Mapping site to let multiple users to plot points on a map?

April 9, 2015 5:44 AM

Basically what I am looking for would be a map I could post on a facebook page or group, and everybody who sees it could add their general location. The points plotted would need some sort of key or the ability to let viewers hover over a point to know who is at each place marker, an possibly a few detals.

(In case it matters, the important aspect is the city/country rather than the exact address).

Everything I have found or tried seems to be geared towards situations where just one person manages and uploads the data.

I am having trouble finding a site which allows multiple people to add or edit the map (even better, no log in necessary). The idea would be to avoid ones where every user has to download the whole batch, add theirs, and re-upload... just because there is a high potential that someone could mess that up and its not very user friendly for the people who dont work with spreadsheets.

These must be out there, and if so, any particular benefits of one over another?

posted by nzydarkxj to Technology (4 answers total)

I think you could use MapAList and Google Forms to do this. Google Forms automatically feeds the submitted data into a Google Spreadsheet, but the people who are entering the data don't have to modify the spreadsheet themselves, and there's no chance of any user accidentally screwing up the data. Then you would point MapAList at the resulting spreadsheet, and it would create the map for you.

(Disclaimer: I've never actually used MapAList, so this may not work the way I think it will.)
posted by Johnny Assay at 5:57 AM on April 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Have you looked at Google Maps? You would have to create the map, then publish it with the permissions that anyone who has the link can edit the map. But once you've got that setup done it's a pretty easy-to-use interface for others, can do what you've described, and is 100% web-based.
posted by zebra at 6:16 AM on April 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

ZeeMaps should do this although I doubt you could embed the HTML on Facebook, you'd need your own website.
posted by desjardins at 8:13 AM on April 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Great ideas... I´m going to have to sit down and go through each one to figure out what works best in this situation.
Johnny Assay - I use google forms all the time - this is a great idea to combine with MapAList (being that its real-time is the key advantage I think).

Zebra- Thanks! I definitely considered google maps but did not figure out how other people could contribute to my map.... glad to know the option is there if I set it up correctly.

Desjardins- thanks!! thats the idea, it looks like i could at least share the link on facebook

I may just try to set up all three on a test run and see which is easiest, most intuitive and interesting for the users. Thanks all!
posted by nzydarkxj at 3:06 PM on April 9, 2015