The good people at Green Map are working in concert with Google to launch Open Green Maps, a social networking site that’s aimed at mapping green initiaves, in September. I met the Green Map System’s founder and director, Wendy E. Brawmer, at the Ecocity World Summit, and was impressed by her enthusiasm and commitment. She introduced me to many of the Green Map builders that were there at the event, and hinted that she was working on an interactive map-building system online for online interaction. To date the many Green Maps that have been made around the world have been print map efforts, which isn’t the preferred format in these green times.
The online effort has ported the award-winning Green Map universal icons that were originally developed for the paper map efforts to the Google Maps environment. There are several sample Green Maps on the development site, including one for Baltimore and another for Rockland, New York.
I’m excited to see that this evolved Green Map effort will include commentary images and an impact index. This social networking approach should greatly enhance the content collection effort, and should lead to many more people utilizing the system daily. The addition of a mobile interface should add considerable use and exposure, particularly for those that travel.
There are a few screen shots of the design preview that are intriguing. One shows a pop-up window with tabs for overview, comments, connections to like-minded or affiliated sites, multimedia (photos and videos from visitors), and impacts. The other provides a legend with key to the meaning of icons, and the ability to search other sites and themes.
Design overview
I love the inclusion of the map legend and other multimedia features. It’s one of the more intriguing Google Maps interface efforts that I’ve seen, and certainly in line with their exquisite map design efforts to date. I think these additions will greatly enhance the development of this site, and I look forward to contributing what I know about my locale.
