Green Map Meeting
Every Thursday, 18:30
Electron Club, CCA, Glasgow

A Hello and Some Notes on The Current Layout (2007.05.31)

Posted by Brendan Patrick Thursday 31 May 2007- 9:36 pm
Hi guys, this is Brendan - I've just joined your Glasgow Green Mappers group!

a bit about myself: I'm a displaced Canadian who is living near Merchant City in Glasgow and I think this city has a lot of work to do and this map project will help significantly in outlining the main areas of improvement. I work for a wind energy company and am involved in a couple other green groups in Glasgow.

Now down to business - some notes on the current state of the website:


  1. The map doesn't show the extent of what has been plotted - this has its strengths and its weaknesses, but I'd kind of like to see, from the beginning, what this map has to offer

  2. Will the map be larger? Whether you show the extent or show it in its current state, you need to zoom in or out - meaning this doesn't help anyone. I'm lazy and want to click my mouse as little as possible so put everyone on the same page, as opposed to favoring those in the city centre.

  3. I'd like a box that says: "put in your postal code and we'll show you what is in your neighborhood", which then adjusts the map size to show what is local.

  4. The settings behind 'name', 'address', etc. are too vague and will lead to people adding items which will look different. This needs to be narrowed down - what about the shop should they be saying? Otherwise, people will add too much or too little. Name - fine. Address - needs expansion. About - needs to be more specific. Opening hours - could easily become (I think?!?!?) a drop down menu. Contact - person I assume? So contact name. Telephone - do I put (+44) or 0 or what? What if I'm calling them from outside the UK? Fax - same as phone. e-mail could be _____ @ _________ and website could be http://_________________. Am I the best person to drop the location of this place? What if I'm just a customer of theirs and put it in the wrong spot? Would having a box for postal codes help?

  5. Why would I ever want to show things on a 'small map'? Maybe use different language like 'fast map'

  6. What does 'show random places' mean? Why would I ever want to see random places? If this is supposed to interest me in places I haven't heard of - perhaps this should just list the businesses which have just been posted instead.

  7. I like the idea of the front page being a map on the left and a giant calendar on the right - then you cover 'where' and 'when' quite quickly.

  8. I don't like the idea of seeing "show all categories" - why don't you just tell me the various categories? How do I even know that THAT is where to look for the categories listing?

  9. Articles - I think you need to keep a tight wrap on the articles thing - as in, all articles that are posted have to do with an event, which will be posted as an entry on the big calendar (which then links to the article) or something new being offered by a shop or organisation. So then you need to split articles into "events" and "updates", which can eventually be localized.

Message from Green map HQ 04 May

Posted by hannah c Friday 4 May 2007- 3:00 pm
hi Everyone!

Things keep moving quickly here, and the website's design is looking great, as are the new Mapmaker resources we have been adding - you'll be able to see it all very soon.

About 20 Mapmakers have registered so far, great!
We hope everyone will register, very very soon, and here is a new incentive:

Complete both your Registration and Map Profile by May 15, and you can be a winner.

7 will win a postage-paid Packet stuffed full of Green Map's new outreach pack, which includes videos, fresh new organizational booklet, newsletter, Icon mini poster (version 2) and more! We'll mail this to you free if you are one of the lucky 7 in the random drawing on May 16.

All who have both Registration and Map Profiles online are eligible to win* !

English & Spanish Registration are online, click to start:


(as soon as Japanese, Chinese & Indonesian versions are online, we'll let you know - we are saving 3 winning Packets for Mapmakers who need to wait for these instructions).


Also see a little video from last week's award ceremony & more !
*By the end of the month, we will have an easy way for everyone to order Packets!

Many thanks - we look forward to seeing you in the Greenhouse!

best Wendy


hi Mapmakers,

We are moving quickly on the Greenhouse development, and happy more existing Mapmakers are registering each day! If you want some ideas for writing your own registration & profiles, you can explore these at GreenMap.org/greenhouse/maps

(anyone can click GreenMap.org/greenhouse and see what's up, new Blogs, Resources etc.... you can't see the design yet, but you can see some of the new content.)

