You guys have gotten a great start on this project, and I’m glad that it sounds like the visit to the GIS/Data center prompted a lot of good ideas!
One sense I get from your post is that you’re still sorting out what could be done technically. As you plan, my main recommendation is this: don’t base your “next actions” as a group just on the technical possibilities of the software. You want your “next actions” to be guided by “the view from 50,000 feet”–that is, by some sense of your mission or purpose as a group. What is it that you want a viewer of your map to learn or understand that only a map can really show them?
As you think about that question, it might be useful to think back to earlier discussions we’ve had in the semester that involved geography or maps.
For example, when we walked to the statue the very first day, was your impression of the statue at all shaped by its surroundings and placement in the Medical Center? Would your impression have been different if it had been placed in the location were the statue to Hermann stands now (since this was the original site considered for it, according to document DD0006)?
In class, we also have looked at maps of the streets named to Dowling and their location near Emancipation Park, and discussed the possible implications of that. Whether you put those particular locations on the map or not, are there issues raised by that discussion that relate to your map?
One of the other salient examples of a map we have looked at in class was the animated map showing “the Civil War in four minutes,” which demonstrated the shifting zones of emancipation during the Civil War. This was a map that combined “pin” locations (the battles that flashed on) with “layers,” so thinking about it and what the map itself taught you as a viewer may help you make decisions about what to include on your map.
My main point, though, is to urge you to consider your mission and even try to give it a statement. I’ll be asking you to do that for your contract as a group.