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Online Maps with OpenLayers

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Online Maps with OpenLayers course photo

Online Maps with OpenLayers

Nick Doiron's picture
Course organiser: Nick Doiron
About the Course Organiser: 

I'm Nick Doiron, a civil engineering student from Carnegie Mellon University.   I have made online maps for the City of Pittsburgh, One Laptop Per Child, Ushahidi, environmental researchers, and a Mongolian travel company.

Last summer, I taught mapmaking and environmental sensing at Kasiisi School in Uganda ( http://kasiisiproject.org ) using their One Laptop Per Child computers (the little green $100 laptops).

I'm running a P2PU course to support open source technology and the open web.

No of Seats: 
30
Course Status: 
Completed

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How do free and open maps compete with companies such as Google? Make maps and design geo-mashups with HTML and JavaScript.

Summary

Online maps are a rapidly growing technology.  The unique connection of maps to real world information has given open and crowdsourced maps some advantages over even the best-funded companies.

A Map Making and Programming Class

Course participants will add part of their community to the global OpenStreetMap, learn the basics of creating interactive online maps with OpenLayers, then research and design their final application.

Topics

* OpenStreetMap.org, a free and open "Wikipedia of maps," has time and time again proven the usefulness of open data.  In early 2010, responders to the Haiti earthquake turned to OpenStreetMap for the most detailed and up-to-date maps.

* OpenLayers.org, a free and open source JavaScript library, will be used to explore the basics of adding maps to web pages.  This experience gives you the know-how to use map APIs from Google, ESRI, Microsoft, or CloudMade (these alternatives will be part of a group discussion)

* Applications of maps, including open source solutions for business, disaster response, open government, and the environment, will be discussed.   Participants choose a research topic.

* A final 'interest project', chosen by the participant, will be a web map which displays real-world data and produces an informative, interactive, artistic, and/or persuasive online experience.

Learning objectives

 

  • OpenStreetMap.org, a free and open "Wikipedia of maps," has time and time again proven the usefulness of open data.  In early 2010, responders to the Haiti earthquake turned to OpenStreetMap for the most detailed and up-to-date maps.
  • OpenLayers.org, a free and open source JavaScript library, will be used to explore the basics of adding maps to web pages.  This experience gives you the know-how to use map APIs from Google, ESRI, Microsoft, or CloudMade (these alternatives will be part of a group discussion).
  • Applications of maps, including open source solutions for business, disaster response, open government, and the environment, will be discussed.   Participants choose a research topic.
  • A final 'interest project', chosen by the participant, will be a web map which displays real-world data and produces an informative, interactive, artistic, and/or persuasive online experience.

Schedule/Syllabus

Comments

Looking forward to this

Sean Horgan's picture
Sean Horgan
Tue, 2010-12-28 04:36

Looking forward to this course.

Please count me ;)

sattanaathan Ravi's picture
sattanaathan Ravi
Thu, 2010-12-30 04:58

count me in ;)

Could not access the Sign Up

Jim Cory's picture
Jim Cory
Sat, 2011-01-08 15:37

Could not access the Sign Up Task http links. Pawel's site did not respond. Perhaps a momentary hiccup?

Pages are loading for me...

Nick Doiron's picture
Nick Doiron
Sun, 2011-01-09 04:09

Pages for the Sign Up Task are back online. If you cannot get the OpenStreetMap Static API to work, you can get similar images from Google's http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/staticmaps/#Locations

Would love it if the course

Rick Eisenbart's picture
Rick Eisenbart
Thu, 2011-01-13 02:55

Would love it if the course covered placement of thumbnail images at designated map points...like several travel sites do.

Hey dude, I'm a newbie at

Will Wilson's picture
Will Wilson
Thu, 2011-01-13 03:53

Hey dude, I'm a newbie at OpenLayers (hence my signing up for the course), but I think to do that you want to use OpenLayers.Layer.Markers, or one of its subclasses.

Here's some documentation:

http://dev.openlayers.org/docs/files/OpenLayers/Layer/Markers-js.html

http://dev.openlayers.org/docs/files/OpenLayers/Layer/Text-js.html

Oh, and I agree that it would

Will Wilson's picture
Will Wilson
Thu, 2011-01-13 03:54

Oh, and I agree that it would be really neat if the course covered some of these features -- especially dynamic placement of the markers.

very much looking forward to

David Horvath's picture
David Horvath
Thu, 2011-01-13 11:02

very much looking forward to the class

Thanks for the links Will !

