mapanno - doing more with your pictures!
About mashup

What is mapanno mashup?

mapanno mashup is a web based service providing a set of online authoring tools to create visual content by 'mashing up' your images from flickr or 23 into content that you can download and publish to your own website or blog.

A mapanno mash can be described as - a graphic or image that has been covered with visual tags a bit like using paper post-it notes or drawing a concept map.

A typical mapanno published to the web maybe inserted 'inline' with your existing content or placed over your content as an 'overlay'. The following examples demonstrate these:

Inline
1
individual...
2
fun...
3
colourful...
4
engaging...
5

Overlay
  • Example of anotating an image with overlaid pop out images and notes.
  • When choosing the overlay option you can create a 'slide show' of images - this example Software Walkthrough contains two annotated slides. The subject is 'Resizing and Exporting Images' using the free Google Picasa.

How accessible is mapanno mashup content?

The mapanno content uses standard web browser technology - html, css, images and javascript which combined are commonly known as 'dynamic html' - or dhtml. To open mapanno content you will need a fairly 'modern' browser such as firefox, opera or internet explorer 6+.

Some key issues addressed by mapanno content are:

Human acessibility and useability

  • It uses an expandable style allowing end readers to resize tag and note text using their browser controls for legibility;
  • It uses specific style settings for both screen and print allowing clear visible printing of hidden tag content;
  • Degradable javascript allowing content to be displayed1 dispite javascript being disabled in the viewing browser;
  • A Creative Commons license is inserted into each mapanno and follows the Creative Commons standards;
  • Content can be accessed using mouse navigation and the keyboard - using the keys 'N' (next) and 'B' (back).
  • There are help pages provided on www.mapanno.com that address issues regarding viewing mapanno content.

Computer compatibility

  • Creating content with standard browser technology means it it is readily accessible by other computers such as search engines. This is an advantage over using a video or flash based technology to achieve similar results. The main reason being that video/flash 'lock' your content inside a 'binary' file which is not readily accessed by other software.
  • Page meta data such as titles, keywords and descriptions are included in the mapanno based on the content you provide;
  • Using common technologies also means that mapanno content is compatible with whatever technology you have on your publishing platform i.e. website, blog or desktop.
1 With javascript disable the 'interactive' features of mapanno content is disabled and content is display as a normal text.

Who is mapanno mashup for

Any individual that has content which maybe enhanced using the visual and interactive stimuli that a mapanno can offer. Read the article 'origination of mapanno' if you want to learn more about the reasoning behind mapanno.

The online authoring tools have been designed to allow those with limited knowledge of web technology to create content, whilst also being flexible enough for those who know a bit more to take it a step further.

Is mapanno mashup free?

Yes, the 'mash' version of mapanno relies on free photo storage services that you maybe already using such as flickr or 23. The mapanno service does not compete with such services as they do a perfectly good job - mapanno is a complimentry 'interface' to those services that allows you to do something a bit more interesting with your images!

How does it work?

Read the following articles to learn more about setting up your account, authoring, publishing and viewing content.

If you are interested in learning more about why and how mapanno was created read origination of mapanno
 
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