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Maps Development Workshops

Webmasters from various Agencies took part in the workshops to learn about the maps technology, and how to develop and deploy a map by leveraging industry standards such as KML.

A key "take-away" from the workshop was an understanding of how the "publish-subscribe" model works over the Web with map information. Agencies can leverage this capability to enable their constituents to:

  • Find and understand government information within the context of a geographic map,
  • And to receive that information via any preferred channel (a webpage, Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, MS Live Maps, Google Earth, MS Viritual Earth, etc.)

The following lists the main tasks that are "worked" through during the course of the workshop.

  1. Create a map file in the KML format
  2. Publish it on a webserver
  3. Display it in a webpage map
  4. Demo Northgate's KML editor for maintaining their map data
  5. Demo Google Earth KML editor (explain advantages/disadvantages)
  6. Demo MS Live Maps editor (explain advantages/disadvantages)

Please Note: these are not "official" government map information files. The KML files were only created for the learning experience during the class, and they are hosted and shown here only for demonstration purposes.

KML files that were developed on 8/4/2008 during the class can be viewed below.
  • Map files from the Maps Workshop held on 8/5/2008)
  • Map files from the Maps Workshop held on 8/21/2008)

    • Type city & state or full address:

    Here are the actual KML files. You can download them here to view this same map information in: Google Earth, Microsoft Virtual Earth, etc.