I started with the TileMill support docs (Crash Course and Guides) to get my basic info and configurations. This is some of the best support documentation I've seen. Well written in a step-by-step approach. Admittedly, I need to re-read some sections until it sunk in, but after seeing some demo's by @springmeyer and @ian_villeda at SOTMUS, it started to become more clear.
Maps
After attending the State of the Map (SOTMUS) conference last week, I started working on a project I had been thinking about for some time. I'd been particularly interested in figuring out how to use TileMill to style or override data coming from OpenStreetMap. Beyond that, I've been trying to figure out how all the different components would fit together. I should note that I'm not a cartographer, I'm just into mapping and the technology.
The Setup
Over the past few weeks, I started working on a jQuery Mobile based application that would tie together some of my work with campus maps and campus events. My use case was getting a user information about departments, buildings, campus and local events. I've gotten to an alpha version that is deployed to my iPhone and iPad.
I wanted to spend some time learning the following technologies:
http://www.linnovate.net/blog/drupal-openlayers-display-your-content-map
http://drupal.org/project/openlayers http://drupal.org/node/627816 (getting started)
http://drupal.org/node/911028 (using mapbox)
http://drupal.org/node/904898 (zoom to place with GeoTaxonomy)
Design Questions for Discussion
Click the Home link to demo.
We did a soft launch of the new map site today. http://interactivemap.ucsc.edu We timed it to help visiting families and the spring rush. I've written some other articles about this project if you'd like to get more info.
I've been pushing to get the new campus interactive map out while we've got families visiting campus. In order to pull a lot of different authoritative data sources together with a variety of developers and development practices, I've come to rely on Drush, git and svn.
I've been prototyping some new ideas to get us thinking about the roadmap for the campus map. A working demo is at http://maps-dev.ucsc.edu. The notes link below talks about the technology stack; Drupal, Gmap and Location modules were evaluated in the first round and later eliminated. I've landed on the OpenLayers and Geo modules for the type of requirements we need to meet.