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Mapping With Google Hangout On Air June 26, 2013
Tina Ornduff: Good morning. Welcome to the mapping with Google Course Showcase. I'm Tina
Ornduff and I'm here with Google Earth instructor Peter Birch, Google Street View Galapagos
Trekker, Karin Tuxen-Bettman and our KML expert, Sean Askay.
Thank you all for joining us. >>> Happy to be here.
Peter: Today, we're going to take a closer look at some of the final projects for Google
Earth and Google Maps that students have submitted to us on Moderator. We had thousands of votes
for over 100 submissions, and we've selected a handful of the projects that we really like.
So to help us, we've asked our two Geo enthusiasts to highlight some of the more impressive submissions.
But before we get started, I guess we have some questions for our guests.
Tina: Yeah, I just want to remind the audience that if you have questions for any of us in
the studio, you can post them to the comment streams on YouTube or in Google+, wherever
you're tuning in. And we also have a live transcription link for those of you who prefer
to follow along via text. Peter: A couple of housekeeping items as well
about the course. The first one is that the course certificates
will be accessible on the Mapping with Google course site until midnight Pacific time. Be
sure to download certificate to drive as a screen capture or PDF before that time. And
then starting tomorrow, the site will continue to have course videos and activities for your
reference, but the live support on the forums and Google+ is going to end today.
Looks like we have a couple of Moderator questions. Let's get to those first.
So the first one is from Habitamu from Ethiopia, who writes: I completed both Google Maps and
Google Earth projects successfully. All right. That's great!
However, when I tried to save the certificate as an image, it cuts the top and bottom parts.
Could you send me another one that could be downloaded without a problem?
Tina, what should Habitamu do? >>Tina: Sorry to hear that you're having some
trouble. But congratulations on completing the course.
Students have mentioned this on Google+ and on the course forum, too.
So the best thing to do is use a basic screen capture shortcut like Command+Shift+4 on a
Mac or function insert on most PCs to save the certificate as a complete image. And then
you can also use the print screen button if your PC has this on the keyboard.
>>Peter: Great. So looks like we have another question, from MC in Sardinia.
The question is, is it possible to extend the maximum limit of 26 markers on Google
Maps? Karin: Thank you. Good question, Peter. Good
question, MC. So there is a maximum of 1,000 markers on
any Google Maps Engine Lite map that you would create. You guys all learned how to import
spreadsheets to Google Maps Engine Lite, and each spreadsheet can have a 100 points maximum.
So you can import three spreadsheets to have three different layers of 100 each. That's
300. But then you can manually add points and lines and shapes up to 1,000. So your
-- any given map has a maximum of 1,000. And you can find more helpful tips at the
support site, support.google.com. Peter: Great.
Just one last question before we get going. This is from ASD in Washington state.
They ask, how are satellite images of houses, schools, et cetera determined? For example,
one house has a picture, another house is from an earlier time rather than being current.
This is a good question. This is something that we get a lot from people of how do we
composite our different imagery. So, you know, we like to present this sort
of singular view of the entire world. But what actually is happening is, it's a quiltwork
of many different images that we stitch together. And some images might be taken in the last
month, some might be from several months ago, some might be from several years ago. And
then we basically do the best to provide the best image possible for our users. So what
may happen is you might actually have two images from two different time periods next
to each other. And the next time we refresh them, we may
end up replacing or refreshing the whole area. So that's just sort of the nature of when
we use aerial and satellite imagery to create this sort of seamless mosaic of the globe.
All right. Well, so since we've been talking about Earth, let's get started on the Earth
showcase with some of the great Earth projects that the students have submitted.
So we have Sean Askay with us here. Sean is kind of one of the resident experts for KML.
Sean, you've done some amazing tours, like the moon tour is one that's, like, really
one of my favorites. You created the Spreadsheet Mapper, even done a bunch of tutorials as
part of the outreach team. You did the map (indiscernible), all sorts of great stuff.
So I'm really excited to have you here. And Sean and I have looked through a bunch
of the different projects, and we're really excited about the submissions.
So let's start. What's one you really like, Sean?
Sean: Definitely. So you guys did a great would be with these tours.
One of my favorites is one called The Gates of the Villa Borghese. So we're going to go
ahead and screencast this so you guys can watch.
