Where Are We Meeting Up?

 

Making collective political progress means getting people together en mass: for picket lines, direct actions, People's Assemblies, protests and common or garden meetings.

• How do we best specify where we meet up, to help folk find out where to be and when?
• How do we minimise our events' carbon footprint by encouraging folk to use Public Transport?

 

Let's look at a recent example:

 

Actual Shout Out Text:

We'll be meeting at 8PM at the Fountains Abbey pub on Praed Street near Paddington train station. For guidance on the night, contact: 07123 456 789 and try to bring a bike if possible.

 

My Recommendation:

Our rendezvous is as follows:

• Fountains Abbey pub

• Date: 20:00, Friday 12 March 2010

• Location: 109 Praed Street, London, W2 1RL

» Street View / Interactive Map – http://tinyurl.com/FApub-SVmap

• Phone contact on the night: 07 123 456 789

• What to bring: a bike if possible

• Public Transport: Paddington rail and tube station (Bakerloo, Circle & District lines) – 3 mins walk, 300 m

• Journey Planners:

» TfL – http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk 

» Nationa Rail – http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk 

» Transport Direct – http://www.transportdirect.info 

 

Notes:

• always give as full an address as possible

• always include the full postcode – it helps people with GPS sat-nav enabled SmartPhones, PDAs, tablets, and dedicated sat-nav devices to locate the right place

• wherever possible, include a 'Public Transport:' line, and info about how to get there by Public Transport

• include clickable links to relevant online Journey Planner websites, to make finding the best Public Transport route as easy as possible

 

Clicking on the 'Street View / Interactive Map' link opens a new window containing: 

 

Pretty precise, accurate, useful and memorable, eh?

 

So, what follows are detailed instructions on how to create a 'Street View / Interactive Map' link of your own, for your own meet up point.

 

 

 

How to make a 'Street View / Interactive Map' shortcut link 

In order to describe how to make your own, I'll use a worked example: the Cogers debating society's Special Debate on the United Kingdom Constitution.

 

1. Locate the venue in Google Maps

» search on "The George, 213 Strand, London" at http://maps.google.co.uk which gives:

 

Well, that won't do, it's way too ambiguous. But it does yield the fully specified address at 'E' – '213 The Strand, London, WC2R 1AP', so let's:

» search again on that string "213 The Strand, London, WC2R 1AP" at at maps.google.co.uk which gives:

 

That's better – a unique location, which is what we're after.

 

 

2. Flip into Street View

» click on the 'A' symbol on the map – an info call-out pops up:

 

» In the info call-out pop-up, click on the Street view link – the main pane flips into Street View:

 

Uh-oh: that's 46 Essex Street, not The George, 213 Strand – unfortunately, clicking on the Street view link in an info call-out pop-up seldom yields an exact result, but it does get us close.

 

 

3. Frame a Photo of the Venue in Street View

Use the view-changing controls in Street View to navigate to an optimum photo-framing position:

» use the mouse pointer in the photo pane to drag the camera view around and change the view direction

» click on the arrows on road lines to move the camera point along the road in that direction by one hop (usually 2-3 metres)

» double-click on a place in the scene to move the camera point to that place

» in the map square in the bottom-right corner, drag and drop the yellow person to a new place to move the camera point to that place

 

By using these navigation techniques, you'll most likely be able to frame a photo of the venue in it's geographical context; for instance, for The George pub:

 

Nicely, nicely – that'll do!

 

 

4. Frame Public Transport Options

Use the view-changing controls in the map square in the bottom-right corner to frame the nearest Public Transport nodes: bus stops, train and tube stations, and the like.

» use the '+' and '-' buttons to zoom out and zoom in respectively

» use the mouse pointer in the map pane to drag the map around and pan across it

 

By using these navigation techniques, you'll most likely be able to frame a map containing both the yellow man outside the venue and the nearest significant Public Transport node; for instance:

 

 

5. Grab the Link URL and Make of it a Shortcut Link

» click on the 'Link' link to open the links box:

 

» copy the highlighted link URL to the clipboard (eg: Mac OS X: cmd+C; Windows: ctrl+C)

 

Unfortunately, the link text is a huge long URL; for example: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=213+The+Strand,+London,+WC2R+1AP&sll=51.516656,-0.111592&sspn=0.043744,0.09819&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=213+Strand,+London+WC2R+1AP,+United+Kingdom&ll=51.513043,-0.113254&spn=0.010937,0.024548&z=16&layer=c&cbll=51.513346,-0.113614&panoid=73fJmEjR5Y14pYfiSkpJSQ&cbp=12,125.89,,0,-3.42 

 

So to make a more conveniently short linking URL, you can use a URL shortcut website; for instance: Tiny URL – http://tinyurl.com 

 

» go to a URL shortcut website such as http://tinyurl.com:

 

» paste the huge long URL into the 'Enter a long URL to make tiny:' field (eg: Mac OS X: cmd+V; Windows: ctrl+V)

» enter a sensible text string into the 'Custom alias (optional):' field, eg: GrgPub-SVmap:

» click on the [Make TinyURL!] button, and you're all done:

 

Now you can use the shortcut URL, such as , in mobilising for your meet up; for example:

 

The Special Debate happens here:

• The George pub

• Date: 19:00, Monday 19 April 2010

• Location: 213 The Strand, London, WC2R 1AP

» Street View / Interactive Map – http://tinyurl.com/GrgPub-SVmap