material in my talk.

My second job at the Conference is to take pictures. I’ll be honest here and tell you that most of my pictures from previous years have not been very good. Some of it I can blame on my eyesight, and the fact that I can’t take a lot of time like I do on most of my landscape shots to get things setup. Another part can be chalked up to not having the proper flash equipment. So, I’ve purchased some new equipment, and I’ve been doing a lot of reading on event photography in the hopes that I’ll improve this year. Next year is the 10th Anniversary of the SCOCA Conference. I plan to re-design the public conference site, and I want to have really nice pictures for graphic interest.

I also invited a fellow SCOCA employee, Holly, to take pictures. She purchased a Nikon D40 in the spring, setup a home studio, and has been taking some great baby portraits. With her help I’ll be able to take my HD camcorder and try to shoot some video.

I’m a nervous wreck.

technorati tags:scoca, conference, presentation, photography

Amazon: Reinventing the Book | Newsweek.com

Newsweek has a long article on the new Kindle eBook reader from Amazon, which also delves into what the future may hold. I particularly like this quote, which goes with discussion I see on my favorite blogs on how students learn in this century:

“Say you are trying to learn more about the Middle East, and you start reading a book, which claims that something happened in a particular event in Lebanon in ’81, where the author was using his view on what happened. But actually his view is not what [really] happened. There’s newspaper clippings on the event, there are other people who have written about it who disagree with him, there are other perspectives. The fact that all of that is at your fingertips and you can connect it together completely changes the way you do scholarship, or deep investigation of a subject. You’ll be able to get all the world’s information, all the books that have been published, all the world’s libraries.”

I’m all for a good eBook reader even though I have hundreds of paper books in my own library. The ability to store most of those books on a small carry everywhere dievice is really appealing to me. I also like the idea the the Kindle works on a cellular network and does not need to be coupled with a PC for transfer of material. The pricing structure of $9.99. for new and bestseller books could be a sweet spot for a lot of people.

I hope Amazon and/or Sony have success with their efforts. It’s an uphill battle, with a lot of resistance from people in my age group. I never see this mentioned, but one strike against eBooks is the fact that reference/history/art/photography which utilize lots of pictures can’t be read on these devices.

technorati tags:book, ebook, amazon, kindle, google, book search, reader

I thought this video was really effective. Here’s the description from YouTube:

“a short video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today – how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University. “

Here’s the YouTube Link where you can get a higher quality quicktime version (timed out on me):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

technorati tags:students, learning, education, technology

In August I received a high-dollar speeding ticket. It was in an area of a speed trap that I’m familiar with, but I had my mind on other things. I decided that what I needed to do(besides paying more attention) was to create a proximity alert for my Garmin Nuvi 660. When uploaded to your GPS, proximity alerts will flash a warning when you get near to the waypoint on the map. There are a couple of ways to do this for Garmin devices, and I’m going to show you the free (but slightly more convoluted) method. You’ll need to use three tools, two of which can be used online. The third tool is Garmin POI loader (Windows only), a desktop application and a free download.

Step One – Create a Google MyMap

1. Go to Google Maps
2. Click the MyMaps tab and then click the create new map hyperlink (you may need to create a Google account)
3. Give your map a name
4. On the map you will see four icons next to the map zoom control. Click the second icon (the marker) and drag it to the proper point on the map:
5. 
6. Give the marker a name – I gave mine the speed limit of the area:
7. 
8. After you’ve named the marker, save the map.
9. Test the map to see if it is correct
10. At the top right of the map click the link to this page hyperlink and then press CTRL-C to copy the link.
11. At this point you may need to close your browser and re-open it to make sure Step Two works properly.

Step Two – Download the GPX file from takitwithme

1. Re-open your browser and go to takitwithme
2. Paste the link from your Google MyMaps into the input box and then click Load MyMap. When the map loads, click Download GPX. To make things easy the first time you do this, save the GPX file by itself into an empty folder on your Desktop.

Step Three – Use POI Loader

1. Hook your nuvi up via its USB connection
2. Open POI Loader. The program will find your Garmin device.
3. After the device is found, click Next and then choose to Install new Custom POIs. Click Next.
4. Choose the directory where you saved the GPX file, and then set the mode to Manual.
5. 
6. Click Next. You have a couple of choices on the next screen:
7. 
8. Check This file contains proximity alert points

I chose to set my alert when I get within 300 feet of the marker. Using this method, I could have a MyMaps file with several different speed limit alerts, and I would always be notifed within 300 Feet. The first method would only allow you to create a MyMaps file with all the same speed limits.

Click Next and the marker will be sent to your nuvi. You’ll find it by tapping Where to?/Extras/Custom POIs. You don’t need to do anything else. With the proximity alert set, your nuvi will automatically alert you when you get close to the spot. There is no need to tap GO!, because the GPS will add proximity alerts to the map for you. The alerts will also work whether you have set a route or not.

That’s it. It’s fairly easy to do this and it costs you nothing, plus you get the benefit of safer driving.

[tags]garmin nuvi, gps, poi, proximity alert, takitwithme, waypoint, google maps, poi loader[/tags]

This post’s title is a close quote from an old 7Up commercial featuring an aging hippy, his woman “Moon Baby”, and a Volkswagen Minivan. I thought I might be able to find it on YouTube, but had no luck after spending almost 10 seconds in my search effort.

I was going to write a cry baby post about my difficulties coding the map project, but you know what? I’ll get through it in time. The Google API is not that difficult, but right now I’m having trouble coding the Javascript portions of the project, because I don’t know the language very well. The light will come on, but not as quickly as I anticipated.

What i’m learning as I code this project is that this is a wonderful and unique way to display and use data. In yesterday’s post I showed you the Get vCard link, which I added almost as an afterthought of something that might be nice. This little addition showed me that there is a lot more potential in this application than i first envisioned, some of which I’m sure I haven’t considered yet. I’m open to suggestions, so please leave a comment if you have an idea.  I’ve got more data to add from ODE, plus technical information of equipment and IP/circuit information for each building in one of the tabs. Other things to be added are:

• Driving Directions
• Web site URL for each building (also included in vCard)
  
• Location data direct download to Garmin Devices
• Location data as GPX format file that almost any GPS can import
• Ouput the application as a KML downloadable file
• Possibly allow demographic data to be downloaded as an Excel file

One major thing that I’m probably going to drop is the contact list for each building. I just don’t see how we could keep something like that updated. Add to that the fact that some of the location data is already out of date as districts construct new buildings. We have limited resources at SCOCA and can’t assign anyone as the official map updater. The map will be updated probably once a year. I think the contacts list would have been great, coupled with the ability to download a vCard for anyone on the list, but I just don’t think it is possible at this time. Maybe someone at ODE will write a statewide list that I can hook into at some point.

One other facet of this project that I really like is how AJAX refines a web app. Sure, the ability to click a link to see the full size image of a building is only eye candy, but what’s great is that there are no page reloads. Everything can be accessed and used from the main map page.

I’ve still got a lot of learning to do: the Garmin API, and KML and GPX file format specifications. As Emil Faber said: “Knowledge is Good”.

technorati tags:google maps api, kml, gpx, geotag