Google recently held the Google Earth Outreach Programme Trainers of Trainers programme at the ILRI campus. The programme is very helpful. I found it fast and takes one to the basics. So for a techie like me, i had done a couple of their assignments in no time. Well i did learn some useful stuff. Especially on KML timelines. This i found very very interesting and keep an eye open, will release a small app making use of that. The other thing that knocked me off is the network link. I always used to see this thing but never bothered my self to figure out what it is. I normally have a script that creates a kml file from my postgis database. How do i render this on Google Earth synchronously, well this is what that link does.
The other thing i learnt was on why JSON and XML are preferred in certain instances. This has always been a hazzy issue for me but i finally got it. It depends with the level of interactiveity you need from the system. This is relative on a couple of factors.I also liked the practice session on fusion tables and its intelligence. I have never worked with it before and loved the reports it would give me. The merge function was also another thing i liked. Hopefully my work will now reduce. The idea of virtual tours was also pretty nice. I liked it. Then there was the techie’s session, we looked at some KML specification. I had no clue on the time stamp. I also got to learn the difference on Timestamp, when attached to a view and when attached to a POI.
The classes were pretty nice and interactive. Acouple of guys there belonged to the NGO communicty. except one or two. I also got to learn the GeoRSS can not be enbeded in Google Reader. It can be read by Google Maps and Google Earth. My initial idea, was that in my reader a map would be displayed with the POIs. But this is not the case.
Thanks to ILRI the food and tea was great, though next time they need to understand that milk is very necessary. Si “turungi” na “Kahawa thungu” pekee.(That means, black tea and black coffee only). I also got a google tee. It was great. I also got a cert. “Weee Weeee”. Though the only day google got the chance to buy me dinner, i threw it away. Did not find them inviting enough. There was like a wall between the attendees and the Googler’s. Though i found Sean very nyc and know his stuff. The other completly techie stuff i learnt was on projection. This is something that has always bugged me. Learnt to always use standard projection.
All in all it was great.
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