Mapping Software

Blessings,

I serve in a very rural ward in Oregon that covers a large area and we are looking for a freeware/opensource mapping program that we can import multiple addresses into to help facilitate home teaching in a more efficient manor, I am open to any suggestions.

Thank You,
Mike Jessop
Vaneta Ward
Vaneta Oregon
megalomikes@gmail.com

I think you are looking for an offline software, since Internet offer many free solutions.

Hello Mike,
Are you looking for routing software? Check out the wiki page at http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Routing

There are several online and offline routing tools that use OSM data - not all of them have open source licenses, such as:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/MapF ... gator_Free
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/GraphHopper
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OpenTripPlanner

I am an open source advocate due to the consumer freedom and public commons values, but open source is not the same as freeware (think of freedom/libre vs no monetary costs/gratis). For a "freeware" solution, each home teacher than needs the route could just put in the multiple addresses in to Google Maps and either print out the route or have the area for offline use on their mobile device.

br, tom

Hi, Mike--
What specifically are you looking to do? For simply looking at your ward boundaries, and the member households marked, the lds.org maps are pretty handy, if limited.
If you are willing to learn a little bit of kml code, you can download the household data from lds.org maps (and your ward clerk/bishop can download boundary kmz files), and manipulate it into a kmz file for use with Google Maps/Google Earth.
I didn't know the first thing about that kind of stuff, but in my last stake was part of a boundary committee and was able to figure out enough of it to make some pretty nice proposed boundaries. (I processed the household data through Excel and a creative mail-merge in Word.)
It would be nice if lds.org maps allowed importing of kmz code. During my boundary work, I spoke with a Church helpdesk rep, who indicated it was an oft-requested suggestion. Maybe a future feature?
Good luck,
D.G.

PS--Since a recent coincidental move, I'm now in your neighbor ward (Eugene 1st)!

Some of this stuff will be coming to future versions of LDS Maps. Check out the presentation "LDS Maps: Now and in the Future" from the recent LDSTech conference:
http://broadcast.lds.org/ICS/techcon201 ... -2013.html

Google Earth
QGiS
Google Maps - MyMaps (Cloud based)
ESRI AGOL - Cloud based

All good options

the better question could be, how do we get access to the data to put them seamlessly into these platforms.

In the US, Canada, and western Europe government agencies make lots of geospatial data available, but non-public data (e.g. the Church, banks, etc) are not released. (This is a good thing.) These organizations need to keep control of data as it is private information.

The key broader geospatial 'user-ship' among local leaders will be when we have geospatial apps being processed on the cloud... that way private data are protected, and public data may be mashed up with private data. The apps need to be limited in function and in exposure.