This is great! I can't wait to see the initail pages go up.
This is such a worthwhile cause, as transport can be a real hurdle when getting a sheltie into rescue or into a new forever home. I have noted in other posts that I can transport within the western PA, eastern OH and northern W VA areas. Getting this organized and a network of people together can really bridge the gaps between rescues and potential adopters. It would be cool to see a map with 'shaded' areas of transport coverage so we can see who can link up with who.
That would be cool...
For the initial maps integration, this is what I had in mind. Take a look at this map of a make-believe trip from Los Angeles, CA to Albuquerque, NM.
http://g.co/maps/yxu7u
The car markers represent volunteer drivers. If you right-click the marker in LA and choose 'directions from', then right-click the marker in Albuquerque and choose 'directions to', it will draw a route over I-40. But you can click on [and hold down the button] the line at any point along that route, and drag it around the map. Here's a screen cap demo:
http://youtu.be/EqrEpAzKxcs
So after the end points are established the software would add available volunteers to the map, and a user would drag the route to accomodate.
It's not much, but the action would setup a list of those in a position to help, and since I plan to map those points based on zip code, that list would potentially include multiple possibilities at any given point.
This won’t come without some issues though. Most rescues do have their own transport, but in many cases this is limited. We can help to fill in the gaps. Some rescues may also have some reservations about releasing their dogs to folks they don’t know, but when options are limited this should be something we can overcome. This is a great way we can continue to help. Sign me up!
That's all true, but it occurs to me that the dogs that are already in the hands of a rescue are out of danger. The dogs with a time-critical need are the ones that are in pounds, or other facilities that must use euthanasia to service their space limitations.
Those are the dogs I think we should focus on as a first priority. Correct me if I'm wrong, but such facilities typically don't require anything beyond their fees to release an animal.
In that light, my concerns about someone along the way absconding with a dog, all but fade away -- even worst case, the dog is out of the pound and in the hands of someone who went to at least some effort to get it.
And as for filling in gaps for rescues... if we could entice the rescues into using our system as an extension to their own, that would be huge in terms of exposure and credability.
From my experience, the rescues... [how can I put this delicately]... seem to lack an abundance of high-tech tools. Whether that's an advantage to our system is difficult to say... some of them I know are that way by choice, getting those to think outside the box takes more than even the most compelling technology.
