Community Mapping with XO-1.5s

[Nicholas Doiron]

Hola mapmakers!

As part of my Plan Ceibal work to get web activities playing nicely with
recent builds of Sugar, especially the XO-1.5, I have updated the Map
activity.

Download today: http://maptonomy.appspot.com/Map-12.xo

Your up-to-date XO-1, or any XO-1.5 (even HS), now can:
- Search and explore maps from Google and OpenStreetMap
- Write descriptions of places; plot lines and shapes
- Add photos, Wiki articles, olpcMAP dots, and WikiMapia places inside
your map view
- Use an online library to download maps used by firefighters and biologists
- Collaborate with other XOs on the same mesh/Jabber network

We have a few XO-1.5s going to a school in the Congo this summer, and they
are absolutely psyched about mapping! The same fixes will be in the
OfflineMap activity today or tomorrow.

Please write with any questions.

Regards,
Nick Doiron
Plan Ceibal
Montevideo, Uruguay

[Christoph Derndorfer]

Very cool stuff! Runs like a charm on an XO-1.5 w/ 11.2.0 build 16:-)

One small improvement would be to make the map view fill out the whole screen, at the moment there are black bars on both the left and right side of the screen. Also Google Maps and now touch-screen devices have accustomed many people (incl myself) to be able to move the map by clicking-and-dragging - any chance this can be implemented in the activity?

Oh, and one quick question (because I can't test it right now): What does the collaboration look like in the activity?

Cheers,

Christoph

 

--
Christoph Derndorfer
co-editor, olpcnews
url: www.olpcnews.com
e-mail: chri...@olpcnews.com

[Nicholas Doiron]

The original activity had the arrow buttons around the map frame, and I
find myself using them to quickly move the map. Increasing the size of
the picture for dragging would mean larger downloads and some JavaScript
work... right now I like that you can drag the map into the clipboard and
open it up in Write or something.

Collaboration shares the view, markers, and other map data. So several
users can add points and edit each other's descriptions. If one user
visits the map library or imports a Google Earth points map, the points
are shared with any connected laptops. Same thing for OfflineMap and mesh
networks.

Regards,
Nick Doiron

> --
> Help kids everywhere map their world, at http://olpcMAP.net !
>
>
> Or change your options / unsubscribe here:
> http://groups.google.com/group/olpcMAPmakers
>
>

[Christoph Derndorfer]

On Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 2:10 AM, Nicholas Doiron <ndo...@andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:

The original activity had the arrow buttons around the map frame, and I
find myself using them to quickly move the map.  Increasing the size of
the picture for dragging would mean larger downloads and some JavaScript
work... right now I like that you can drag the map into the clipboard and
open it up in Write or something.

Okay, that makes sense though one advantage I see with clicking-and-dragging is slightly better precision than with the arrows.

Also, with touch input for Sugar slowly but surely appearing on the horizon buttons draggable UI elements will likely be part of user's expectations down the road.

 

Collaboration shares the view, markers, and other map data.  So several
users can add points and edit each other's descriptions.  If one user
visits the map library or imports a Google Earth points map, the points
are shared with any connected laptops.  Same thing for OfflineMap and mesh
networks.

Sounds great, can't wait to try it would when in Uruguay:-)

Christoph

[Sandra Thaxter]

and dedication to this mapping application !!
Sandra Thaxter
www.smallsolutionsbigideas.org
san...@smallsolutionsbigideas.org
(617) 320-1098