A map less ordinary


1 Feb 2008

Ireland’s Reserve Defence Forces have put themselves on the map, literally, with a new application or mash-up called Unit Locator which uses Google Maps to tag both the army reserve and the naval reserve throughout Ireland for any Google user to see.

The Unit Locator – created by a member of the Reserve Defence Forces and located at www.military.ie/reserves/locator/– visually represents all three territorial brigade areas throughout Ireland, with the ability to zoom in and get contact information and directions to each individual unit.

The Google-powered map can be customised to view brigade by county or by separate corps such as infantry, cavalry or engineers.

This Unit Locator by the Reserve Defence Forces is an example of the kind of useful, interactive maps being created by Irish organisations and individuals with the Google Maps API (application programming interface).

Another example is the Dublin Traffic Map developed by www.iqcontent.com which uses AA Roadwatch information and combines it with Google Maps to give a constantly updated visual representation of traffic delays around Dublin city.

Another earlier example, which has been available for several years, is Dartmaps, which was developed by www.mackers.com and takes real-time information on DART times from IrishRail.ie and works it into Google Maps along with an animation showing the real-time movement of individual DART trains.

By Marie Boran