Rick Eisenbart's picture
Rick Eisenbart
Thu, 2011-01-13 16:17

Thanks for the links Will !

Hi all! I hope I get accepted

James Ruggieri's picture
James Ruggieri
Fri, 2011-01-14 03:08

Hi all! I hope I get accepted as I've really been interested in learning how to access online mapping apps, but haven't been able to get very far into the api's out there. Look forward to collaboration w/ particular regard toward mobile devices. Definitely count me in!!

Will run this course again? I

Dillon Ross's picture
Dillon Ross
Mon, 2011-01-17 10:36

Will you run this course again? I already have a full plate of classes but would like to take this course next time around.

I did not finish the sign-up

David Ally's picture
David Ally
Mon, 2011-01-17 14:02

I did not finish the sign-up task before submitting it. I would like to know if I can redo it, or just wait for the enrollment process?

Answering two recent

Nick Doiron's picture
Nick Doiron
Mon, 2011-01-17 15:21

Answering two recent questions:

- Our materials will be online for future learners. If you don't have time, you can always review the course later.

- If you have trouble submitting the sign-up task, re-send it to me at http://p2pu.org/users/ndoiron/contact

I would like to learn how to

Bernie Connors's picture
Bernie Connors
Mon, 2011-01-17 15:21

I would like to learn how to display data from a Google Fusion Table on an OpenLayers Map. here is an example:
http://www.citizensreport.org.uk/java/teenage-murder-london-2010-2005.html

Hi, I sent the web page a few

Julio Vega's picture
Julio Vega
Wed, 2011-01-19 06:51

Hi, I sent the web page a few hours ago, what do you think about it?

looking forward to this

chika ebirim's picture
chika ebirim
Wed, 2011-01-19 08:59

looking forward to this course!

Could not access the Sign Up

Apostolos Mastoris's picture
Apostolos Mastoris
Wed, 2011-01-19 11:29

Could not access the Sign Up Task http links. Can you fix that? I would like to participate.

Looking forward for the

Alex Borrell's picture
Alex Borrell
Wed, 2011-01-19 17:09

Looking forward for the course

count me in ;)

Besfort Guri's picture
Besfort Guri
Wed, 2011-01-19 17:14

count me in ;)

This course looks fantastic.

Dinah Goldberg's picture
Dinah Goldberg
Mon, 2011-01-24 20:25

This course looks fantastic. I work for a nonprofit that has been discussing adding interactive maps to our web site - I'm hoping this course will give us some great ideas of what's out there and what can be done. :)

Hello Does anyone know the

chika ebirim's picture
chika ebirim
Mon, 2011-01-24 20:35

Hello

Does anyone know the times and dates that we will be meeting?

And how will the meetings

Andrew Black's picture
Andrew Black
Wed, 2011-01-26 00:36

And how will the meetings happen. Via chat (text) or some other form

I think we should try the

Nick Doiron's picture
Nick Doiron
Wed, 2011-01-26 00:56

I think we should try the built-in chat on P2PU: http://p2pu.org/webcraft/node/12927/chat - sign into P2PU, enter the text inside the image, and click Connect to join.

what are the times for the

chika ebirim's picture
chika ebirim
Wed, 2011-01-26 01:03

what are the times for the classes on thursday?

Im in the last semester of my

Jesus Ruiz's picture
Jesus Ruiz
Wed, 2011-01-26 18:06

Im in the last semester of my career (System Ingeneering), doing professional practices at a public services company, and one of the problems i have to solve here consist of creating a map to locate equipments, structures, buildings, trough searches or free browsing. Is is really a shame i didnt knew about this course earlier because i really need the information you will be imparting in order to learn how to work with maps and being able to desing a very good application that fulfills the needs here. There isnt anything to do about letting me in the course? Would the information and classes imparted will be left to freely read and learn after the course is finished? How long will it last? thanks in advance for your response.

Interview with an open

Nick Doiron's picture
Nick Doiron
Thu, 2011-03-10 05:00

Interview with an open grassroots volunteer who mapped the oil spill with balloons: http://grassrootsmapping.org/2011/03/mapper-interview-dawn-mckinney/ -- this project could use some help mapping in addition to the work of people on the ground.

Get your P2PU OpenStreetMap

Nick Doiron's picture
Nick Doiron
Sun, 2011-04-03 23:03

Get your P2PU OpenStreetMap badge at http://badges.p2pu.org/questions/131/openstreetmapper-badge-challenge -- if you have made edits to OpenStreetMap, all you will need to do is tag a Point of Interest with your P2PU username, and submit your edit history on that page.