In the course of developing our ward's geography-driven fast-offering district app, I have hit an issue of church policy. I am seeking opinions here to test my own before I kick this upstairs to the bishop. (I would rather present him a proposed solution than just a problem.)
The fast-offering coordinator would like the new automated process essentially to replicate what he produces now -- a printout with a locator map and itemized list, updated monthly, which he hands to the priesthood team serving each route. To do this, the coordinator now manually maintains selected names and addresses from the ward roster in the My Maps section of Google Maps. See
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl
I well understand why he favors this method: It produces a very legible printout, more legible than I can produce using the Google Earth application. (Such printouts are not the forte of GE.) Technically, I am pretty confident I can build a file that can be uploaded to Google Maps/My Maps, because within certain limits that web-based service can import KMLfiles like I already produce for Google Earth.
The problem is, as I understand church policy, using My Maps this way is out of bounds because it involves storing church membership data on a third-party server. (Google Earth, a local application, keeps the user's own data on the desktop client.) I think even the current manual process of keying stuff into My Maps contravenes the rules.
As a practical matter, if the files are uploaded only for the time it takes to print the routes, and the privacy restrictions provided by Google are maximized, I think the chance that someone else out there would retrieve our map is remote. In creating these routes, the coordinator is building a custom web page on Google's site, hidden from the Internet not by his Google password but only by the obscurity of the page's URL, which is called "unlisted." But it is not impossible. And, of course, Google can capture the web page on the server side.
FYI, here is what Google says about this method:
Public and Unlisted Maps
You can choose to make your maps public or unlisted.
Public maps are maps that you want to publish and share with everyone. Public maps will be included in the search results on Google Maps and Earth. Public maps also appear in your user profile (if you have created one).
Unlisted maps are maps that you only want to share with a few select people. Unlisted maps will not be included in the search results, so they are accessible much like an unlisted phone number -- anyone who knows the specific URL of the map can view it, but there's no directory or search for finding unlisted maps.
You can change this setting at any time. However, please remember that all maps have a public URL. In general, we recommend that you don't create any maps that you prefer not to share with anyone.
So IMHO, we need to find a better solution, and I am pursuing workarounds and options.
What do folks think?
If it is coloring outside the lines to load names and addresses into Google's My Maps, what if we load addresses only?