Wednesday, November 4. 2009

Guinness Promo: Create your own terrain

The interactive bit is described this way: "Guinness has also teamed up with Google Earth to create an online world that users can help bring to life by creating their own terrain."

It's an add-on to a new video advertisement that shows a team of men bring the world to life after a Guinness is poured. The ad will run on TV, in theaters and be accompanied by a press and online campaign. It's quite an enjoyable ad filmed on several continents.

- Campaign

Wednesday, October 21. 2009

Liquid Galaxy: An Immersive, Multi-screen Version of Google Earth

If you had six, 42" flat screen monitors what would you do? If you are unsure, you may want to configure something like Liquid Galaxy, Google's immersive environment that takes Google Earth from impressive website application to simulation environment. Stepping in side a small booth at the GEOINT Symposium, the user is surrounded by flat screens, and a small podium mounted with the SpaceNavigator joystick from 3DConnexion. Yes, it's very cool, and everyone should have one for their game room (see below and click for larger image).

Update: Google Earth Portable - New Option for State and Local Government

In speaking with Dylan Lorimer, the project manager for Google Earth Enterprise, he said that the goal for the coming year is to support state and local governments. In particular, a new application called Google Earth Portable, developed by Google and looks to put a Google Earth globe in hands of those that need lots of data but who are not confined to an office environment. GE Portable does not require network connectivity and only a portion of an organization's data need be put on something as small as a thumb drive. Lorimer offered that the full Google Earth server serves tiles locally to the GE Enterprise client or via Google Maps and Google Earth APIs. [This update corrects an earlier version which had cited NT Concepts as the developer of GE Portable.]

Tuesday, October 20. 2009

SciAm on Google Earth Saving Indigenous Peoples

The publication rehashes a story in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle.

Using a technology-rich form of ethnographic mapping, a philanthropic side of the Moutain View, Calif.–based company, Google Earth Outreach embarked on a collaboration with Almir and the nonprofit Amazon Conservation Team to keep tabs on nearby clear cutting [in Amazonia] while recording aspects of the tribe's land and daily life in hopes of drawing attention to their struggle.

Of note: No Google Earth images are in the article. Instead: "Image of satellite view of deforestation in the Brazilian state of Rondonia, which is the same state in which the Surui tribe's reserve is located, courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory/Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon via Wikimedia Commons." I'm not sure why the publication chose not to include imagery from Google Earth, but it highlights more open alternatives.

- Scientific American

Monday, October 12. 2009

Race My Race: Google Earth Endurance Race Simulator

Everyone has seen maps and videos created to familiarize athletes with the course they'll run, bike or ski in the coming weeks or months. But Race My Race goes further: you enter 10 (real or projected) splits and your start delay time (how long it take to get to the "line") and off your avatar goes! Since the app is built on Google Earth you can change views from overhead to street level and watch as you run past key points - but without the cheering crowds.

Todd Goold, a land surveyor and endurance athlete from Wisconsin built the app which now offers eleven courses and hopes to expand to key events like the Boston Marathon. There's a $15 annual membership. The app includes this statement in the footer: "DUPLICATION AND REVERSE ENGINEERING ARE STRICTLY PROHIBITED AND WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW."

One of the big advantages, some suggest, is getting a sense of the topography before the event. I'm not sure I can get a sense of the nature of a hill without running it. We classify hills in my world based on the local Winter Hill (which we run every Thursday) and Derry (the big hill in the Boston Prep race in that town in New Hampshire). And, no, we don't use Heartbreak Hill as a reference. I can't say why.

- Chicago Tribune

Wednesday, September 16. 2009

Google Offering Platform Services to Schools and now Government

You may not have noticed but Google's doing very well switching educational institutions to its platform offering, called Google Apps for Education (mail, content sharing, etc.). There's even a "marketing" site complete with a map of schools using the tools.

Yesterday Google's announced a plan to "sell" those same services to government via a new product (ok it's just packaging as is the above offering) called Google Public Sector. Top on the list of apps: Google Maps and Earth.

- Google Blog Post
- Mashable