We are the world
*We are the world.* You probably remember Freddy, the mean green joke-machine, who summoned (From the Grumpy Old Man:Taken) the SDN community to collaborate in another way during my enforced absence. Since that demand didn’t evoke a lot of response, Freddy doesn’t believe me anymore when I say that the SDN community has over 250K members, not even when Amir Blich confirmed that 250K was a conservative estimate. Freddy challenged me to prove this with hard facts. *Earthlings* So I wondered what the best way was to prove my assertion. After all, he is not of this world and I assume/presume that he isn’t terribly interested in lists of figures. I also wanted to protect the privacy of the SDN members. Then, after having endured yet another noisy, sleepless night (caused by my daughter not wanting to sleep anymore, apparently because of the supposed presence of ghosts in her room, and various other groundless fears put forward to justify the need to sleep between her parents), I began to see (very early) daylight. I personally need to visualize things and I wondered which the most effective way was in order to show these figures to a little green machine. When “eureka” it came to me – why not use a map of the world showing where all the people of the SDN community reside! *Off the map* Now that I had determined the underlying idea, I still needed to implement it. Thus I started to look for a possible mapping solution. There are plenty of them out there, since it is a hot topic these days. As with many of these hypes, one can doubt the utility of the hype, but in this case it did prove rather useful. To tell the truth I’ve wanted to do something with it for a while. I was just waiting for the right incentive and then to find the best software. The first big criterion was the price or, even better, the lack of it. Regardless of the intriguing factor of the challenge, I didn’t want to run the risk of incurring moral and pecuniary regrets. Furthermore, I wanted to have as much control over things as possible and even to host things by myself. It took me a while, but I found the ideal software in the form of worldKit (http://worldkit.org/). I was very impressed by the number of different implementations (http://worldkit.org/examples.php) available which proved its flexibility. It might not be the most fancy of the possible solutions available, but it suited the job I had in mind perfectly. *Keep it simple* Atom and RSS 1.0 are also supported. More info on all of this can be found at this location (http://worldkit.org/doc/). ** The XML for one location needs to be added to the existing file which the map (generated in Flash) will read. The only thing left to take care of is to make sure that all tags are properly nested and closed which a simple append won’t do. ** ** Refresh the page in order to visualize the newly entered data. In order to prevent problems with the cache, we need to do provide the classical header for not caching things Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate Pragma: no-cache and antedating Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT Why PHP and not, for example, my beloved BSP? Sure BSP could be used too. The only little catch might be the updating of the XML file. In this configuration, the file needs to be in the same directory as the Flash, so you need to pay attention to that. Nevertheless, the main reason for not choosing BSP is the simple fact that SAP is not installed on my personal web server at my provider. And I don’t think that he will install it for me either L. So I stuck to a plain old PHP script without fancy stuff such as AJAX. *Up to you* I need your help in order to convince Freddy that this vibrant community has many members. It won’t even take a minute of your precious time. Just visit this specially constructed page (http://sdn.idizaai.be/sdn_world/world.php) and enter your data. There’s no need to be afraid for your privacy. The info requested (name and BC link) is exactly the same as that which is requested by SDN, and the location data is only saved in the form of a geocode. If you still have doubts: in accordance with article 10 of the Belgian law of December 8, 1992, you can exercise your right of inspection on request. And no, I don’t expect that all >250K members will fill in the data, but that doesn’t count as a valid excuse for not showing Freddy that you’re proud to be an SDN community member.IMPORTANT. It might take some time before all entered members are shown, which keeps us in suspense;-). So, pls DON’T REPOST your entry or press the reload button (Ctrl-R) of your browser if you don’t see yourself appear immediately. The worldKit implementation doesn’t show multiple entries at the same location. If your location is already occupied by somebody else, pls add your entry and notify me in order that it will be shown. Update: This version of SDN World is for documentation purposes only. A newer version is available here (http://sdn.idizaai.be/sdn_world/sdn_world.php) 
now, there are two of us on the map 😉
kr, achim
Great idea as always -:) I already enter my information...But I think that it doesn't get update...I didn't see the counter add me -:'(
Anyway...Hope I'm wrong -:)
Greetings,
Blag.
Love it. Done it. Now I know where exactly in Norway Dagfinn is living 🙂
Small tip: You can find your business card URL in your profile. (Top left Profile Management -> Update profile or if you are on your business card the link is also behind your name.)
Would love to know more about Tomi, currently the most northern SDN member, but the BC link does not work. Didn't know that Finland is going that far up. He/she is probably living in Ivalo.
All the best, Mark.
Tomi didn't provide any BC info. It is advisable to put the BC info (and nothing else) in order that people can see some details. In your BC you can determine what is visible or not.
Eddy
Indeed very funny idea. But I'm a bit disappointed with map used -- it is small and doesn't zoom well. Probably Google Maps will be better option. Btw, it is possible to set markers in Google Map, so functionality will be exactly the same.
Valery
Google maps and others have indeed better features and functionalities, but due to the reasons given in the web log, I have picked worldKit.
However, technology is subordinate to the fact the SDN community can unite via this way.
Eddy
BTW to get the total number of SDNers we could send a huge plea to Craig or Mark. They should be able to figure out the number soon and post them here. Only one number.
Dirk
It shouldn't be black. What browser/OS and Flash plugin do you have installed?
The number entered is a good idea. I see what I can do to include this.
A permanent counter on the home page isn't a bad idea at all:-)
The SDN world app is a nice visual add-on to my feeling.
Eddy
Best regards
Dirk
I just added my own name, perhaps we can work together with Eddy to get this as standard for SDN?
What does everyone think?
If the user log on to SDN, it should be shown in the SDN map.
Peter
okay, I entered my data - but I can't see myself on the map (should be near Boston, USA). I'm guessing that's not normal - should I re-enter?
I've been doing some fine tuning and it should be much better now.
Eddy
Boris
This is great, I just entered my first name though, and it looks a little stupid, can I update the entry?
BTW - the update was almost instantaneous for my entry.
Brad (Williams)
Can you please delete one of my entries...My browser crashes so I though my entry was not saved...But now I think I have two entries...
Alvaro Tejada and Alvaro Tejada Galindo
Please delete the first one -:) Thanx!
Greetings,
Blag.
Which city in India did you want to enter?
Eddy
we dont have zip codes.we have postal codes and these are 6 digit numbers!!!
Just fill in the city and country. It'll work (just tested it).
The zip code is US only.
Eddy
Thanks!!!
My complains about map display aside; I wish sincerely to this post to be most viewable post on SDN! Previous recorded count (Top Weblogs of All Time [3 to 0]) was 15669, so you/we need more to make Freddy believe 😉
Valery
Indeed - we passed the 250,000 member mark last year and we are at 400,000 and growing.
Great initiative - I'm now on the map.
Should we make this app more visible on SDN? You did a good job of hiding the link in your weblog... Can you (would you like to) handle the extra traffic?
Amir.
Now that Amir has posted his location that is Palo Alto Zip 94403 he is the only one on the map. Looks like he overwrote Marco ten Vaanholt who overwrote me when he signed up.
That is a bit unfortunate, Mark.
Maksim Rashchynski overwrote my entry. We both are from Minsk, Belarus.
VS
Thanks for pointig that out. I've been searching for a solution and I didn't get further yet than the option to show the 'older' entries first. It seems to be an old issue with worldKit. I have to look further to find a solution (if any). Sorry for the inconvenience.
Eddy
If there are other people in the same situation, pls notify me to 'fix' things.
As an option: handle click on point yourself, if there is only one person then redirect directly to SDN business card, otherwise open HTML with links including all persons from same location.
Valery
Raja