Mapping: Community Walk

I’ve recently been drooling over Google maps mashups. I’m coming into the game late, and I lack the programming skills to produce anything like these maps of homicides in New York City, Spokane residents’ stories about a big snowfall* and happy hours in Washington, D.C.)

But the rise of mashups has inspired some easy-to-use, free tools on the Web for neophytes like me. For instance, I used Community Walk to create this map of places I’ve lived. While I wouldn’t use this site for my job, it’s a functional resource for personal projects.

Community Walk offers its own tutorials, so I won’t bother with that here. But here are a couple things I like about the service.

• Bulk editing: Once you’ve placed a couple markers, you can download the data as a csv (comma separated values) file and continue editing in a spreadsheet. I found this to be a lot faster than using the online interface, and it gave me access to features I didn’t find online, such as ordering my markers.
• Multimedia: You can add audio to your markers. Although I didn’t do this with my project, I like the idea. Might be a good way to add ambiance to a map of neighborhood watering holes or hikes.
• Clean interface: I never take this characteristic for granted. I found it exceptionally easy to navigate the mapmaking functions. That said, I found the presentation of the finished map to be a little clunky. For a few bucks you can remove the ads from your map, which takes care of some of the clutter. But the navigation sidebar feels too wide.

The verdict: Until I build my chops to the point that I can make this kind of map using API tools, Community Walk is a good stepping stone.

*Disclosures: A friend of mine was involved in creating the homicide map; my boss created the Spokane map; and another friend was the sole force behind the happy hours map.