A professor brought this question to our office yesterday – what interactive mapping software is out there for students to create interactive and maps to explore the Middle Ages. It was a very good question – she had done some research having met the folks behind Fabula Maps. A great example of what is possible with their mapping software is Mapping Zika a history of following the Zika virus. Fabula is a paid product, so I was curious what other alternatives are out there.
Coming from the Public Library in Washington, DC I had done a bit of work alongside an independent organization (who often worked out of the public library) called MapStory which is an Open Source mapping platform.
An example of what is possible with MapStory:
My friend, David Ramos, also has an interesting approach to creating maps to help teach and some of his maps can be found on his website.I particularly like Dave’s Brewer’s Archipelago and Distillery Islands map of Washington, DC. Visualizing the location(s) of these kind of facilities in a non traditional way to think about how we build and what we build where.
I lastly shared information about FallingFruit a collaborative map which I have actually located some delicious mulberry trees through.
I don’t know all of what is possible. I’m curious what other resources are out there for story telling through maps and collaborative mapping software(s).
When I led a murals walking tour of Richmond, VA I led folks through the murals using a google map I had set up – they could refer back to it as some of the pictures as well through the map which is a way I’ve used interactive mapping in google previously. I recently decided when writing this post to update my map as well, so as to provide the most current information about the murals. Pretty cool how you can go back into your maps to provide the most relevant data. Now I can update my google map with photos as well, so its its own kind of unique creative mapping tool as well.