Google themes

For some time Google has opened up its IGoogle theme bars to developers. I looked into it a year ago and found that the instructions made the 1040 tax form look easy by comparison. Recently, I noted that they have put in an interface that makes theme creation about 100 times easier. I started by creating a few from my vast library of pictures from Ireland. Getting the images to display correctly was a process of trial and error. I created 3 or 4 that I wish I could take back, but then got into the swing. Some of these started appearing in the index within days. You can see whatever has been listed so far at: http://www.google.com/ig/directory?q=terry+ballard&hl=en&type=themes . By today, I have nearly 200 themes in the index (If you add one or two a day it adds up pretty fast). The usage counts are interesting. Most show up as <100 subscribers. At first I was doing this just as a lark without any sense of others using the themes. Then one day, one of the themes showed 120 subscribers. Since then more than 30 have popped up with more than 100 at one time or another. Lately, there are always 7 or 8 at a given time with known counts. Things got really interesting in the fall, when one of my themes got some attention, apparently from Google France, and the theme got more than 12,000 subscribers.

YouTube

A few months ago, I realized that my 'B' digital camera can take video with sound that can be uploaded to YouTube. I found out that snippets less than a minute long are most likely to be seen. I've also proved that people will look at anything. See for yourself at
http://www.youtube.com/user/terryballard

Two literary pilgrimage maps - only one still standing

More than a year ago I created a map tracing John Steinbeck's journey with his poodle Charley in the fall of 1960. In time, it got more than 8000 visits and five users rated it to give it 5 stars. One day last week I looked at it and found that someone had hacked it - taken away the ratings and past comments and replacing them with a rather condescending remark about how Steinbeck made up a lot of things in that trip. I complained to Google, waited a week and concluded that Google doesn't much care. So I deleted the map. Google giveth and Google taketh away. I can't imagine how anyone could do that if they don't work for Google, but there are smart people out there who are also psychopathic.

A second map, made at about the same time traces the places in America that have a connection to Mark Twain. It's brand new so I've only got to the places he visited as a journeyman printer. You can see it take shape at http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=102923703941959514621.00045dc9dc76fd8686f0a&z=6

Google Earth Community allows developers to post KML files to promote geotagging projects. Each subject area has two levels. An open level that any member can post to. Then those postings are patrolled by moderators, who sometimes move them into the elite moderated area. When I posted the Charley information last Saturday, I was astonished to find that the posting had been moved up in less than half an hour. Like my ego needed more feeding.

It's Google's World - we just blog in it

I reached a point where there were so many projects I'd created in Google Earth Community, Google Maps and Google Earth Gallery that even I couldn't keep it all straight. So here is what I believe to be a complete list with links:

The first KML I posted to Google Earth Community - our project with digitizing Famine Era records from the Killarney workhouse:
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=modEarthHistory&Number=1223296&fpart=&PHPSESSIDCat=0&Board=modEarthHistory&Number=1223296&fpart=&PHPSESSID=

This is my second KML provided to Google Earth Community - a description of the work done by Quinnipiac personnel to explore the ruins of the workhouse at Cahirciveen on the Ring of Kerry:
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=modEarthTourism&Number=1231200&fpart=&PHPSESSID=
Like the link to Killarney, this can be seen in Google Earth without going through The Community Forum - you just need to have your Google Earth set to display Gallery/Google Earth Community.

We began digitizing books of Connecticut History in 2001. Here is a map of Connecticut with links to specific locales of these titles:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=102923703941959514621.00045a50ce04a3d67f406&mid=1225998327ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=102923703941959514621.00045a50ce04a3d67f406&mid=1225998327



On a similar note, I've begun a map of Ireland showing our various initiatives, including digitized books, famine records, and various library partnerships:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=102923703941959514621.00045ae07678b7283150die=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=102923703941959514621.00045ae07678b7283150d

Here's one that I just did for the practice of making a Google Maps file with a large number of placemarks. Since it gathered more than 500 hits in its first two weeks, I suppose I'll keep growing the thing: http://tinyurl.com/5o8rh2
Eighteen years in the making, it's our guide to the best places for food in Manhattan.

25 years ago, I wrote a script for a video production in education class showing what would happen if a modern reporter could go back in time and interview the philosopher Diogenes the Cynic. The script sat in a drawer until the web came along and I published it there. I've seen that at least one college class acted the thing out, and it's been visited thousands of times. Now in the age of geotagging, I've created a file that will allow you to open Google Earth (or maps) and visit Diogenes' home town of Sinope in Turkey:
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1238726/an/0/page/1#1238726