Story Mapping in Google

Introduction:

          Geographer Alistair Bonnet believes that "The core concerns of a geographical education have emerged as the core concerns of the global citizens of the twenty-first century."(98).  To that end, an effort to refine our story-mapping skills and provide a wider spectrum of tools with which to present our work, this week  we have practiced story-mapping with a new Google Earth Extension: Tour Builder.  Google reaches over one billion people every month, there is no greater platform for sharing information across the world than with the tools that this company has developed. Fig 1 displays the reach of Google as compared to the next largest web locations in 2011, when the company first passed the one billion threshold.

           Some differences exist between the two different methods of story mapping, and the ultimate goal of this week is to decide what will be used for the final project. Furthermore, a final project proposal will be put forward this week to outline the work that I will be doing for the rest of the semester.

Figure 1: a comparison of web traffic. Source: digital strategy consulting.

Methods:
          The first step in creating a story map with this process is making sure that the computer being used for this project has the necessary Google tools. Google Earth needs to be installed, as does the "Tour Builder" extension (currently in beta). Both can be downloaded for free from the links given, provided that you have the permissions on your network to do so *ahem*. You will also need a Google account.

figure 2: adding a location

          From here, the process could not be easier. Unlike in the ESRI software, photos can be uploaded to and hosted on Google within the interface of the Tour Builder, directly from your computer. In order to locate them in the tour, simply search for or otherwise locate the place that you wish to place a tour marker, and place it (fig 2)! After the location is set, Tour Builder then allows users to upload pictures, set dates for the location, and write a description of the piece (fig 3). This is also where developers can upload KML track logs or points as layers to the map, unfortunately the extension does not support shapefiles. Saving is automatic, and upon completion of the project the developer has a link that can be shared.

figure 3: adding information

Results:

figure 4: the final tour

          Figure 4 is a screenshot of my final interactive story map, which can be found here.  In the left window is a the image that was uploaded and an introduction to the tour is displayed. As users click the "next" button, of course they are guided through the tour in much the same way as ESRI's tours worked.  There were two major differences experienced through this project with ArcGIS Online.
          1) Google was easier. AGO gave a number of classmates difficulty in creating their product, whereas the google platform was a straightforward as could be hoped for.  Google was user-friendly, for the developer, and ESRI was simply not. If I was making an application to share in a casual environment, Google wins eight days a week.
          2) ESRI provides options. In a perhaps foreseeable trade-off between functionality and ease-of-use, the ArcGIS Online platform allowed me far greater control over the final presentation of my product. Furthermore, I was able to add far more types of geospatial data where the Google Platform was relegated to only KML and GME. I could edit each and every color, box, and location in the template from ESRI but with Google you are more or less stuck with what you've got. However, a final note, the Tour Builder is still in Beta. 

Sources:

Bonnet, Alistair. "What is Geography?" Sage, 2008.

"Top 5 global websites: Google breaks record with 1 billion monthly users." Ret. 10/20/13. http://www.digitalstrategyconsulting.com/intelligence/2011/06/top_5_global_websites_google_b.php