Hi Jennifer Shameless plug, but we've created a Flash platform (hyperGIS) for just such applications.
Our biggest success to date is a portal for collecting running routes, with several attributes attached and fully searchable. The drawing tools are extremly easy and apparently fun to use and more than accurate enough for the purpose. The site collected 30,000 routes in the first 4 months of operation and handle 1000's of visitors every day. Another project involved asking teenage school children to identify (by drawing on an online map) the points on their way to school they considered most dangerous. This system outputed to MapInfo for analysis. It proved very difficult to get anyone to actually use the system. So to answer your questions: 1. Data collection seems very compelling to users, but only if the target group see a value in the collected data. Otherwise some other motivation is necessary (we should have offered the school kids the chance to win an iPod or something...) 2. I'd say get a web designer to design it rather than a programmer or Surveyor (no offence Landon, I'm sure some can abstract to the level of the man in the street :) Bare in mind the minimum accuracy of data that would still be useful. Usability tests are very fashionable (atleast here in Denmark) but a bit of common sense is usually enough. Remember to make good help files no matter how simple the interface. 3. Flash is cross platform/browser and relatively easy to create good looking interfaces, (hyperGIS runs on a Flash 6 player including PDA and some mobile phones). Javascript programmers would say Ajax and of course Google Maps as a "free" background, depending on your particular situation. The good thing about a Flash application is that it is self contained and easy to drop into a CMS. Your user can play with the system for hours without any calls to the server or open sessions, etc. so it's very scalable and dosn't require a huge server or high bandwidth. I'll leave it to someone else to make the case for AJAX :) Kind Regards Peter Strømberg -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jennifer Strahan Sent: 04 May 2007 23:08 To: [email protected] Subject: [Geowanking] Examples of collaborative data collection apps? Hello, Can anyone point me towards examples of Internet mapping applications that are used to collect data from the public? We're wondering what it would take to create an online application that can: 1. allow users to draw polygons and add 2-3 attributes 2. store the shapes in a database that can eventually be transferred to multiple GIS data formats (including shapefiles) 3. collect a large volume of data (about 50,000 responses over three years) If anyone has experiences or thoughts to share that would be very helpful. Some questions include: 1. How successful are the existing data collection sites? 2. What are the best practices for building an application that is usable by a general, non-tech savvy audience? 3. What technology would you recommend and what type of resources are necessary? Thanks in advance for the info. I'm looking forward to seeing what others are doing and how they are doing it! Regards, Jennifer Jennifer Strahan GreenInfo Network - 1996-2006: A Decade of Mapping the Public Interest 116 New Montgomery Street Suite 738 San Francisco CA 94105 PH: (415)979-0343 x306 Fax: 415-979-0371 Web: www.greeninfo.org _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking
