Running Google maps

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Back in Chapter 4 of “Principles of Convergent Journalism,” the text talks about Google Earth and discusses how journalists in Chicago have used crime data to make interactive maps with Google, showing crimes on a block-by-block basis. In Chapter 10, we're once again talking about adding multimedia.

One of your assignments this week is to make a simple Google Map. I've done one which you can view below the help video. It shows where I have run marathons (As a reporter, I had A LOT of stress covering Flint City Hall and dealing with editors, so I became a runner. I lost a lot of weight, too). I did it by creating a Google account and following their instructions in the video below.



Next is a wide shot of where I have run marathons. My dad likes to tease me about where I have gone, saying if I want to run 26.2 miles, all I need to do is put on my shoes and run out my front door. Why travel thousands of miles? I hope to run a marathon again in Detroit on Oct. 18, but I will bail if my wife is in labor.


View My marathons in a larger map

Lastly, we have a zoom of New York, where I ran the marathon in 2007 (I created both of these images using the customize embed feature). I thought I could run with Lance Armstrong and I blogged about my experience while I worked for The Flint Journal. I was wrong, but I did get a cool medal. Click on the placemark for a photo that I accessed through Flickr. We'll focus on Flickr more in a few weeks, but if you want to put a photo in, you'll need a place to host your images, so I set up my own account there.


View My marathons in a larger map