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OGC in a few minutes will offer a press release noting passage of OGC KML as an approved specification (standard). C|net already announced the news. Will this change how you think about or use KML? Perhaps it will change how you think about Google, or OGC?
I wonder if this series of events (or one like it) is becoming the norm for app development/growth? Is there any money in the process for anyone or is this simply part of the contest/marketing infrastructure? Here’s what happened:
Wired plays with Platial tools.
Makes interactive map of bands named after geographic locations called “Wish you were here.”
Leaves it be.
It has some 9000 visits.
It wins (ties) award for best music map in the 2007 Platial + Frappr Map Awards.
Platial makes it into a Facebook app anyone can add to their page.
- Wired
There’s been inklings of this idea in the past and it sounds valuable. Instead of using a map to tease out your exact location, take a picture of a landmark, have a database with many such photos find a match, and viola, you are found! Nokia is working on this sort of technology and it’s already been tested by students at Stanford and U. Washington.
“BMW’s teaming up with everyone’s favorite mapping monopoly, Google Maps, to bring a new addition to the BMW Assist Safety Plan.”
- Jalopnik discussing “MyInfo,” a service to allow BMW Assist subscribers to send business locations, street addresses and their associated phone numbers to their car.
Masters research by Brayton Grinnell at St. Mary’s University in Winona, MN “found that more than a third of vandalism incidents — 38.7 percent — happened within a block or two of bars.” He plotted vandalism in town between 2001 and 2006 using GIS. Perhaps more interesting, the local paper (Winona Daily News) provides links to his presentation and final paper. That’s a great choice for the paper and a good reminder of the draw of local news.
Another student, this one in Northern Ireland focused locally and has won the ‘Geo-Mashup’ competition for students run by the Department of Finance and Personnel in conjunction with the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland. Aidan Higgins, Master’s student in GIS at the University of Ulster’s School of Environmental Sciences, mashed up road collision data from the Police Service of Northern Ireland with the road network of Northern Ireland to highlight the most dangerous areas due to black ice on roads. The submission’s were judged on their benefit the public and be potentially marketability. In return Mr. Higgins received a laptop and a week of consulting with 1Spatial to develop his idea, per a press release.
The Austin American-Stateman has a scary title to its map-focused article, “How deadly is your ZIP code?” It discusses and shows maps that show the disparity in deaths from different diseases and connects that to the distribution of poor and minority groups. The good news: the maps can help direct services to areas in need.
