I went back to the ESRI website to see if I could find out how much it would cost to download the Arc GIS program and it looks like I have to ask for a quote, but I found that I could open a free public account where I can create, store and manage maps, apps and data, and share data with others as long it was personal and not for commercial purposes. I want to see if I can completely build a community map without the big player ESRI, so I’ll keep this opportunity in reserve for now.
I searched on Google for how I could “find the location of a photo taken on my phone” which took me to sites like Google maps that would show me the location but did not give me the map coordinates for the spot . I mentioned what I wanted to do to a friend and she told me it was just a matter of going into photo settings on my phone. My cell phone is an older model smartphone (Google Nexus 5) but it’s brand new to me and I’m still trying to figure out how it works. I opened photo settings and checked “show map coordinates”, then took a photo and checked the photo details and there they were. Then I sent a photo to myself to see if map coordinates follow to my computer and found they didn’t. I may find an app for that! It turns out that I can get the map coordinates off of the Google map by placing my cursor on the location and looking on the map legend for the coordinates. So now I know how to get map coordinated on my phone in two ways but I still don’t know how to text and that the real purpose I got the phone for.
Next I looked at Idealware.org. It says it is “Helping Nonprofits Make Smart Technology Decisions”. On its webpage A Few Good Mapping and GIS Tools the first suggestion is to set priorities: set goals, define your audience, identify your data, and plan your delivery format. So this is what I want to do:
Goals – Encourage the community to learn and share knowledge about all aspects of shellfish ( species, locations, ecology, fishing, farming, processing, environmental impacts, concerns) in Baynes Sound (the most productive area of BC) in order to appreciate the importance of both the natural ecosystem and the shellfish industry, that will hopefully lead to actions to protect and support them.
Audience – general public. With the ubiquity of online mapping systems I think the general public should be able to understand and use the map as it is.
Data – A map of Baynes Sound but which one, the Atlas of Canada or Google? Data overlays or layers may include tourist information, ocean bottom topography, aids and obstructions to navigation, shellfish farms; input from public on shellfish sightings.
Delivery format – a dynamic tool that the audience can manipulate and a tool for ongoing analysis.
Idealware suggested using My Maps to import data sets to Google Maps or a program called Mapbuilder that would allow me to import data and do other map-building tasks so I think I’ll try Mapbuilder next.
