Preservation SOS iPhone page / submitting pictures

movedsouth · March 03, 2011, 06:15:37 PM

Preservation SOS is now offering a mobile site, to make it easier to collect and validate the data we have from various city databases.

The page can be found at http://m.preservationsos.org . Right now, it is optimized and tested for iPhones. Other phones may be working and if someone with an android phone or such is willing to help I will gladly make the necessary adjustments.

Some of the features:

If you go to the page, and select "Location", you will be asked to give the site access to your location. If you do, it will show a drop down of the 20 closest addresses.

Or you can enter an address in the lower half of the screen. Enter the house number first, then it will give you a drop down with a list of streets in which this house number exists.

Once you selected the address, the site will pull up a brief summary of the property. If there is a forum discussion about the location, you will find a link to it. Also, any pictures we have will be listed.

Now the real purpose:

The data is incomplete and not always right. In the lower part of the page you will see some buttons to make adjustments or to comment. Also, if you have pictures for a house, send them to "photo /at\ preservationsos.org". Use the address (nothing else) as a subject. Just number and street name (e.g. 1234 N Main St, or 4321 Laura Street). One picture per email please.

Any bugs.. please post them here, or email
"m /at\ preservationsos.org"

(pictures will take a bit to show up as they are first manually reviewed to prevent "pranks")

iloveionia · March 04, 2011, 01:02:59 AM

Moved was way too humble on this.

He is indeed a genius and we are very grateful to have him with us helping to save our houses.

Folks with iPhones and other smart phones. This is like YELP for Historic Springfield. You need to put this sucker on your phone's desktop and try it out. It works on your phone's GPS (or doesn't have to as I have tested it in Cali,) and it is BEYOND awesome. Though not an app, it works very similiar to one. You can quickly reference a specific house without having to jump around to a half dozen websites.

OMG, I fell over when I first played with the site on my phone. It is awesome and I highly recommend you take a few minutes to check it out. Remember, even your Droids and other smartphones will work, talk with Moved and he can make it user friendly on your phone. Us SOSers are iPhone people. Envy. You know you have it you droid people

sheclown · March 04, 2011, 07:29:40 AM

I just think it is really cool that the SOS heart shows up on my iPhone, that I can hit that button and it tells me where I am, that I can input info like the lot I'm looking at is vacant, or the house is condemned. That I can tell who owns it, what they bought it for, when it was built. That I can see what folks are saying about it, if there is a code violation on it, all of these things.

Amazes me.

And I am just learning how to use it.

Springfield Chicken · March 04, 2011, 09:20:00 AM

I'm confused. I clicked the link and a blank form came up. What do I do with that? How do I find this app on my iPhone?

iloveionia · March 04, 2011, 09:33:42 AM

Chicken, we can help.
Bookmark the website on your iPhone desktop.
Then you will see magic.
Let us know.

movedsouth · March 04, 2011, 10:12:07 AM

Quote from: Springfield Chicken on March 04, 2011, 09:20:00 AM
I'm confused. I clicked the link and a blank form came up. What do I do with that? How do I find this app on my iPhone?

It is not a real "app". Instead, this is a web site designed for the iPhone (so you will need a data connection, either 3G or WiFi to use it). Just try it again, maybe you had a bad connection the first time. There is nothing to install, but you can bookmark the page and it will show up on your home screen just like an application.

Remember to go to http://m.preservationsos.org , not www.preservationsos.org . Then click "Location".

To report any bugs, it helps to have a screen shot of whatever issue you encounter. You can get a screen shot on the iphone by pressing the power and the home button at the same time (just briefly). The screen shot will be added to your photos and you can email it from there.

movedsouth · March 04, 2011, 10:21:03 AM

couple more hints:
The application works on a desk top and looks good in Google Chrome and Safari. Firefox looks somewhat ugly. It does not work for the most part in Internet Exploder. The desktop may of course not get your location right as it usually doesn't include a GPS like the phone.

To avoid typos, you can scan the following QR code with your phone's Google application. It will get you right to the "Location" page.

qrcode"

movedsouth · August 29, 2011, 10:19:59 AM

The next version is out, and a brief video tutorial. For details, see http://forum.preservationsos.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=419&start=10#p7010

sheclown · August 29, 2011, 12:36:50 PM

One of the biggest problems and responsibilities we have as a historic district is to keep track of the properties. Movedsouth has given this neighborhood the most amazing gift, the ability to survey in our free time, all of the properties in Springfield.

He has made this map that records whether or not the data is in the system for this particular RE number. So, using your Iphone, and the info included in this thread, you just look around where you live, in your free time, and in two seconds record what you see. It is a simple and easy way to get done what was seemingly impossible.

Most of us in Preservation SOS have no idea how he could do this for us, we are just grateful that he did!

Want to help in the survey? Just pull out your phone and get recording! Or pm him with any questions.

sheclown · August 30, 2011, 07:10:41 AM

Lot by lot the map is filling in.

http://m.preservationsos.org/ws/getmap.html?range=7000&x=450000&y=2185500

The green lots are the ones which have been done. Is your block completed yet? It is really simple and it only takes your Iphone and a few minutes to be a part of this survey.

avs · August 30, 2011, 07:46:24 AM

Gloria, I don't have an iphone, will it work on a blackberry?

Amanda

movedsouth · August 30, 2011, 09:47:03 AM

give it a try and let me know how far you get. it may work if you have a web browser on the phone.

One neighbor reported some issues with Android devices. I hope to have them fixed shortly. If you have any problems, please let me know.

sheclown · August 30, 2011, 03:46:54 PM

It is rather addictive, doing this on the phone. Sort of like popping the bubbles in packaging material.

sheclown · August 30, 2011, 04:58:03 PM

The survey is coming along very nicely!

In just two days 11% of the neighborhood has been surveyed -- that's 236 properties!

sheclown · August 31, 2011, 06:48:01 AM

294 properties documented as of this morning.

This survey will tell us if the house is still standing, lived-in or condemned, residential or commercial, or a vacant lot. And it only takes seconds to record each house because of Johannes' amazing gift. Once submitted the into goes directly on the map.

If you can steal a few minutes today, pop a few lots.