LA Times “My Map” Map of Latest Fires

It’s here.

There’s lot of great detail and time stamps for all additions. I’m still looking a way for creators of such map to source the data points. Are they from LA Times reporters? Officials? People on scene? How can one contribute?

There will be more, not fewer of these sorts of maps from the media and other interested parties. We need tools to give the maps (and orgs behind them) appropriate “authority.” One solution I ran into when looking at the H1N1 maps was from Rhiza Labs app which sits on top of Google Maps.

via @ManoMarks

iPhone, API and More Come to Burning Man

Brady over at O’Reilly details the new tech coming to the weeklong party on the playa gearing up this week in Nevada. (I’ve never attended, but have friends who have. I did spend a week on the playa flying kites.)

There are two really interesting socialogical, rather than tech insights from the post. First off, there’s the concept that Blackrock City (that’s the name of the temporary city) is a great place to test out new ideas. There’s an iPhone app, a Foursquare implementation and efforts to use machine tagging in Flickr. It is a literal “blank slate” (this year with wireless, fingers crossed) with lots of geeks and artists.

Second, there’s this year’s theme of “evolution” and the response of some noting how tech may well intrude. The places where there’s no connectivity are becoming fewer and fewer.

Apple Patent App: “location-area applications”

The idea: the GPS in your phone will detect your location and “update” your apps to that location. The patent is titled Transitional Data Sets, application 20090215497.

The application was filed in February 2008 but just recently made public.

- Jaunted
- Apple Insider

Nuvifone Likely to run on AT&T in US

If you are still waiting patiently for Garmin’s navphone, word is it’ll be running on the AT&T network. Running the number suggest Garmin plans to sell between 300,000 and 700,000 units per year to raise $100 - $200 million pushing company revenues up some 6%. One million units is the norm for a “successful” smartphone in these times. Analysts expect Apple to sell 20 million this year.

- Business Insider

FGDC Executive Committee Endorses Imagery for the Nation

The committee made its decision known via a Record of Decision (pdf) which states its understanding of the imagery program and outlines recommendations for management, contracting, funding and other matters. Once topics are resolved, the plan will go to the FGDC Steering Committee for approval.

A number of organizations endorsed the program earlier this summer. MAPPS issued a press release renewing its endorsement of the concept of IFTN and encouraging a resolution of outstanding issues the day the Record of Decision was made public, August 20, 2009.

The FGDC IFTN page does not have any information about this document as of now.

- via @mappsorg