Peter: We think that's what it says, I Portali di Villa Borghese. We think that's what that
means. But it's great having -- The content here is actually in Italian. So we don't speak
Italian, but we're going to do our best. Sean: So this is a pretty neat tour.
Basically, it goes around these -- this villa in Rome and kind of points out, if you're
going to visit, where to park, and the walking tour, and these beautiful gates that are all
around the park. So I'm going to play a clip of this tour live.
And you guys will be able to take a look at it in a sec, and we'll follow along.
So one of the things I really like about this tour is that the author, Andrea, did a really
good job providing views to give you context on where this is. When you start the tour,
you're looking at the whole world, then you fly into Italy, and then into Rome, and then
finally this area. >>Peter: See how they've got some bloom pops
going in here. And then something else I really liked about this is that just in a second,
we'll start here. We have a nice camera motion. Also, as part of the tour -- I don't know
if we caught it there -- but there's also -- they turn on and off some of the different
place marks so the view isn't as cluttered, instead of having everything on, it's I'm
going to show you this point and this point. So taking advantage of the fact if you change
the visibility of a feature when you're recording a tour, that will be captured. I really liked
that. Sean: Yeah. And great use of icons as well,
different color icons, using the letters to kind of show A, B, C, get an idea of the order
of the tour. So I really like that as well. There were some great photos in there as well.
Do you have any suggestions? Peter: A couple other things I like about
this, too, is, also, there's multiple tours in here; right? So, obviously, the easiest
thing to do is you just create one tour that kind of captures all of it (dropped audio)
into particular sections. And Andrea here actually created a series of subtours. Also
the way the content is organized in the -- in the left-hand panel, it's really clean and
organized and things are placed into folders. So I think that's really an effective use.
In terms of some of the improvements, I think one would be, you know, potentially going
into Street View, because this is, you know, highlighting the gates or the entrances into
this villa where we have some really great Street View imagery of those locations. So
I think that might be something that could really help.
Sean: Definitely. As well, there's a nice walking path line here. And I think if you
use the styles to kind of make that line a little wider, it might pop out a little more
and show people where they're going along that tour.
Peter: Cool. Sean: Any other comments?
Peter: Yeah, I mean, I think, overall, this is something that, you know, I think is a
really great job. It's really beautiful. The -- all the different camera motions and -- you
know, it's also -- this is really, you know, helping users out, because it's, like, I want
to tell you about this location, right, this villa, many people probably have never heard
of it, they don't know what it's like. And this really gives a great overview and provides
that geographic context of what this place really might look like.
Sean: Definitely. Peter: What else have you got?
Sean: So there's another tour that was really interesting. This one comes from Andrea Wilson
Vasquez from Minneapolis, Minnesota. And this is a tour that --
Peter: Were all the tours submitted by Andrea? Sean: This is a different Andrea.
[ Laughter ] Peter: That wasn't a criteria for the course.
Sean: No. So this one is a really interesting tour that
takes you through different urban, suburban, and rural areas on the map. It's part of a
lesson plan, I think, for her class. She provides really nice audio narration.
Unfortunately, you can't hear that here in the Hangout, but you can watch it yourself.
And then we fly to different parts of the globe. She does a great job jumping into Street
View in a couple locations to give you an idea of what the area looks like, and so the
kids in the class can identify, you know, is this a city, is this more rural.
Peter: Awesome. Yeah, in fact, here it is right now. We just
did the Street View transition. So that's something that we didn't really highlight
in the class. It's a little bit of an advanced feature. But the fact that when you go into
Street View and come out, that's actually captured as part of the tour, and that way,
you can really just guide the user -- you know, the whole idea of creating a tour is
you're helping guide the user through this vast world, which can be sometimes confusing
and hard to navigate. And I really love that. What's next?
Sean: All right. Let's check out the next one. This one comes --
Peter: Looks like it's from Gary M. from -- it's a Nepal trek.
Sean: And this is basically an Annapurna circuit tour, walking tour, that he did. Really nice
map, just the map itself. Great icons, great styling. You can see the path that they took
in red. Let's go ahead and play the tour and see what
it looks like. Another nice thing about this tour is that,
again, we're providing context of where Nepal is in the world before we fly into the actual
tour. And we also have some great photos along the way.
