From “Show me my house” to “I won’t share my ZIP Code”

(1992) When I started in GIS, the most common question to me when I demoed at trade shows was “Can you show me my house?” Then of course, I couldn’t, though today any nine year old can do so on any number of websites.

(2008) Here’s a quote from a recent article describing a new geospatial app demo. “As women, we didn’t want to provide them with our zipcode, [sic] but this would have made possible for a visitor to see [a 3D rendering] of his or her home address.”

I think that speaks volumes!

Geography and our Newly Elected President

It’s been just about two days since the world learned Barack Obama would be the next president of the United States. Now its time to parlay him and his geography into marketing.

Platial

Platial sent out an e-mail to its users inviting them to add to and them embed in their own sites a map of where they were when they learned Obama was elected. That’s a fine time-sensitive marketing effort, no question. It made me think of the big question that perhaps prompted the question: Where were you when JFK was shot/died? The difference between these two questions? In the case of JFK people were going about their normal lives not expecting such a tragedy. In the recent election, virtually everyone in the world, save those disconnected for one reason or another, knew there was a U.S. election going on and knew that it was likely Obama would win. So, the where question or even the “what were you thinking” question, doesn’t have the immediacy or compelling nature at least for me.

I am curious, as the media seems to suspect, about how people feel about the US electing its first president, but the interest is in a different vein.

Somerville

I live in a city that borders Boston, called Somerville. It’s famous as the place that invented Fluff. Alongside that historical tidbit, residents learned this year we can call Barack Obama a fellow resident. He rented a room in the city when was as Harvard Law School. In fact, I run by the building every Thursday night. So, leave it to the local paper to headline this week’s issue with: Somerville Resident Elected President. It’s a little bit of pride, a bit of marketing and basically true.

Illinois

The AP notes that Illinois and Chicago expect more tourists to visit.

Have you seen another other uses of “presidential geography?”

Bentley Launches V8i; Notes from the Press Conference

In a press conference call today, CEO Greg Bentley provided some additional details (see press release) about the launch of the company’s V8i, a portfolio of software solutions for engineering design.

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