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GeoCommons: Save and Share

Permissions for sharing

When you first upload a dataset (or if you later chose to edit it), in the metadata you can set permissions. From the documentation:

  • Click "Edit" if you want anyone to be able to edit your dataset. It is recommended that you keep this one un-clicked so that other users will not change you dataset.
  • Click "Access" if you want anyone to be able to access this dataset. Access means use it to make a map or to download it. You will notice that if you have this one clicked, "View" will also default to clicked on.
  • Click "Find" if you want your dataset’s title and metadata to show up in anyone’s search results. If this option is chosen but not "Access", people will be able to see your dataset but not map or download it.
  • If you have none of the options clicked on, you dataset will be completely private.

You can also set permsissions for specific groups of users, say, if you want to share certain levels of access only with particular colleagues.

Saving and sharing maps

  • Save: After creating your map, the "Save" button in the upper right allows you to save the finished map in GeoCommons, then allowing downloading or sharing.
  • Download (Save as): Once saved, the "About" button in the upper right area of a map allows you to "save as" (i.e., download) in KML or PNG image format.
    You might also consider pressing ALT-PrintScreen to save the active window to the Windows clipboard, and then edit the image in a graphic editor (Adobe PhotoShop, etc.), or comparable technique on other platforms.
  • Embed: The About button also leads to an option to get code to embed your map into a webpage or blog post. Example.
  • Share: The About button also leads to an option to share a map (provide a link to it) via many social networking sites.

Note: Once a map has been saved in GeoCommons, you can click Edit in the upper right to make more changes and re-save it.

Downloading data

From the search results page, you have an option of downloading a dataset (if the creator has set Access permissions on it). 

Formats are CSV, KML, and zipped Shapefiles.