Google Maps. Do it yourself!

If you interested on using geographical tools in your stories or in your projects, I think Google Maps is effective and easy way of doing it. The only thing you need really is to create an account in Google, which does not harm so much. Once you are able to log in on Maps website, you choose the option of creating a new map and then you just have to put some place marks where you want you readers to have look at.

The example bellow shows how I am editing the map of forest fires in Brazil. Once I get the location of the fires (subject for a following post) I  put a place mark there and add some picture and links.

After that, if you go the right side where is the word “Link”, you can get the URL for embed the map in your website. That what we are doing at O Eco. See here.

Beyond that, you can use your skills on design and mix your map with Flash. Well take I look on this storie me and my good friend Aldem Bourscheit created after doing a two day trekking on the southeastern mountains of Brazil. We took pictures and place then on the points we spoted on GPS. Then we just put it over the Google Maps and our skillfully designer, PA Vieira, mashed with Flash. Just click here for the whole storie.

To finalize. It is also nice using Google Maps with a lot of people editing togheter. When you create your own map just click on the “Collaborate” button and invite other people to plaice some data there.

I am myself inviting everybody who wants to participate in the GeoNewsMap . The idea is just send me an email and  then you will be able to edit the map and geotag the news and the content you want other people to see. Let`s try.

Satellites to everybody

I have been reading Arthur C. Clarke and there is no doubt that he was ahead of his time when defending that space research and, more specifically, sattelites are tools of peace. He was writing a couple articles in the middle of the Reagan´s Star Wars, in 1980s, and had foreseen the huge impact that satellites would have on peoples way of working, travelling, producing, talking. Much more important than military use.

Besides, it is nice listening to Clarke remembering us how beautiful can be the pictures took from the outerspace. I would say here that we should also considering how powerfull these images has been on communicating Earth´s most urgent problems.

Take the example of this images bellow. It was obtaneid (for free, it must be stressed) on Nasa’s Earth Observatory.

Forest fire in Los Angeles

This is something that everybody could understand. It is huge forest fire and huge columm of smoke. Does not need translation.

But where the journalism came to forefront? Well, I think that we, journalist, are not taking advantage of having all these free imageries and immense flow of information on Earth events. The interpretation of sattelite images is, so far, seen as duty of GIS (Geographical Information Systems) experts. This is true when we talking about information that is going to lead public policies or some private investment. But we can do a great job interpretating ourselves some of the image and delivering to our public .