Week 12, Thing 19 - Online Mapping & Thing 20 - GIS

Welcome to Week 12, Things 19 & 20 After completing Things 19 and 20, you will have…

Learned about Online mapping, GIS, and explored an online mapping tool called "Community Walk." You will have also explored other online mapping tools on your own and discovered more what GIS is and how it’s being used by our library patrons.

What is online Mapping & GIS?

Online mapping tools such as "Google maps" & "Google Earth" have made it easier for people to find their destination quicker without the hassle of buying and then struggling to search a huge paper map. Online mapping tools can be downloaded to individual cell phones for convenient access while driving to a location.

A (Geographic Information System) or (Geospatial information system) is a set of tools that captures, stores, analyzes, manages, and presents data that are linked to location(s) (From Wikipedia.) For example: If you wanted to map certain locations in the world and indicate where a disease is most prevalent in that country, this is possible using GIS software.

In our library, we have a GIS librarian who can help patrons get this type of information. Many units on campus are using this technology for their research, thus the importance of GIS in the library.

Let’s try using a mapping tool called "Community Walk." "Community Walk" is a website that is dedicated to providing a powerful, yet easy interface for creating informational, interactive, and engaging maps. It will create fun maps, as well as professional maps. You can add photos or videos to your map as well. Today we are going to create a fun map! Say you have a friend who has just moved to Saskatoon and loves Indian food. If you want to give him/her a map of all the Indian restaurants in Saskatoon, you can use "Community Walk!"

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Go to the Community Walk website.

2. Click on the login link on the top right hand corner of the page and then on the next page, click on the ‘Register’ link and signup by filling in the required information (make sure you check the box for the terms of service.)

3. Once you have signed up, you have to go to your email and confirm your registration.

4. Once you have confirmed your registration, you should be able to log into Community Walk with your username and password.

Now that you are registered- let's create a map!

5. When you now log in to "Community Walk", it should open to a box that says “[your name’s] maps”. Under the title section on the left hand side of the page, click the “Create New Map" button.

6. It is up to you to decide what type of map you want to create. For example: Create a map of all the Indian restaurants in Saskatoon. You can use this example but try to think of one of your own. (favourite stores, all the Tim Hortons in Saskatoon, etc..)

7. Next, there will be a pop up that asks you "Where do you want to start your map?"Choose a place, e.g. Saskatoon, SK.

8. After typing in your location, click on the "next" button. It will now ask you if your starting point is correct, if so, select it and click on the "next" button. Now decide if your map will be "published" or "shareable" or "private." I would choose “shareable” for now. You don’t want to publish anything at this point. Select "shareable" and click on the "next" button.

9. Add a title to your Map- e.g. “Indian Restaurants in Saskatoon”. Click on the“finish” button. You can change your title anytime- so don’t worry about it too much

10. Once you see the map of Saskatoon come up, "Click here to add your first marker to the map!" link under the Categorized Markers section on the left hand side of the page.

11. Fill in the information when the "Add Marker" box pops up. Put in the title of the first Indian restaurant in the "by searching" section. Type 'India Palace' and then click on the "search" link. When the address comes up, select the correct address. If the address isn't found, you can add your own address by using the rest of the "Add Marker" box options.

12. The next step is to add information about this restaurant when the information box pops up. e.g. Category-Restaurants, Subcategory- Indian food, Description- You can comment about the restaurant and then click on the save button. Now other people looking at your map can also add comments about the restaurants in the "add a comment section". You can also add a photo. To do this, click on "Add photo" button and a pop up will appear. Click on one of the "Browse" buttons and find a photo you want to add. Note: You have to have a photo saved somewhere on your computer before you do this step. Once you have selected a photo, click on the "save" button to upload the photo. If you want to delete the photo, just click on "delete" button. Then click on "back to main view" to edit other content. Note: You might have to hit the refresh button to see the photo deleted on the left hand side of the map.

13. Click on "Add Marker" at the top of the map to add another restaurant e.g. 'Spicy Bite Restaurant'. You can keep repeating steps 11 &12 for how many restaurants you want to add to your map. (Click on the link below to see an example of the map being created)

Community Walk Map - Indian Restaurants in Saskatoon

What else can you do with Community Walk?

14. You can also start a path between all your restaurants to see how far the distances are from each place by clicking on "Start a Path" at the top of the map. You can also share your map with other people by clicking on "Share/Export" tab at the top of the map. This is where you can email your map or look at it in "Google Earth" (see information below). You can also look at your map using the map feature or satellite feature (top right side of the map).
15. Also if you click on one of your locations, e.g. 'India Palace'- you can get directions. Click on the'India Palace' marker. Click on the "from here" link next to "Directions:". Then under the "Ending At:" section, select the “street address with City & State” option. Type in your home address (including street and city). Then click on the “Get directions” button. This will link you to "Google Maps" (see information below) and gives you information on how to get from the restaurant to your house (or visa versa).
16. Once you are finished using "Community Walk" you can save the maps you create and they will be in the "My Maps"section when you log in again.
17. Have fun!

Now Blog!

Blog about your experience using Community Walk or other online mapping tools. Are these tools useful? Do you have any experience using GIS?

Optional: If you haven’t tried Google Maps yet, try it out. Find the directions from your house to the University. http://maps.google.com/ Try adding a Google Map of your hometown on your blog. Here is a YouTube video to show you how to do this.

** You can download Google Earth to your computer (permission might be required at the University Library to download Google Earth so if you can't at work, download it on your home computer) and check out where you live!

***Do you have a mobile device? Check out Locational Apps, such as Foursquare, for your mobile device. Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places are like seeing a facebook status, but with a location attached. When you sign in to a location, you can see where your friends are too. There are fun little games, prizes and coupons with these apps as well to encourage people to sign in to places. They are available as apps for most smartphones. http://mashable.com/2009/12/25/foursquare-gowalla/

Further Reading about GIS…. http://www.gis.com/content/what-gis.  Or talk with Jasmine Hoover, our GIS Librarian at the University Library.

***Don't forget to mark this week's activity as complete in the 23 Things Work Completed Spreadsheet so you can qualify for our grand prize draw.