How could I plot distributed team members on a map?
December 13, 2021 9:30 PM Subscribe
My company has about 75 people located all around the US. How might we create a map of people's home locations that is easy to maintain and works within our existing tools? We do not want to use this to *track* people's location, just show their home city location on a map so we can visualize how we're all distributed.
We use Google Workplace, Slack, and Organimi already and I'm hoping not to add another separate tool unless it can share data easily with our existing tools. I'm open to people adding their own home locations manually as long as it's easy for people who aren't tech savvy. I would like for it to be only viewable by staff within the company. Ideally it would not need to be manually adjusted every time someone joins or leaves the company. I'm not a developer but we may have some engineers on staff who could build something like a Slack app. Any ideas are much appreciated!
We use Google Workplace, Slack, and Organimi already and I'm hoping not to add another separate tool unless it can share data easily with our existing tools. I'm open to people adding their own home locations manually as long as it's easy for people who aren't tech savvy. I would like for it to be only viewable by staff within the company. Ideally it would not need to be manually adjusted every time someone joins or leaves the company. I'm not a developer but we may have some engineers on staff who could build something like a Slack app. Any ideas are much appreciated!
Google Maps seems obvious. But, please verify with every person that it's okay with them. Not everyone wants their personal location shared, and a non-trivial percentage of people have been or are being stalked.
posted by theora55 at 4:20 AM on December 14, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 4:20 AM on December 14, 2021 [6 favorites]
We do not want to use this to *track* people's location, just show their home city location on a map so we can visualize how we're all distributed.
The first question should always be "what problem are we having that will be solved by adding feature"
Otherwise, Google Maps should be able to do this, but do consider how fine a detail this should be. Do you need to know everyone's city 0r will their state suffice?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:22 AM on December 14, 2021 [3 favorites]
The first question should always be "what problem are we having that will be solved by adding feature"
Otherwise, Google Maps should be able to do this, but do consider how fine a detail this should be. Do you need to know everyone's city 0r will their state suffice?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:22 AM on December 14, 2021 [3 favorites]
Best answer: A list of addresses from a Google sheets document can easily be added into the desktop version of Google MyMaps (which is not quite the same thing as Google Maps). This link shows you how to do it in a simple way and then also goes into an explanation of making an auto updating version.
I agree that if you are using people's home addresses that are not usually published, you should be careful here. Look at obscuring the actual data by using the lat/long coordinates for their city from wikipedia or just using zip codes. If you have an actual Google Map that you are going to publish, even with limited access, it will be easy to get to the underlying data.
posted by soelo at 6:26 AM on December 14, 2021
I agree that if you are using people's home addresses that are not usually published, you should be careful here. Look at obscuring the actual data by using the lat/long coordinates for their city from wikipedia or just using zip codes. If you have an actual Google Map that you are going to publish, even with limited access, it will be easy to get to the underlying data.
posted by soelo at 6:26 AM on December 14, 2021
Quick note about zip codes: in some places, they can be extremely specific, occasionally pinpointing individual buildings in Manhattan for example.
posted by Ryon at 12:07 PM on December 14, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Ryon at 12:07 PM on December 14, 2021 [4 favorites]
Best answer: Google sheets document can easily be added into the desktop version of Google MyMaps
the online version mymaps.google.com will do this too. I created a map of everyone in our office so we could better decide a more central location for our office move
posted by Dr. Twist at 12:29 PM on December 14, 2021
the online version mymaps.google.com will do this too. I created a map of everyone in our office so we could better decide a more central location for our office move
posted by Dr. Twist at 12:29 PM on December 14, 2021
If you're a little HTML/JS savvy (or have access to someone who is) you can get a Google Maps API key then use Google Charts Geocoded Locations to do this pretty easily.
posted by axiom at 12:11 PM on December 15, 2021
posted by axiom at 12:11 PM on December 15, 2021
This thread is closed to new comments.
You can manually pin locations, or your engineers could use the Google Maps API to do it programatically if you want to automatically update your map based on changes made to your employee database.
posted by underclocked at 10:12 PM on December 13, 2021 [1 favorite]