Google Map of SL research groups

[Mark A. Mandel]

If "Anybody can make changes", and all it takes is a Google username, then sooner or later, some of the bad citizens of the Web community will do so. At the moment anyone can register themself on the map and make any changes they want to. That's not good. Demonstration:

Go to the map and drag it north so you can see Antarctica. Click on the volcano marker there for the description of what is located there:
> Proof of insecurity.

> There is no sign language research in Antarctica. I have placed this marker to demonstrate the desireabilty of restricting access to this map. -- Mark Mandel


And I did that from a different Google account than I use for my normal email. For that matter, my subscription to this list is not through Google, but through my office email.

There should be at least light control over editing access to the map. Google's instructions, under "Maps > Help > Custom Maps", say (I have added formatting to connect them to the subsequent paragraph):
	1.	Create or edit a map.
	2.	Click Collaborate in the left panel. A dialog box appears.
	3.	Enter or choose the following:
◦	Invite persons as collaborators - Enter the email address(s) of anyone you want to collaborate on your map.
◦	Message - Type the message you want to appear in the invitation to your collaborators
◦	Collaborators may invite others - Check this to allow your collaborators to allow other collaborators
◦	Allow anyone to edit this map - Check this to enable any Google Maps users to edit your map
◦	Collaborators - You can remove any or all collaborators
	4.	Click OK. Google Maps sends an invitation to any collaborators you specified.

My suggestion, which would probably have to be initiated by the original creator of the map:
Uncheck "Allow anyone to edit this map".
"Invite" every SLL subscriber who has expressed interest in working on the map to be a collaborator.
Possibly, uncheck "Collaborators may invite others". That would increase control but also the amount of work required.

That wouldn't be a lot of work. It seems to me that it would take an hour or two at the start, to invite all listies who have expressed interest to become collaborators. After that it would take just a minute or two to add new collaborators as they request access.

I'm not volunteering for the work, though. Let someone younger and more energetic do that.

Mark
--
Mark A. Mandel
Linguistic Data Consortium
University of Pennsylvania

(P.S. to all: Please be careful, when replying to the list, not to quote the whole issue. E.g., see the bottom of this message, where I have cut out almost the entire doubly-quoted contents of SLLING-L issue #2012-43. Also, please remember to change your subject line to somethingmore specific than "Re: SLLING-L Digest - 15 Apr 2012 to 16 Apr 2012 (#2012-43))". [Confession: I would have forgotten if I hadn't been reminded by seeing Shane's post, subject "Verena's Google Map of SL research groups", listed after about thirty subject lines "Re: SLLING-L Digest - __ Apr 2012 to __ Apr 2012 (#2012-__)"!] )

On 12.04.19, at 11:22 AM, Dr. Verena Krausneker wrote:

> Regarding the google map:
> 
> My students are just amazed that reactions are so enthusiastic. :-) Yesterday in class some of them decided to gradually translate all our German infoboxes into English so content becomes more widely readable.
> Neither they nor I have any interest in personally keeping it updated and I dont see any need for that as the SL research community members can probaby very well regulate themselves, I hope.
> We just started it, have no copyright on it and would be happy if it would keep itself or would be adopted by SLLS. The idea is exactly that anybody can alter, update and add themselves to this google map.
> 
> Technically that means: I have changed the Maps' Settings to "Anybody can make changes". Now anybody can register and then log into Google Maps and then go to this specific map and add another marker or cange information/links.
> Please, Webmaster Onno, could you try to access it as I just described?
> 
> It would be great if SLLS could link the Sign Language Research Google Map: http://g.co/maps/b97a6
> 
> best,
> verena
> 
> 
> Am 19.04.2012 um 06:00 schrieb SLLING-L automatic digest system:
> 
>> There is 1 message totalling 3887 lines in this issue.
>> 
>> Topics of the day:
>> 
>> 1. SLLING-L Digest - 15 Apr 2012 to 16 Apr 2012 (#2012-43)

[cut out; m a m]

>> End of SLLING-L Digest - 17 Apr 2012 to 18 Apr 2012 (#2012-46)
>> **************************************************************

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/slling-l/attachments/20120419/d3c9c059/attachment.htm>