the flow blog

I’ve been busy beavering away at a new route and ride page for the flowmtb website. What I came up with is no more than the joining of two ideas already out there on the web.

The plotting of GPS routes onto an online map. And the geo locating of photos onto an online map (http://loc.alize.us)
here’s the link: http://www.flowmtb.com/findyourflow
Here’s the idea: You can view various routes online, and view images from along or around that route. Simple stuff.

The real beauty is that the images are loaded in from Flickr (in my opinion the best online photo gallery site) – and plotted onto a Google Map (the best online map – IMO).

It started out by loading in MY images from Flickr, and plotting MY routes – but then I thought “why only mine?” and so I widened the net and it now grabs ANYONES images from Flickr – and shortly I will be adding an upload form so that anyone can add in routes.

It’s amazing how much time you can spend just browsing around the map, loading in photos and seeing what’s actually there.. I love it!

This is the caring sharing internet, so anyone can download a route to use on their GPS, and anyone will be able to upload them.

How to get your pictures on the map:

Two stages really – firstly you need to have a Flickr account, and upload your photos to Flickr.

Secondly you need to ‘Geo Tag’ them – that is give the photo a coordinate of where it was taken. Now this may sound hard, but really it’s not – all you do is use this link below. You need to drag the link to your bookmarks toolbar. Once it’s there, visit a photo page on Flickr, and press the link on your bookmark tool bar. You should then be presented with a google map and the chance to click it where the pic was taken. Simple as that.

DRAG THIS LINK TO YOUR TOOLBAR TO CREATE A SHORTCUT

How to get your routes on the map:

For the time being, if you could email me your GPS route that’d be great. I’ll manually put it into the site until I create an upload form.

And that is that!

Nice one

Guy