Real people on MapInsight

TechDirt noted Tele Atlas’ MapInsight and points out the big challenge is getting folks to use it once they return from a trip and find “bad data.” No argument there. The comments are particularly interesting - some are from GIS geeks but most seem to be from regular people - who are afraid people will add misinformation, just to be annoying. Perhaps its not clear that this is not a wiki, but that suggestions go through a rigorous process before they are implemented?

Interns Create Location Aware Messageing System for IBM

UK and Irish students in IBM’s Extreme Blue internship program developed “a location-aware messaging accessibility (Lama) technology to give people information about various locations via their mobile phones.” Basically, When a device moves into a building or other space specific information is fed to it, per an article in Computing. Not all that revolutionary, I know… But it does have particular allure for providing disabled visitors with more information or even providing those indecipherable announcements made in large crowds via another means. It might even wake sleepy passengers when their train stop is approaching. But, don’t expect to see something like this in corporate situations.

Frost & Sullivan analyst Alexander Michael said: ‘The system might be good for large meetings or conferences, where people are away from their desks, but in more general terms I do not think an IT department would want to be deploying this inside an office.’

Wired on Data Collection Wars

Wired covers the Tele Atlas/NAVTEQ data collection competition and notes that both are now depending on users to help correct data. No mention of TA’s Map Insight, however [udpate: yes it is mentioned!]. That project is however mentioned, though not by name, in an Information Week article on TA.

Placebased Education at UWO

The University of Western Ontario is highlighting its “placedbased” computing in urban development and public history. The article from the school suggests the technology fundamentally changes teaching:

By developing new methods for teaching history, geography and related disciplines, place-based computing takes students out of the classroom and into the community where they can gather facts, take photographs and assign various geographical data.

I’m all for using such technology in education, but fieldwork in these discplines has been going on for centuries; students and professionals simply used different tools.

Duping Mashup Ideas

[Update 9/29] Gawker strikes back in a clever way! Note comment from a real geographer!

If “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” the folks behind Gawker’s Stalker map should be flattered that the

NY Post

has pretty much duped its “track the famous” Google Map mashup. From my perspective it means a few things:

1. folks are looking over each other’s shoulders for ideas
2. mashups are easy enough to do that duping them is no big deal
3. mashups are perhaps here to stay
4. nothing is sacred in journalism

via Gothamist