At the same time, new projects are registering (the old way) and new Green Maps are being published! Although we are not really updating the old site so much now, we wanted to welcome these new projects:

Rockland County NY US - where a citizens group led by Carolina Svedberg is making a tourism and residential focused map

Ningbo China - where Huanqing (Calling for Green) Society has made a wonderful hand drawn map, concurrent with registration (thanks for your help, Friends of Nature!)

Most recently published includes:

San Antonio Texas USA - created for the American Institute of Architects annual meeting, this map came out great! It will be one of the first available in the Greenhouse, I bet, as soon as Steven Colley adds a Map Profile! Houston Texas will host next year's AIA meeting, and will register online in mid-May, too.

Thailand Environment Institute just hosted another successful Earth Day event, including the debut of the Trang Thailand Green Map - they have made several dozen display Green Maps, but this is the first published and it's really beautiful!

And our neighbors at Westchester County GIS in New York have all but completed their online interactive Green Map, looking great, with a few tweaks to come! We'll be linking it to the online maps page of our (old) site in a couple of days....

Congrats & welcome to all - but wait, there are more! Green Map Japan just sent a wonderful selection of fresh Green Maps, created in Japan 2006-07! all are listed here, thanks to Risa - (I'm adding a new blog now about upcoming interns, now)

Sorry if i forgot to mention something important - so much going on here!

all the best, and thanks so much, web
Izuka Bike Map
Izuka city, Fukuoka,
This map encourages users to find natural resources around Izuka city by bike. It has plenty of information of different kind of bikes, and rules for safe biking. Nice clear design for small area map.
Takaoka Green Map,
Takaoka city, Toyama,
Explore the artisans of Takaoka city
Takaoka has been known as “A City of Traditional Craftsmanship”. This map introduces indigenous process and materials including lacquerware and metalwork that were developed here. It is unique – it is designed for taking notes directly on the map, and includes a slit in the middle so it can be opened like a book or flat like a map. Nice artisan icons and photos, too!
Kawagoe Green Map,
Kawagoe city, Saitama,
Kawagoe has a lot of historical buildings, yet it’s a modern city. The bright, large scale map includes rich nature resources such as places to get spring water, waterfowl, habitats, bushes and ponds.
Adachi Green Map,
Adachi-ku, Tokyo, Tokyo,
Adachi city is surrounded by eight rivers and many waterways. This aerial view map teaches you how those waters and ecological systems based on them protect the community from global warming’s effects, and also their usage in emergency situations.
Maioka Kashio Area Green Map,
This boldly designed pocket size Green Map contains 4 walking tours to see nature and historical features, created by 39 mapmakers in the community. Map users would find new perspectives, thanks to this map. New local icon for ‘bench’.
Okusawa Green Map,
Okusawa, Tokyo, Tokyo,
Okusawa is located in the Setagaya Ward of Tokyo. By showing historical features, this warmly designed map gives further understanding into the unique environment and urban design, as well as the many small galleries where one can enjoy art and crafts made by the local community.
Hamachari Road Map,
Yokohama city, Kanagawa,
Hamachari are recycled bikes collected and repaired by the city then rented to explore the beautiful area by Yokohama port. This map introduces parks and museums etc to relax whole day by biking, not spending time at the malls there. This is the newest Yokohama Green Map, and is very invitingly designed!
2007 Toyama Green Map,
Toyama city, Toyama,
Simple ecological information and getting around the city, especially by biking. Nice sumi-e (ink calligraphy) on the cover!
Tokyo Cycling Green Map,
Tokyo, Tokyo,
Released in an edition of 290,000 copies distributed by the major newspaper, Asahi Shinbun, this map asks: You might have had this experience, that you didn’t know the season has changed in Tokyo, because we are too busy, working and living in this giant city. This map allows you to cycle everywhere and find new ways to relax and enjoy nature. Use your five senses to feel nature in the city!


All Are Wonderful!!

useful contact

Posted by hclinch Tuesday 1 May 2007- 7:35 pm
I'm the lead developer of a project called Theirwork. I'm based in
Dublin, and environmental designer Dominica Williamson, who I'm
working on the project with, is based in Cornwall.

