BBC Radio 4 is often seen as a pillar of the establishment in the UK, although I don’t think it has even justified the label, is was on Radio 4 after-all that Andrew Gilligan made he famous acquisition that the Government were spinning information to make the case for the Second Gulf War.
One of their shows iPM has gone all web2.0 and relies heavily on user contributed material submitted via email and blogs, and are now in the process of building a Mash-up of their listeners.
A nice simple idea and a great way to illustrate the value of mapping api sites to a different audience, seems a long time since the UK Mash-up day and OS Openspace which if you remember a year ago was seen as rather too radical !!
Written and Submitted from the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Manama, Bahrain, using its wired broadband network.
Like you is have been both funny and down right scary to watch this years collection of ‘Stupid People who know nothing about the world” videos, the two most popular I include below.
Where is my Map
Europe – is that a Country ?
Although both these examples are American, this is not just a problem in the United States, similar levels of ignorance are reported on this side of the Atlantic also..
What can be done, should we worry, well on one level the “Capes and Bays” fact based Geography which taught you the major rivers of each country and their capital cities has not been taught since the days of flip-top desks and ink bottles, and perhaps we should not worry too much about this. Although underlying the funny videos is a general lack of this type of knowledge.
The bigger concern is that Geography and the understanding and explaining the patterns in the world around us is just not seen as cool.. and this is a time when the change to the environment around us is seen as our biggest threat to continued happiness.
The Geography teacher is always the butt of jokes about corduroy jackets with leather elbow patches..
Perhaps technology can help here, can using GPS, Mobile phones that know your location and tools like Google Earth make Geography a cool subject.. well maybe at least they can help. Google in the UK this week announced a set of resources for use by teachers and many of them make use of Maps and Google Earth. These resources include lesson plans and links to additional resources which are really useful for Teachers, and potentially something you as a geospatial professional could offer to help out with at your children’s school.
Last year I spent a happy lunchtime helping my Daughters class map their playground in Google Earth using a few GPS devices.. if your worry about the state of Geography Teaching and Knowledge, get out there and help change things…
Written and Submitted from the La Palma Hotel, Stresa, Italy, using its wifi network.
An interesting comment trail at All-Points blog, the ages of geography argument will continue until both sides learn from each others approach, and yes there is stuff to learn from both sides.
The establishment (Paleogeographers) need to understand the value of “Openness” it all it forms, API’s, Licensing etc. and massive potential of users of GI to improve it, while the neo-geographers could do well to understand the requirments of enterprise users, where these are different from the mainstream.
However I would point out that many who regard themesleves as ‘Neogeographers” are happy not to be regarded as GIS people.. now what does that tell you ?
Written and Submitted from the Calistoga Lodge, Napa Valley, using it’s free wifi network.
As happens in this world of constant communications, I heard of the new OpenAerialMap site via an IM chat with Jeff Johnson of PictEarth on Sunday lunchtime !
The idea behind OAM is for it to become an online repository for community generated aerial photography, sourced from Kites, Low cost UAV’s , etc. I’m sure many still see the creation of Open Source imagery captured by amateurs as a Joke, but then people were not serious about OSM !
It’s true that OAM cannot really replace the global systematic cover offered by satellite imagery or the professional aerial photography producers, but for applications where discrete imagery is required of a particular location at high resolution, or to cover a specific event or activity (high temporal resolution) there is a niche which can be filled by this imagery, and the services like OAM which distribute it.
As with OSM, OAM can work because the tools to both capture and distribute this type of Geodata have become democratised to the extent where it is possible for the amateur to respond to events faster than the professional,and to make that data available without the restrictions of conventional licensing. Although the distribution of large amounts of imagery represents all sorts of new challenges in developing a robust operational system.
As with traditional mapping, we are not looking at a replacement to the traditional top-down centralist approach to the creation of Geodata, however there is now at least an alternative, that may become more significant over time.
It seems along with the generous stock deal, G5 jet and impeccable taste, it seems that I too now share with Steve Jobs a Fake blog. I really have no idea who is behind it, other than I pretty sure it’s not Daniel Lyons or Vanessa Lawrence 🙂
Perhaps those paleogeography-tards are trying to get to me !
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
Now a full committed disciple of the iPhone, its time to say farewell to the my Nokia N95 which has joined hundreds of others on eBay, there is a depressed market if ever I saw one.. when I last looked there were 1600 phones on the market.
Technically the Nokia device is superior to the iPhone, it has 3.5G network access, a fantastic camera and of course GPS, but the U/I is just so much better and it just works, I’m not seeing the signal strength issues some have reported, but O2 really need to get the EDGE network extended quickly, although the Cloud wifi system in London works really well.
So now all we need is for Apple to update their Maps application to use “My Location”…
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
This is just so cool, and having used it over the past few months around the world, it actually is improving with time as other users improve our cell database. Another great example of the power of cloud-sourcing and another shot in the arm for the prospects of LBS – as a platform not an application.
This is really just the first step..
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
Without much fuss we added an extra button to Google Maps todays and brought relief to cartography fans everywhere… sorry that is the worst pun I could come up with.
The terrain view is offers another perspective of our world and for some users, like those interested in outdoors recreation for example, is really vital.
Written and submitted from the Malmaison Hotel, Birmingham, using it’s free wired broadband network.
The Onion a great news magazine and website from over the pond brings us their version of the World Fact Book in the form on a new Google Maps mash-up Our Dumb World – The worlds countries summarised into simple info bubbles, you need look no further for a comprehensive world view.
Written and Submitted from the Google Office, London.
BBC Radio 4 is often seen as a pillar of the establishment in the UK, although I don’t think it has even justified the label, is was on Radio 4 after-all that Andrew Gilligan made he famous acquisition that the Government were spinning information to make the case for the Second Gulf War.
It seems along with the generous stock deal, G5 jet and impeccable taste, it seems that I too now share with Steve Jobs a Fake 
