OUTCROPS.ORG: AN EXAMPLE OF COMAPPING -- COOPERATIVE, COMMUNAL, WEB-BASED MAPPING WITH FULL CONTENT MANAGEMENT

Comapping is the development and presentation of rich digital content with spatial context by cooperative groups or communities, in an interactive and realtime digital environment. Comapping stands for community, cooperative or collaborative mapping. Making digital maps of content in pre-existing databases, no matter how it was collected is not comapping... members of a community should be actively engaged in the mapping effort and capable of editing their contributions in realtime. A comapping suite or stack is a collection of software that works together to offer a comapping solution, and typically includes (1) a content management system (CMS) to handle rich digital content, (2) GIS software to handle mapping and spatial context for the CMS, and (3) network aware applications to provide a secure, interactive, digital environment. Commercial GIS packages typically lack robust handling of customizable content types and consideration for collaborative workgroups. CMS packages merge community-oriented features (members, permissions, workflows) with rich digital content development and indexing tools, but they lack spatial content handling. Comapping combines these capabilities to give mapping power to online communities.

Outcrops.org is a website established to showcase good outcrops and geologic features around the world, and as an example to demonstrate comapping in action. Outcrops.org uses open source CMS software (Plone) with the Google Maps API serving as a simple GIS component. Outcrops.org is designed to allow volunteer users (anyone can join) to use a simple web form to enter information about an interesting outcrop, and upload photos. When the form is completed, the user can submit the outcrop for review by the website content reviewers. When accepted the new outcrop will have an icon appear on the master map of the world. All text information entered about each outcrop is indexed for searching, allowing visitors to search for any terms (e.g., sandstone) and have a map appear with only those outcrops shown. The current website for Outcrops.org is alpha quality, working but with prototype content handling. The beta version should be operational by the time of this presentation.