Needed: mashup resources

[Kilometer31]

OK, we're struggling a bit. Let's see if anyone can point us to tutorials, examples or just smart people who know what to do:

We're wanting to do an interactive map of our ever-changing San Antonio River. What we'd like to show is an aerial-view, current-day map, with current, historic and future river courses overlaid. Some requisites:

* A Google-style map where the user can zoom in (so he can say, "Hey!, I didn't know the river used to flow right through my back yard!")

* As noted, overlays of different courses of the river.

* We'll use standard mashup pushpins to highlight various spots of interest.

The standard mashup isn't so much the concern -- it's overlaying the river courses on a zoomable map that's got us stumped.

Ideas? Solutions? Suggestions?

[Brian Cragin]

Do you need it to be on a google/yahoo map or will you create the map and design this in Flash?

What form do you have the overlays in now?

[Kilometer31]

Brian:

A Google or Yahoo map is probably preferred, just for the built-in ease of zooming on the user level.

We've not created and overlays as of yet, though they could be vector or bitmap graphics of the river courses.

Looks like Google's APIs allow for this pretty easily. We've found some examples that allow for things like toggling off and on and opacity. So we're looking into that currently.

Had a big "Duh!" moment when we realized we could do the same thing with mapping current-day downtown San Antonio with a historic map, with the old Alamo compound at the center. It will be fun to let people easily compare where the shopping mall or post office are now in relation to parts of the historic fort.

[Brian Cragin]

Sounds like you are working a solution. Do you still need help?

[Kilometer31]

Our developer guys seem pretty confident. I think we're OK. When we start putting something together and liking or not liking the results, I'll update our status.

Thanks!