So I'll fast forward here a little bit, and then we'll fly in.
Peter: It's nice that there's an outline of the area. That's something that really helps,
is that you can -- because you're looking at all the satellite imagery, it can be hard
to know what you're talking about. So using polygons and outlines and other stuff like
that to really focus the viewer's attention and let you know what you're talking about
is really helpful. Sean: Absolutely.
Peter: That's a beautiful picture, too. Sean: So let's watch a bit more of the tour.
I'll fast forward. And you can see this takes you step by step
through this guy's journey through Nepal, showing you more interesting photos along
the way. Fast forward a little bit more. Peter: Nice.
Sean: Yeah, very cool. One other thing I really like is that the
views that Gary set have, like, a nice tilt. Obviously, Nepal, the Himalayas, these big
mountains, you want to show the topography. So he did a nice job setting the view for
each of the place marks to show off all the 3D.
Peter: Great. What else have we got? Sean: All right. Let's check out another tour.
The next one is showcasing tide pools here in California.
Peter: What is that? That's, like, a -- is that a crawdad or something?
Sean: It's an awesome crab or something. This is a great use of custom icons instead of
using the ones Google provides, I'm assuming that our author, Candace Nast, from Cupertino,
actually drew her own icons and then used them in Google Earth.
Peter: Awesome. Sean: Here we are just going to the different
tide pools in the Bay Area. Peter: I grew up in the Bay Area, and I used
to love going to tide pools. As a kid, it was so much fun. So it's pretty interesting
seeing someone actually kind of use Earth now as a way of showing where some of these
great tide pools are. Sean: Exactly.
Peter: Okay. What else? Sean: Let's check out the next one. This one
-- Peter: We've got all sorts of great things
to look through here. Sean: Definitely. This one is an archaeological
tour of Portimao in Lisbon, Lisboa, in Portugal. Peter: This is from looks like Avataide from
Lisbon. Sean: Yep.
One of the nice things about this tour which we're seeing right now is that we're showing
the proximity of different archaeological sites to one another. So, for example, we
flew into this one ruin, and then I assume the author used the measure tool to measure
the distance between these two locations and drew a line to show you that distance.
Peter: That's nice. It shows you how far it is from one location. That's really like that
camera sort of rotation around it. That's really nice.
Sean: Yeah. Peter: And the measure tool is really one
of the great things of Earth. You can actually see how far is it from here to here, and it
will actual measure over the terrain. So it's one of the great features. It's great to see
one of the students using that idea as part of one of their tours.
Sean: Definitely. This is a great tour. And then we'll have one more that we'll show
off here. Peter: Yeah. This is actually --
Sean: This is your favorite. Peter: This is my favorite. This is one -- you
know, granted, we have a couple of ones here from Everest region. I'm a little bit biased
towards the mountains and trekking, because that's a big hobby of mine, and the sample
tour I did for the course was related to some mountainneering that I had done with some
friends. But there's a few things I really like about
this. One is, as you mentioned with the Annapurna tour as well, this is a really visually stunning
area, and I think showing this 3D tour, it really is a -- you get this cinematic experience.
You feel like you're really flying up the mountain, and it's just very visually compelling.
The other thing I really like about this is, it's telling a story; right? This is about
the 60th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's trek to the summit of
Everest. It's educational. It's storytelling in a visual context. And that's really the
essence of what tours and Earth are about. It's about how can you tell your story in
a way that makes it visually compelling and you can really learn a lot about it.
Some other things I really like about this is that there's actually -- I don't know if
you noticed that when these balloons pop, there's actually little audio clips. So this
is some advanced tour editing, balloon editing that the author has done here where, basically,
they've actually included some Flash audio player. It's essentially a -- you know, basically,
a dialogue of as Sir Edmund Hillary went up the mountain, kind of talking about looking
each step so you can feel like you're going along with them.
Sean: It's cool. I think it's his voice from a radio interview he did.
A couple other things I really like, great use of icons, the different camps along the
way and the altitudes they're at so you can see how much vertical altitude they're gaining.
Really good use of icons and colors. Peter: There's two different icon types here,
one of which is where there is an audio clip, which are the green tents, I believe. And
then the red ones are just kind of markers, in this case, it looks like they're marking
significant peaks and other things so the user can know a little bit about expectations
of what they'll get when they -- if they choose to pause the door and kind of click around.
