Create a plan and take action to create a collaborative map

Step one: Understand and plan for the needs of your collaborative map

  • Who are the stakeholders that can share the information needed for your project?
  • What features are most appropriate for the information needed: markers, lines or polygons? What additional observed or annotated data is needed?
  • When can a training be scheduled? When do you want to complete your collaborative map?
  • Where can you hold a training that has the internet bandwidth to support multiple computers?
  • How will you support various levels of technological knowhow?

Step two: Decide if you will be providing in-person training for your stakeholders to learn collaborative mapping. If training is not possible or unnecessary, skip to step 4.

Step three: Hold a collaborative mapping training session

  • Provide or request that stakeholders bring laptops or tablets and have a pre-existing Google account
  • Add stakeholder Google account email addresses to a pre-made Google My Maps map
  • Demonstrate how markers, lines and polygons can be added and how icons and colors can be edited
  • Change the sharing permissions if stakeholders need permission to share the map with additional viewers or editors after leaving the training session

Step four: Collaborate in-person or virtually on your map

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