Focus

09Nov08

Some feedback I have been given thus far is that my project is not focused enough. So with that in mind I’ve decided to focus down my project to be just specific tool for creating a now and then map of battlefields keeping an eye on creating the broader ideas environment in the longer term.

I’m working on designing my mock up and I’ll post that before class tomorrow. But I’ve been looking at some sites that provide some food for thought about how I’d like to do this.

• ArcGIS
• Google Earth
• Google Maps
• Open Street Map
• Platial
• TimeMap
• Yahoo Map Mixer
• National Geographic Map Machine
• USGS

These are but a few online mapping sites that are available online.  I’m sure I will find many more resources for the final grant proposal, but I think as a means to really find my own niche, this has been a helpful sampling. As I search through these sites there are some elements I like.

There are , of course elements like Digital Globe that are available for purchase. This is not what I hope to accomplish.

I really liked the GIS site and the National Geographic Map Machine site for what seems to be my ability to locate maps.  But the Yahoo map mixer is just the overlay function I’m looking for-so that is closer to what I hope to do.

I’m not finding anything close to what I hope to create and that gives me a little hope in terms of being innovative with this idea for a tool. So the question is, how do I do this?  My proposed solution is to create a search function from my database of maps that I’ve downloaded from, for example, The Library  of Congress,  and have available and then utilize, for example (though not written in stone) a satellite imagery tool such as Google Earth and  then have the two maps overlayed, with a click of the mouse.

For example I can find in the Library of Congress a map form 1875 (one year before Custer’s last stand):

Little Big Horn area of Montana 1875

Followed by the google earth satellite image of the same:

Google Earth

So once we have these two set, the tool would overlay these two maps.  Interestingly, finding these two maps and sizing it, took me a little over an hour.  The Yahoo tool only will allow you to upload only one map to compare it to a yahoo map, I was hoping it would allow me to take the above images and overlay them- that was disappointing.

So this is where the project is, and I’m hopeful that I’m closer than I was a day ago.

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