CiviCRM group - gmap display

I have a client who wanted to display some google maps using data stored in CiviCRM. I looked at the various projects that mash up CiviCRM and Google maps and the GMap module looked like the right place to start, but the location/civinode/views mix that looked promising didn't pan out. I also noticed the discussion around 'mapthing' below, but that seemed to have died.

So, i've just written a little gmap_civigroup module that allows you to create maps as a new node type, and it displays all the members of a given CiviCRM group. It does this by actually importing the CiviCRM location data into it's own database table for speed and so it can be modified if required, and it has a narrative field for each (member, map) as well. And there are basic tools for geocoding.

I could have made each contact it's own node, which would have made some things easier (like the text data for each group member) but I wanted it to be pretty light for now, I might evolve it in that direction if there are more requirements for the individual contact record displays. I'm also thinking I could add a link back to the map from each contact record that would show that contact in context (i.e., with it at the centre of the map, and a little more zoom).

A nice side effect here is that since i'm using og_civicrm, I can also put up maps of my organic group membership, which is kind of fun. Not quite apropos, I discovered that webgeer lives in my town (but doesn't answer emails...).

You can see my first (non-public, but not secret) draft here:

http://directory.telecentre.org/

Comments welcome of course.