Inside Google Earth (for a better earth)

by Matt Riley

Sir David Attenborough, data visualisation, and saving the world!

That pretty much captures the amazing day Nic and I had at the official launch of Google Earth Outreach in London on Thursday. Outreach is essentially the Google Earth arm that helps non profits promote their causes using Earth or Maps. We were lucky enough to crack the nod for some inside info and hands-on tutorials from the GE team; not to mention sample the legendary Google canteen lunch!

The event was an opportunity to hear first-hand from Google about the newest functional developments on Google Earth and Maps, API’s and developer tools to mashup and maximise the potential of this cutting edge communication platform.

The theme of the day was definitely ‘making the abstract meaningful’, and I think this sums up the many awesome uses of Google Earth to powerfully visualise data and incite action.

Tools like the Spread Sheet Mapper allow basic template driven KML’s to be created so anyone can get started on their own layer. Tools like this are part of the Outreach programme's efforts to aid charitable organisations in developing their own layers and rallying support for their causes.

I picked up on a few dropped hints and tit-bits I thought our loyal GottaQuirk audience might find interesting:

Tit-bits:

Google indexes KMLs using the same process as web pages. If you want yours to rank then optimise the page that hosts the download, and make sure your KML content (HTML in balloons) has the appropriate spider friendly metadata and avoid Flash.
Only 35% of the earth is available in hi-res. This is prioritised by population density and educational needs (i.e monitoring rainforest logging).
Google is working on showing when the satellite image was last updated. (NB if you are planning a trip through unchartered terrain – you need to know if a valley is now a river.)
GE uses over 1000 terabytes of data.
There are 2 cameras in the world that can take 1000 gigapixel images. My little Canon suddenly feels a bit soft.

Navigation Hints:

The trick to a great layer is user experience. Just like a regular site you want to guide users to goal areas, making sure they get the right information along the way. The difference on GE is that ' guide users' is actually 'make navigating intuitive ' and finding information can now be very interactive. Here are some tips I found useful:

Consider your 'look at variables' in your KML. This is the feature that allows you to view your placemark at a specific angle, height and distance from a point. GE automatically defaults to a 'directly above' perspective if you don't choose otherwise. Somethings just make more sense from a different perspective.
'Feature Anchoring' is great way to turn your linking into navigation. You can fly from one bubble to the next , or open one as another closes. If you start thinking about this as a means to tell a story, moving from one place to the next, it gets pretty interesting.
'Regionalization' is a great way to control how much data you display at once. This feature gives you the ability to create rules for when certain elements are displayed. For example, you might want to start out high in the sky and only reveal placemarks as you get closer in. This helps to prevent clutter and overloading.

A personal highlight was hearing my all time hero Sir David ‘the-god-of-captivating-voices’ Attenborough talk about his personal project Arkive and the role GE has to play.

As the Great Voice put it: ‘… the world is no longer mysterious; every human being can now know every corner of the earth intimately, and be responsible for action.’

A big thanks to Rebecca Moore and her team for a great day and a big helping hand for our little blue planet.

PS :Quirk is working on a BIG Google Earth project – watch this space.

2008/04/11 | permalink | comments (0) | trackbacks (0)

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Anthony on The Democratic Alliance's Online Plan

Thanks for the article Kat, and you were spot-on in response to Shaun: my resources comment was not so much about being able to afford an online presence (most political parties in SA - all the ones you've heard of - have one); it was more about the fact that you need to have the human resources to sustain what you initiate. As an example, we started SA Today in response to ANC Today, and we've sustained it week in and week out (as has the ANC, even if its President has decided not to continue where his predecessor left off). Both the ID and the IFP have started similar initiatives, but they find it difficult to sustain, so it ends up being occasional, rather than weekly.
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Kat on Can You Put the eMarketing Textbook in the Hands of Someone Who Needs It?

@Hilary, you can actually already order a hard copy directly from the website, just follow this link www.quirk.biz/emarketingtextbook/buy
we'll definitely let you know when it's in book shops as well though :)
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Hilary Cross on Can You Put the eMarketing Textbook in the Hands of Someone Who Needs It?

Hi Kat, please let us know when the hard copy is out, I'd definatley like to purchase one for myself.
Thanks,
Hilary
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Kat, this is proving to be quite a mind bender...
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Inside Google Earth (for a better earth)

by Matt Riley

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