Village Vancouver mapping project - brainstorming!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Alyssa K on January 18, 2011 at 9:16am

I was thinking we could go ahead and start a Google map. I keep meaning to get around to it. If you've already identified points, areas, lines, etc. you can export a .kml or .kmz file and it can easily be uploaded into GIS software. I know how to do that (export the file, not upload to GIS).

 

If I get around to starting the Google map I will send an invite to everyone so they can edit it.

Permalink Reply by Jordan B on January 19, 2011 at 9:24pm

Hi Alyssa,

 

That's a great idea! I think that we might need to buy some kind of upgraded Google Maps license to export information to it directly from a spreadsheet, but we can definitely set up a small, Grandview-Woodland-level prototype that is manually edited in order to illustrate the concept.

 

I was at the Steering Committee meeting yesterday to discuss this project, and I am happy to say that we have their full support! Randy, Ross and Nelson (the main VV site administrators) will look into ways that we could add additional voluntary questions to each person's Profile page that can then be exported to a database which in turn could be fed into some sort of interactive GIS system that would generate a map (as well as a way of generating specific queries from the database). So some things we need to work out for now include:

-What questions should we ask (what would we like to map)?

-How can potential privacy concerns be dealt with?

-Who should be able to access the data? Anyone, VV members only, people with admin priviledges only, etc). 

Permalink Reply by Cabot Lyford on March 26, 2011 at 11:20am

We have some mapping expertise in the area already that we can draw upon, as well as significant existing maps of the neighbourhood.  You can learn a little more of these at:

            Ian Marcuse’s Food Connection Blog

            Our Own Backyard community mapping project:

                        Here

                        Here

                        And here

 

Of course, WE can do something completely different.  If we engage in our own mapping effort, we will need to decide what purpose it will serve.  My feeling is to keep it Village Vancouver centric, for now, to make it easier for us to see and connect with resources we need and initiatives we are interested in contributing to.  My main interest is to foster economic resilience in the transition community.

 

There are lots of ideas about what information to map out, how to use technology to make it more effective and other fun stuff.  These myriad choices will be informed by the map's raison d'etre.  If this is successful, it could become a model for other neighbourhoods.

 

We probably need a face-to-face meeting to get this going.  I propose that we focus the next G-W village meeting on working out the purpose and envisioning a final product for a mapping project.

 

I also think we should move our meeting time to a week night for one and a half hours rather than Saturdays for 3, in order to get better participation.

 

Cabot

 

Permalink Reply by Jordan B on March 28, 2011 at 9:32pm

Hi Cabot,

 

Thanks for looking looking into those previous mapping projects that have been done - certainly we are not the first on the scene for this neighbourhood! It's too bad that none of those sites seems to have any links to images of the maps that were produced out of those processes - they would certainly be interesting to see. Do you know where copies might be located (somewhere at Britannia, perhaps?).

 

Definitely we need to start by defining what it is that we wish to map and what the purpose is. Like you, I think that a more VV-centric map focussed on promoting local economic resilience is a great idea. What I think that this means is pairing up needs with the things that could satisfy those needs. I'm sure that most people possess both their own needs as well as some means of addressing the needs of others, and sometimes what people need is simply each other. Identifying where we are, what we do, what we need and what we have to offer sounds like a great way to build community and local economic resiliency at the same time.  

 

Also, a couple of weeks ago I met up with a girl named Hannah Lewis who is very passionate about community mapping (she did her Masters on the topic), and I even got a copy of a guidebook she wrote about facilitating community mapping projects. I still haven't had a chance to look through the whole thing, but I will try to get through it by the time of our next meeting to bring suggestions from the book to the table. I'm sure that Hannah would be happy to offer her advice or perhaps even help to facilitate a mapping session as well - but it's probably best for us to define what we are attempting to map first.