The mapmaker’s dilemma: What the hell are you doing with your time?

That’s a screen shot of the user interface of the beta version of the mapping software I talked about on Friday.

This version:

• Creates a Google Maps KML file from a list of street addresses
• Assigns a user-selectable map marker to those addresses
• Optionally creates a folder on the file server for that address — to serve as an engenu folder
• Optionally creates folders and folder structures, thus to create an engenu hierarchy
• Optionally builds links from the map markers to the individual street address folders

This is me writing to the Swallow Hill Gang last night, a very brief outline of features and capabilities:

---

Any valid addresses, one to a line, will produce a KML file that can be imported into Google Maps.

Like this, which is me and my best beloved:

314 East El Caminito Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85020

You’ll have the map marker you choose. I’ll be adding more.

If you select Folders, a folder will be created for that address:

“314_East_El_Caminito_Drive,_Phoenix,_AZ_85020”

If you select Links, the folder will be linked from the map marker.

If you select Links without Folders, neither one happens, for obvious reasons.

If you precede a line with a tilde — “~” — a folder is created, and subsequent address lines and their respective folders and links are created hierarchically. Like this:

~Top Level Folder

would create a folder at the top level named “Top_Level_Folder”.

This structure:

~Top Level Folder
314 East El Caminito Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85020

would create a link to a folder from the map marker for my house inside of the “Top_Level_Folder” folder, hence:

“Top_Level_Folder/314_East_El_Caminito_Drive,_Phoenix,_AZ_85020”

If you do this:
~Top Level Folder
~Top Level Folder/Second Level Folder
314 East El Caminito Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85020

You would get this:

“Top_Level_Folder/Second_Level_Folder/314_East_El_Caminito_Drive,_Phoenix,_AZ_85020”

You have to build each level of the hierarchy as you go. No harm, no foul if you try to create a folder that already exists.

You can do this:

~Love
~Love/Barefoot Boy With Cheek
314 East El Caminito Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85020
~Love/Barefoot Boy With Cheek/Girl Next Door
322 East El Caminito Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85020
~Love/Barefoot Boy With Cheek/Girl Next Door/And Baby Makes Three
402 East El Caminito Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85020

and you will have created what I hope will be a by-now obvious hierarchy.

If all you want to do is create a folder hierarchy, you don’t have to add any addresses. You’ll make a KML file, anyway, but it won’t do anything.

You don’t have to use the map, in any case, whether or not your hierarchy includes addresses.

You don’t have to create folders. If you were mapping schools or Starbucks locations, you probably wouldn’t.

A Google Maps map can be accretive, which means that you could add one database of addresses after another — schools, hospitals, fire stations, etc., each with its own marker.

Here’s live work from me:

~The Bannister Home Search
~The Bannister Home Search/Day One – Laveen and Ahwatukee
~The Bannister Home Search/Day One – Laveen and Ahwatukee/Laveen
1721 West Magdalena Lane, Phoenix, AZ 85041
9709 South 46th Drive, Laveen, AZ 85339
2205 West Harwell Road, Phoenix, AZ 85041
2514 West Darrow Street, Phoenix, AZ 85041
4521 West Paseo Way, Laveen, AZ 85339
4419 West Lodge Drive, Laveen, AZ 85339
~The Bannister Home Search/Day One – Laveen and Ahwatukee/Ahwatukee
15830 South 33rd Place, Phoenix, AZ 85048
16813 South 28th Place, Phoenix, AZ 85048
16040 South 18th Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85045
11439 South 45th Court, Phoenix, AZ 85044
~The Bannister Home Search/Day Two – The East Valley
~The Bannister Home Search/Day Two – The East Valley/Gilbert
383 South Ironwood Street, Gilbert, AZ 85296
448 South Bay Shore Boulevard, Gilbert, AZ 85233
989 South Roles Drive, Gilbert, AZ 85296
3577 East Vaughn Ct Gilbert, AZ 85234
920 North Blue Marlin Drive, Gilbert, AZ 85234
431 South Laguna Drive, Gilbert, AZ 85233
745 East Barbarita Avenue, Gilbert, AZ 85234
~The Bannister Home Search/Day Two – The East Valley/Mesa
720 South Glenview Circle, Mesa, AZ 85204
2833 East Downing Circle, Mesa, AZ 85213
1017 East Fairfield Street, Mesa, AZ 85203
7830 East Portobello Avenue, Mesa, AZ 85212
11332 East Fairbrook Street, Mesa, AZ 85207

That site is about half built right now. I’ll be doing the other half today. And I could end up adding more later.

This is all about engenu, of course. You can use this software for lots of purposes, but my ideal deployment is to create the hierarchies and the maps, then dump the photos into the folders, then auto inherit everything into engenu, then go in any do any needed touch-ups. This cuts my engenu time in half for projects like the one shown above.

---

Let me repeat that: “This cuts my engenu time in half for projects like the one shown above.”

Just using engenu, my time to build that web site — 29 web pages documenting 22 houses and four neighborhoods — would have taken less than an hour. With this new software, my time will be cut to less than half an hour, with a very sexy, rigorously-linked map for every neighborhood.

Permit me to repeat another section from the text above: “A Google Maps map can be accretive, which means that you could add one database of addresses after another — schools, hospitals, fire stations, etc., each with its own marker.”

On Christmas Eve, I pointed out that Realtors have a publishing problem. This software takes away a big piece of that problem: Once I make this available, you will have the ability to pound out as many maps as you need, as quickly as you need them. Zillow or Redfin have resources you don’t have, so they can map the damn Mohave Desert. But you’re selling Agoura Hills, and you can map that patch of turf better than anyone.

All of which leads me to this question: What the hell are you doing with your time?

I’m just one piece of the program at BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix, but everyone teaching with us will be like me: Very smart people doing insanely original work at the bleeding edge of real estate marketing technology. If you want to go to New York or San Francisco and get drunk, rock on. If you want to go to some punter’s event and get in touch with our world as it existed three years ago, take heart: It might be worthless, but it’s FREE! But if you want to learn how to leverage your limited resources to maximum marketing advantage, we’re the only game in town.

We’re down to the wire, and down to our last few spots. If you want to learn how to leverage your time into vastly greater marketing reach, you know what to do.

CyberProfessionals: $397

Unchained Alumnus: $597

Regular Price: $697

The event runs from April 28th to May 1st, 2009. Many more details can be found at the BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix weblog.