Although not technically a Green Map project, Theirwork is influenced
by and shares a lot of traits with traditional Green Maps.

You can find out more about the project at: http://theirwork.org/home.php
And (a lot of!) detail of my involvement at: http://blog.thoughtwax.com/?p=220

Also, I think you have been in touch with Diarmaid and Seb in Cork
Green Map, right? I've worked with Diarmaid in the past and
contributed some early code to their project. Dom has previously
worked with Wendy Brawer (greenmap.org) in NY.

Emmet

Green Map meeting #11 and congrats.

Posted by Kevin McDonagh - 8:56 am
Crack! Smack, we're back on track. The Glasgow green map was unofficially taking a little rest for two weeks since there wasn't really that much volunteers could do to help. The Paper based map was finally handed off to the designers at scratch design, meanwhile the web based map took a pelting to its productivity curve due to network infrastructure. The web map will eventually be deployed at the electron club ( CCA Glasgow ) and we have long term concerns in mind for both the Electron Club and Green Map at heart. In the short term we could just stick the site on a commercial web host but that doesn't take much community effort. The network within the Electron Club is thanks to the hard work of Andrew Back and Simon () who setup both internal/external access for the project server that is to be the home for the green map virtual host ( where the web pages and code will reside ). Additional thanks goes to Alex Suttcliffe for his snappy work to set up the preliminary configuration of our green map host; setting up accounts, installing programs and some configuration. Although the whole network setup took a little longer to get right it was a chance for some community efforts to really show their value to the project. When eventually this project is realized for the success it will inevitably become; those involved in setup, information gathering, think work, art & design, programming, distribution, promotion can not only feel proud about what they have contributed to, but can also rest assured that it was only realized through the team efforts of everyone equally. Every move we've made so far has been democratically voted upon or trusted to those with relevant former experience. All of these people are working to help one another in the electron club and in the process make Glasgow a greener city.


The Last Meeting
This was really a pat on the back meeting to sit back and review exactly where we were at within the Green Map. On the whole we are running dead on time but we now have to start planning out where exactly the bottle necks are going to be within the project in light of our former experience.


The Green Map is lucky enough to have just received some additional funding so we were having a think about how it should be best spent in the coming months.
Here were the expressed preferences:

1. Members of the club: It's members that are making the map happen and its important that they are valued for the work they contribute and that they in return receive from the project. We've thoughts of hiring people to speak, paying traveling expenses and pizza. If anyone else has any (realistic) thoughts please speak up.

2. Marketing: In order for all of our hard work to actually reach any kind of audience it will have to be intensely and well marketed. All products need good marketing no matter how good they are. Bad products are constantly thrown in our face and so generate an audience "just because" it was sheerly caught within the audience. All of those involved in the Green Map know its benefit to the community and it's going to be our responsibility it finds its way to those it will affect. If we can just get their interest once, the actual maps functionality will carry us through.

3. User / Usability testing: When making a product it would be arrogant and indeed ignorant to presume that those involved in developing the product share the exact tastes and preferences as those to which it is aimed. In order for the Online Green Map to be a success it will have to be useful within the first 10 seconds of loading up or the users are just going to get bored/frustrated and venture off. We'll achieve this by getting a few of those users in and watch exactly how they use the site and base our changes around what they actually need. To do this properly we'll probably need to pay a few select users.

4. Contingency: There's bound to be something else.

It has been considered that it may be wise to restructure the weekly meetings slightly by setting agendas before hand, me and Hannah will make sure that everyone will have access to them every week and people can decide if they want to come along based on what we're geared to speak on. Of course everyone is still more than welcome to attend every single meeting, we just want to make sure that the programming peeps and he marketing peeps can confidently 'talk shop' without anyones eyes glazing over.

To all the developers: The links page has been updated with our story planner and host. I'm going to stick up some stories soon and then we'll look them over with Liz, Frankie and co. If anyone wants to have a stab at adding a few go ahead and put them in the first iteration (Two weeks) we'll worry about cleaning it up once there's something to clean up.

We plotted out a small timeline that showed we were going to have to get a move on and start user testing soon but really showed everything was looking dandy. Well done to Hannah for getting her Job!

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