About the Author

Andre Lewis has been working with technology for the last nine years. His experience ranges from large-scale enterprise consulting with Accenture to startup ventures and open source projects. During "Web 1.0," Andre helped architect coolboard.com, one of the top 50 trafficked Internet sites in 2000.

He currently runs his own business, developing Ruby on Rails applications and consulting on Web 2.0 technologies. He also runs hotspotr.com, a community-driven site for WiFi cafes. He blogs about technology, work, and general interests at http://earthcode.com. From time to time, Andre gives presentations to San Francisco area technology groups, including SDForum and the SF Ruby meetup.

Andre lives and works in San Francisco, California. When he's not working with clients or exploring the latest technologies, he likes to mountain bike, camp, and ride his motorcycle.

Michael Purvis is a mechatronics engineering student at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. He is a mostly self-taught programmer. Prior to discovering PHP, he was busy making a LEGO Mindstorms kit play Connect 4. Currently, he maintains an active community site for classmates, built mostly from home-brewed extensions to PunBB and MediaWiki.

He has written about CSS for the Position Is Everything web site, and occasionally participates in the css-discuss mailing list. He particularly enjoys those clever layouts that mix negative margins, relative positioning, and bizarre float tricks to create fiendish, cross-browser, flexible-width concoctions. These and other nontechnical topics are discussed on his weblog at uwmike.com.

Offline, he enjoys cooking, cycling, and social dancing. He has worked for We-Create, Inc. on a number of exciting PHP-based projects and has a strong interest in independent web standards.

Jeffery is a graphic designer and self-taught web applications developer best known for his unique ability to merge the visual world of graphics with the mental realm of code. With a Bachelor of Technology degree in Graphic Communications Management along with a minor in Multimedia, Jeffrey was originally trained for the traditional paper-and-ink printing industry, but he soon realized the world of pixels and code was where his ideas would prosper. In late 1999, he cofounded We-Create, Inc., an Internet software company based in Waterloo, Ontario, which began many long nights of challenging and creative innovation.

Currently, as Director of Research and Development for We-Create, Jeffrey is responsible for investigating new and emerging Internet technologies and integrating them using web standards-compliant methods. In late 2005, he also became a Zend Certified Engineer.

When not playing at the office, Jeffrey enjoys a variety of hobbies from photography to woodworking. When the opportunity arises, he also enjoys floating in a canoe on the lakes of Algonquin Provincial Park or going on an adventurous, map-free, drive with his wife. Jeffrey also maintains a personal website at JeffreySambells.com, where he shares thoughts, ideas, and opinions about web technologies, photography, design, and more. He lives in Ontario, Canada, eh, with his wife, Stephanie, his newborn daughter, Addison, and their little dog, Milo.

Cameron Turner has been programming computers since his first VIC 20 at age 7. He has been developing interactive web sites since 1994. In 1999, he cofounded We-Create, Inc., which specializes in Internet software development. He is now the company's chief technology officer. Cam obtained his honors degree in computer science from the University of Waterloo with specialization in applied cryptography, database design, and computer security.

Cam lives in Canada's technology capital of Waterloo, Ontario, with his wife, Tanya, son, Owen, and dog, Katie. His hobbies include biking, hiking, water skiing, and painting. He maintains a personal blog at CamTurner.com, discussing nontechnical topics, thoughts, theories, and family life.

Book Description

The Google Maps API remains one of the showcase examples of the Web 2.0 development paradigm. Beginning Google Maps Applications with Rails and Ajax: From Novice to Professional is the first book to comprehensively introduce the service from a developer perspective, showing you how you can integrate mapping features into your Rails-driven web applications.

Proceeding far beyond simplistic map display, you'll learn how to draw from a variety of data sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau's TIGER/Line data and Google's own geocoding feature to build comprehensive geocoding services for mapping many locations around the world.

The book also steers you through various examples that show how to encourage user interaction such as through pinpointing map locations, adding comments, and building community-driven maps. You'll want to pick up a copy of this book because

* This is the first book to comprehensively introduce the Google Maps application development using the Rails development framework.

* You'll be introduced to the very latest changes to the Google Maps API, embodied in the version 2 release.

* It is written by four developers actively involved in the creation of location-based mapping services.

For additional info, please visit the author's reference site for this book.