But that's also one area of maybe a recommendation would be that I don't really know that there's
going to be audio as I start exploring some of these clips. In the tour, when I open it
up, I see that. But also if you want to spend the time and create a custom icon that maybe
has a little microphone or something on it, that way the viewer knows there's going to
be some audio along here. That's something I might want to pay attention to.
>>Sean: Very cool. I think that's a great suggestion.
Another one I had was, it would be interesting to just draw a line kind of showing the path
approximately of where the climbers ascended the mountain in addition to showing the camp
locations. Peter: Any other recommendations that you
might have here? Sean: Let's see.
Peter: Let's go ahead and open up -- I think in the -- you know, the folder on the left-hand
side -- these are kind of compressed in the way we have them here -- but I think there
was a lot of different place marks. So one of the things that we saw in one of the earlier
tours was the use of folders and kind of grouping together some of these different place marks.
Sean: Exactly. Peter: And I think the tour itself was at
the bottom of the folder. Sean: A little hard to find.
Peter: Yeah. So I think what you want to do is basically have that be the thing kind of
at the top and you want to be able to explore and find that.
Sean: Yeah. I like to make a folder and put all my place marks in there and kind of close
that folder up and then all you really see is the tour that you're interested in and
then maybe one or two folders. And that way it's really obvious what to look at.
Peter: Great. Looks like we've seen some great student submissions. I know you've had a lot
of experience just helping people create great tours.
Do you have any good references or places where people can go to kind of learn more
and kind of take their tours to the next level? Sean: Yeah, definitely. So there's a couple
spots I'd recommend. One is the Google Earth outreach site. We have a tutorial on there
about how to create a narrated tour. And Karin worked on that, as a matter of fact. That's
a great one. We'll paste the link to that in the Hangout.
And then if you want to get some more inspiration about what's possible, one link you might
check out is the tours that Karin and my team created for the COP 15 conference. This was
a global climate change conference held in Copenhagen a few years back. We'll paste the
link to that as well in the Hangout. Really great examples of interesting tours.
Freedom to Roam is one of my favorites. It tells the story of a wolverine climbing over
mountains in Montana and tells the story about what these animals are doing to survive. So
that's pretty awesome. I think I'll leave it at that. I know we have
to move on to talk a little about Maps. So I'll turn it over to Tina and Karin.
Tina: Great. Just as Sean mentioned, there's a couple places
where you can find additional examples of Google Earth tours. You can always view the
Google Earth gallery and access that either online or from within Google Earth itself.
Lots of great samples of work in all different areas.
So now we're going to move on to the Google Maps submissions. And one of the -- one of
our favorites, especially around the favorite for creativity, is this James Bond map that
was created by Gary Miller. And right off the bat, one of the things that
I noticed that he did was, he changed the base layer. And that really emphasizes the
icons instead of maybe the train or the satellite imagery.
Karin: It really makes it pop -- them pop out.
Tina: Yeah. And he's used a couple of different layers for the different James Bond actors.
So if you have -- if, for example -- for example, Daniel Craig is your favorite 007, you can
just see the movies that Daniel Craig started. Karin: He gave unique symbols to the different
movies that each of the actors were in. That's kind of cool.
Tina: You'll notice, too, in some of the points that he's included a URL that has more information
about the different movies or the different locations, that kind of thing. So he provides
some additional context for these -- for the different movies.
So this is a great example of a very kind of creative way to use a map. I know we had
several other very creative ideas. There was a Zombie Apocalypse map from Mexico. So I
think the point here is that maps can really be used to tell a story for anything, because
everything happens in a place. It's a great, great way to utilize and visualize information.
All right. So the next map we're going to show is from Travis in Pennsylvania. It's
of Dorney Park. Karin: Yeah, so Dorney Park is an amusement
park. And he wanted to map -- he wanted to map all the locations of interest in the park.
And so he organized it very well, using layers again. So if I actually check off these layers,
I can see some of these other groups of attractions, such as rides and attractions, or food, shows,
and shops. So it really allows me to, like, focus in
on what I'm interested in inside the park. Tina: And he's marked -- there's quite a bit
of information here. But by using the layers and by the styles that have been applied,
it's really easy to turn things on and off. So if you're just interested in the rides,
you can just view that layer. If you just want to know where the telephone, restaurant
-- restrooms, or other, like, places to eat are, then you can just have that layer turned
on as well. So another great way to show information.
