I’ve just come back from Dublin as Emmet and I decided it was time to meet face-to-face again. The main goal of the meeting was to discuss the future direction of theirwork and to look at its current status in relationship to other online Green mapping projects.

We made these decisions.

-The summer is about collecting new data and putting it on the map and on flickr
-The late summer is about standing back and looking at the data
-The autumn is about making contact with Green Mappers to check on our direction
-The late autumn is about finding and writing a grant so the project can develop

The main Green Map project we looked at was the Glasgow Green Map project because it seems like us; one of their main goals is to release an open-source way of Green Mapping. Their code was originally taken from the Cork Green Map which was developed by Diarmaid, and his code was developed from Emmet’s code via this cool wee project he did some time ago - Galway Free WiFI hotspots

Here’s in part how the project was introduced to the Green Map network this February.

“My name is Kevin McDonagh. I am a web developer and programmer living in Glasgow, Scotland. Recently I have been part of a community project to make a green map for the city of Glasgow. It is our aim to make both a paper and web based green map that will attractively outline eco-friendly resources in our dear city. We are working with the code that was originally developed for the Cork green Map. Seb and Diarmaid begun developing their map with the intention that it could one day be open sourced as an ‘Open Green Map System’. This would be a fully developed open source software package that anyone could use to develop their own Green map for their community.”

Here’s notes from this blog about how we planned to develop the project.

Realisation that there is no out of the box solution to help Green Maps get online (unless they are going to use Google Maps)
Discussed usefulness of the project as an open source release aimed at getting Green Mappers off the ground
Noted a big difference in the *type* of data that we’re going to use on a map - soft data, stories - not just hard data, points.
A new aim - to bridge the gap between environmentalists/designers, and open source programmers/developers
Stated that open source programmers need designers, Green Mapmakers need designers, designers need programmers

Whilst I was in Ireland, Emmet introduced theirwork to a Glasgow team member online. I hope in the autumn, once we have more data, and we can see further how they are developing, we can meet for a chat. Emmet and I went to visit Sustainable Ireland to have a catch up too but it was closed. I usually try and catch Eric or Ray whilst in Dublin and tell them how we are getting on. (I often see Davie there, putting out some of the latest green products in the shop.) I am sure it was Eric’s bike that was parked beautifully outside. Next time, I will book in with them.

In general the rest of the trip was about hanging out and taking a breath. In the past, we have just caned a bunch of work and put in a few Guinness’s. This time, Emmet and his girlfriend Paula and I did lots of walking, talking and eating. We did some computing and drinking of course. All in all I am refreshed to run the next set of theirwork workshops which I will post up here soon. Technically things will be on hold until decisions about direction and developers are found. Emmet’s cancelling out our wiki development area and has set the project up on Google Code instead, which is way cool. We can now at least link to Glasgow this way, and this is their blog.

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