How to Use Google Maps to Map Your Community's Global Ties

‘Globalization and Me’ mapping guide

A. Preparations1) First, if you do not already have one, create a Google account and remember your Gmail address and password. It is free to set up an account like this, and can be done easily on the Google New Accounts page .

Just be sure to remember your password and Gmail address.

2) Once you have a Google account, sign in and go to https://mapsengine.google.com/map/ You can verify you are signed in at the upper right of the page

B. Creating your map

3) Now try creating a map of your own by clicking the ‘Create a new map’ button itself.

4) Click on the upper left where it says “untitled map” and a new input box will appear. Input a short catchy title that links your name with that of the community you want to map (e.g. Matt Sparke’s Global Seattle) 5) Now also fill in the description box to give a more detailed description of your map(e.g. A map showing some of the sites of Seattle that land-mark global ties)

6) Click on save and return to the map. You will see the new title and description you wrote on the upper left of the map.

7) Now you are ready to start making your map. Begin by reflecting on all the different counties in the world to which you can trace ties from your community. Once you have done this, click on the map itself and use the scale tool (+/- tab on the lower right, or the middle mouse key) to scale the map so that you can see all the countries in the world to which your community is tied.

C. Adding and Editing Features to your MapPlace markers8) Now you need to add place markers to show the 5 sites in your community that seem to you to land-mark global ties in the most obvious ways. To do this, begin by creating a list of sites for selection. The commercial connections of shops and restaurants are easy examples to pick. But you might also want to identify some local government and non-government agencies, or institutions such as universities and colleges with non-market ties to global affairs. One way to identify some possibilities is to go back to a regular google maps display, zoom in on your community, and type the word ‘global’ into the search box in the upper left hand corner like this.

Then write down your list: For example…i) Pike Place Market – global tourist icon and commercial tie to global supply chainsii) Seattle Center – world’s fair center turned 1999 base for global justice protestersiii) Gates Foundation HQ – center for global humanitarian projectsiv) Amazon HQ – global management center for the corporationv) UW Department of Global Health – center for research and teaching on global health

9) Once you have your list of places to mark on your map you can start adding them back in google my maps. To do this, just click on place marker icon in the bar:

10) Then for each place-marker write in:

a) A title for the place marker (that will also show up at the top of the menu of all the place-markers you create on the left side of the screen).

b) A description of the place and its global ties (into which you can include photos, movies, and URL links to other websites)

c) Once you have entered a title and description, click SAVE (you can always return and edit it later, and any place markers you don’t like can be deleted easily by clicking the garbage can icon instead of save)

11) For each place-marker you can also now edit the marker icon itself to add a customized icon from the menu or from a web url-accessed image file. To do this, just click on the paint-bucket icon in the list of place-markers on the left side of the map underneath the “Style” tab.

A drop-box will appear offering several different options for the icons you use. “Individual styles” will allow you to customize each map marker—Select “Individual Styles”. The icon description will change from “All Items to the title you gave the first marker. Hover your mouse over the name of the marker and click the paint icon that appears.

12) From here, you will have the option to select “Color”, “Icon Shape”, and “More Icons”. Select “More Icons” and either use one of the options available there or find an image of your own to use as an icon by simply doing an image search and getting the url to add.

13) Now that you have located your local places, you can start to add their global ties to

your map. Click on the line icon and this will allow you to start adding lines to your map that depict key sourcing ties. Play around with this tool a little and you will see that you can easily create both straight lines and jagged lines. To turn off line drawing, just double click on the last circle in the line you have just drawn. If you want to delete a line altogether just click on it until you get into edit mode again (sometimes this is tricky if the scale of the map is too small), and then click the cancel button and trash-can icon.

Line colors can be changed in the same way that you changed the first

icon in the box on the left. Try to use different line colors for different sorts of tie (e.g. red lines for trade ties, green lines for financial ties, blue lines for humanitarian ties and so on). You can also edit the width of each line which may be useful if you are scaled way out on the map.

Each line needs a title and description too. These are useful for communicating details about how your local places are connected globally.

Click SAVE when you are happy with the description box, or, if not, you can delete it.Again, you can return and edit the description, title, and color of the line anytime.

14) Now that you know how to add lines that show global ties, add as many as you want to map all the crucial global ties that you have discovered in your research of your community. Each line and description you add will become a clickable feature on the final map, and any user that clicks the line will open up a box with the description and its embedded links and photos.

Note that each time you save a title, marker, or line, it also re-saves the entire map

Photo and Video Links15) Remember you can also add images or video links to your icons and lines. With the editing option on (the pencil when you click on the marker), click on the camera icon:

The line description boxes also automatically calculate the physical distance of the line. This is a good feature to note or use if you are addressing ‘food miles’ or other similar sorts of supply chain metrics (e.g. carbon footprints) that are both distance-based and politically significant.

A very convenient feature is that you can search for images and videos to link to your map directly from the map engine. After choosing a picture (note that you can scroll down for more options), click on “SELECT”:

Once you return to the map page, click “SAVE” on the description box. Now when viewers click on the icon, the image will appear. Note that the image won’t appear unless you have the icon or line selected, so you don’t have to worry about your map getting too cluttered.

You can also link videos. Again, the image will not show up unless the particular marker is selected.

16) After reviewing your lines with the editing off, you may find that their end points are not accurately located when you zoom into the neighborhood scale of a city or region. To fix this, select the line in the map or from the list on the side menu and edit (click the pencil icon). Once the line is editable, scroll over end points of the line until you see a white square, then drag this square to a more accurate location. You may have to play with the scale of the map a few times until you can move the lines’ end points to the correct locations. Once you are happy with all the lines, click Save.

D) Finishing Up17) A useful way to define finally the parameters of your local-but-global community is to use the shape tool to created a bounded polygon around the community on the map. Using the shape tool, you can create a line right around the local area. Simply connect up all the points of a line together in a polygon and google sees it as a polygon which you can then color in, define and demarcate as a shape using the box on the left of the screen. Just as with lines and place-markers, you can provide a title and description for any enclosed market regions you create this way. You can also edit their color and transparency.

18) Once you are entirely happy with your map, take some screen shots to use as figures in your ‘Globalization and Me’ research essay.

19) Finally, click on the “share” button near the top right of your map and use this to generate the URL you will use to share your map with the instructor and class.

If you so desire, you could also use this URL to embed the map in other websites including Facebook and/or any class site created for sharing the maps by your instructor.

20) To post your map to the class forums, copy the link generated when you click on “Share”. You will also need to change the privacy settings to at least “Anyone who has the link can view” so that your classmates and the instructor can view your map. Then click Done.

Your instructor may also suggest that you invite fellow classmates to collaborate on the mapping project. To do this at any point, just click the Collaborate button and add their emails.

Now you are really done! Congratulations!!!