And in this map, the base map he's utilized is very fitting for the subject, because you
see the actual park. You see where the actual rides are. So I think this is another great
example of another use for a map. Even though the location is very specific, you can still
show a lot of relevant data in a map this way.
Karin: That's right. That's right. Tina: And it's a little easier to deal with
than kind of that giant foldup map they give you in the park that, you know, is not always
easy to fold back up and put in your pocket. Let's see. The last map we have here is a
map of the history of wine. And I think one of the great things about this map is that
this one shows how the points have been styled by range. So that's -- we went over that in
the course a little bit. So that's another way that you can style your content.
Karin: I also like that it's one data set that's been styled two different ways on the
same map, so it allows people to see multiple things about one data set on the same map.
So that's not always easy to do. So using different shaped symbols and different gradients,
they're able to do that. So I'm able to understand sites by date and by category at the same
time. Tina: Yeah. And so here are three great examples
of maps for very different purposes, but they're just three of many of the great ones that
were submitted. So thanks to all of you who submitted. And we really love the fact that
they all tell a unique story from your individual perspectives.
Here at Google, we're always trying to add more information to our maps. So like us,
keep refining your own to improve your work and improve the information that you are sharing
on your maps. So, Karin, to give our students a little sense
of what's possible with Google Maps and Street View, why don't you share some of the details
about your recent adventure with -- and your treks with Google Earth Outreach team.
Karin: Sounds good. Thanks, Tina. Recently, the Google Earth Outreach team was
invited to the Galapagos Islands by the Charles Darwin Foundation. And this is a nonprofit
who works in -- let me go to the right one. Here we go -- that works in the Galapagos
Islands to help conserve the ecosystem and the habitat there.
And, basically, we took the Street View Trekker. And here many of you might recognize this
as the globe that goes on top of the Street View cars. But now there's a Street View Trekker
that actually fits on top of a backpack, so people can hike around trails in very remote
locations. So the Galapagos is a very remote location
with very remote treks. And we were invited there to take you guys (inaudible). And this
is something that Google could not have pulled off without the help of the Charles Darwin
Foundation and the Galapagos National Park Service, who work to conserve the islands.
And they were involved in the locations we chose.
This first image is showing the trek that I took through the Galapagara giant tortoise
breeding center. This is one of the most famous breeding centers on the island. You can see
that we could get up pretty close to these giant tortoises to collect the Street View
imagery with the Trekker. It was pretty amazing. We also worked -- in working with the Charles
Darwin Foundation, worked with Daniel, one of the scientists at the foundation. And he
took us down an active crater. Now, this is a crater that, literally, had an eruption
in just the last ten years. So while we weren't nervous that it would erupt while we were
there, it was pretty amazing and pretty beautiful. This is showing our trek -- this photo is
showing our trek inside the crater as we are trekking -- it's kind of hard to see. But
he's down there in the lower left-hand corner. And he has a Trekker on, and he's trekking
towards these natural-occurring sulfur mines which are on the right side of the image and
basically trekked up into or right next to the sulfur mines. So when these panoramas
launch in a few months, you'll be able to do that trek yourself in Street View.
The next photo shows Daniel coming out of a small cave. So we did explore even underground
a little bit, for example, this small cave. So it's just going to be pretty amazing stuff
when it launches in Street View. We also had the Catlin Seaview Survey with
us. You know the Catlin Seaview Survey if you have seen other underwater Street View
collects that Googld has partnered with them on. This is a photo they did where they took
their Street View technology under the water and took -- and actually swam with sea lions.
The sea lions were really interested in this camera. I've never actually swam with sea
lions, but I hear that they're interested in regular tourist cameras. I can't imagine
what they thought about this camera, but apparently it was just tens and twenties of these sea
lions just roaming around this camera, just very, very curious.
This imagery will launch in a couple of months. And we'll be really proud to show some of
these locations that the park service and Darwin Foundation are working to conserve
in the Galapagos. So just to show you a couple of places that
our team and Google in general have been in addition to the Galapagos Islands, I want
to talk to you about some other crazy, awesome places we've been to, like the Amazon and
the arctic. So it's really amazing footage. And they wanted
to make sure that we got some footage of their football field here, or soccer field here.
It's really cool. They all play soccer, football, very frequently there in the middle of the
community. So the final thing I'll show you is some really
beautiful imagery of the arctic. This place is called Cambridge Bay. It's a community
way up on the Northwest Passage above the Arctic Circle. We went there last year during
the summer so you can really see what the arctic looks like during the summer.
This is a Hudson Bay cabin, historical landmark, showing back when the -- back when this area
was populated more with fur traders, that building was in use. But you can tell how
you can just zoom around in Street View and literally walk down the street just as if
you were there. This is a very remote spot, hard to get to, it can take two days by plane
to get to. You can't drive to it. So it's really an amazing place to be able to go to
in Street View. This is the Old Stone Church. This is near the site of the original city
before it moved to where it is today. So you can see and even go inside this Old Stone
Church and walk around it. And this is kind of a relic of one of the historical landmarks
of the community. So just amazing place.
Then earlier this year, we were invited back to take the arctic in the winter. Now, those
images haven't launched yet. That will happen soon. But this is showing our partner at the
nonprofit that invited us, Chris (saying name). And this is in Iqaluit, the capital city of
Nanavut. So this is a small community, but the largest in Nanavut. And we wanted to show
what it is like -- They wanted to show what it was like in the winter in the Arctic. So
this is us bundled up with the Trekker this time, trekking the streets and the trails
around Iqaluit. This is showing one of our teammates, Riley,
trekking on the snow with trekking poles, just in case of slipping.
So that's all I have to show for our Street View adventures. But, hopefully, this makes
-- later -- hopefully, when you're making maps, you can feel free to use all the Street
View images that exist in Google Earth and Google Maps, just like some of the submissions
we saw earlier with Peter and Sean. And you can add more context to the tours you are
creating, maybe you can even create a tour stop with Google Earth in your tour.
>>Tina: Thanks, Karin. I'm always amazed at all the places we're
adding and where we have imagery, and it allows so many people the opportunity to visit places
that they normally wouldn't have any chance of visiting, most likely.
So the -- I think sometimes the public may not be aware of all of the great imagery we
have and the fact that you can dive under the ocean or go to the moon or go to Mars
and see imagery right from your own home or from the comfort of your own chair.
So I think what you've mentioned really gives us some insight into how larger groups and
organizations are really helping us to understand the world around us by allowing us to interact
with it firsthand. Karin: And I will add that there's a lot more,
right, on the Street View gallery. You can find that at map.google.com/StreetView. And
so you can go there and explore these locations, but so many more.
Tina: Great. Great. Well, it looks like we're running out of time.
And I just wanted to take a minute to thank our course instructors, Peter Birch, Daniel
Dimitri, and Beth Liebert, who aren't here, for all the insight that you shared during
the class and during your particular lessons. And I also want to give special thanks to
Karin and to Sean for joining us today and sharing their work.
And as a tradition, at the end of our online courses, we like to call up kind of the behind-the-scenes
Googlers who make all of this class possible -- the work possible and the class possible.
We have instructional designers, we have testers, and people who coordinate our TAs, and we
have editors. It takes a large village to -- scoot over so we can all fit in here. Yeah.
It takes a lot of people to kind of get this working. And so -- and we also have people
who weren't able to come here in person that are located worldwide to just kind of help
all of our students during the class. So we really want to give them a shoutout and say
thank you, because none of this would have been possible without them.
And we have some other folks who are behind the cameras right now who have also been extremely
helpful in pulling this all together. Peter: Great.
Tina: With that -- Peter: Yeah. Thanks to everyone. We've had
a really great experience putting all this course together and reading all the student
submissions and kind of seeing all the creative -- it's always just amazing to see where people
will take things; right? I mean, we -- we love these products. We use them every day.
But, you know, at some point, it's just great to see how other people are going to take
it and what they're going to do with it and seeing the great ideas, and people from all
over the world interacting with it, it's just amazing how technology like this can really
connect people across the globe and really make us all feel part of a global community.
So it's been really exciting for us. And, you know, we're looking forward to staying
connected online with everyone. So thanks, and map on!
Tina: Yeah. [ Applause ]
Thank you.