» #heweb09 HighEdWeb Conference, “Interactive Maps: making them work for you” 10/6/2009
Joel Herron, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. “Interactive Maps: making them work for you.”
Early Beginnings
The mousetrap of interactive maps (create pic of mousetrap game)
The Issues at UWW
- Incorrect information
- Variety of different maps
- Wasting paper
- Rarely updated
- Outdated maps
- Never ending construction
The Approach
- Collecting and organizing the data
- Getting started
- Putting it all together
- Keeping it going
Collecting the gum drop buttons
[pic of Candy Land]
What is it Going to do?
- What data types will your map have?
- buildings, parking, dining, wireless access, accessibility…
- Find your Keymaster!
- Who owns your data?
- What format is it in?
- Conversion time
- How often is it updated?
- Ensure you get the freshest data
- Partnerships
- Hope and plead
- Chocolate Cake, Cigarettes?
Actually has someone on campus that if he wants a new map he has to bring a chocolate cake.
It’s all in how you sort it out
Data model needs to suit your goals
- Define your base unit
- Building
- Office
- Generic space
- Extend the base unit
- add services
- sub locations / depending on your base unit
Propeller Hat Moment: Getting the goods
- Geocoding and reverse geocoding
- Google: via Mobile API
- …
Baby Steps
[pic of Sorry]
Think Big, Start Small
Tools of the trade
- Use what you know
- Pick a service that works how you work
- The 800 lb Gorilla: Google Maps API
- The contenders: Yahoo! Maps, MapQuest
- Pay to Play: Bing Maps
- BYOM: Bring your own map
Iterative to succeed
- Plan out a cycle
- Timeline you can keep to
- Features per cycle manageable
- Why it works
- Increase quality
- Avoids burnouts
- Keep them coming back
KISS your interface not your Palm
- Keeping it clean
- Let your data present itself
- Search is your friend make him presentable
- Tagging
- Full text searches
Keeping it going
[pic of shoots and ladders]
Custom Maps
- Leverage your data
- Mashup your services
- // I want to know where I can study and have wifi at the same time
- Examples
- Overlays: parking maps, special events, construction zones
- Data driven: accessibility, POI, mashup career data
- Sky is the limit
One Map to rule them all
- Single point of data
- Eliminate outdated maps
- Be green, save a tree
- Easily control when maps are available
Contact
Joel Herron
@h3r2on