Monday, January 7. 2008

Baltimore Sun Stumbles in Covering Mapping for All

The article by Brad Schleicher says nothing our community does not already know. But it does have some interesting errors.

"Using Google Earth, the free global mapping software distributed by Google Corp. and these devices, hundreds of thousands of individuals have created and shared an extraordinary array of useful maps."

It's Google, Inc.

"According to Douglas Richardson, executive director for the American Association of Geographers, the big recent change in the industry has been the development of means to give average people the ability to utilize real-time geographical information systems (GIS) and geographical positioning systems (GPS) that took decades to develop."

I suspect Mr. Richardson said global positioning system; he knows about it as he once ran a company dedicated to its use with GIS.

"The power of such maps was evident during the spate of California wildfires last October. San Diego's KBPS television station and the Los Angeles Times newspaper used Google's My Maps application to plot the fire perimeters, evacuation areas and shelters, road closures, smoke advisories and local assistance centers."

It was KPBS and it's a radio station. BTW, Google had to step in and help out with bandwidth challenges.

"Among the many other interesting map blog sites (you can find them by typing their names into Google search):"

This is online article! (I can understand this being in the print version, but they are not the same thing!). Oh, and some of the listed resources are apps (Cheap Gas, HousingMaps), not blogs.

- Baltimore Sun

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Google, GPS, Traffic at 06:00 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0) |

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I deal with such errors or misconceptions all the time, as I am sure do most in the GIS community. I have been trying to figure out why that is, and have three possible explanations:

1) The general public is stupid
2) The general public is disinterested in the nitty-gritty of our technology
3) The GIS community is aloof and in a bout of navel-gazing

Not sure which one it is.

#1 Atanas Entchev (Link) on 2008-01-08 09:28 (Reply)

On that note, has anyone ever noticed how using GPS and mobile positioning you always "triangulate" your position in the media...

It bugs me like a mosquito.

I'll shout it down from my ivory tower whilst looking at my navel .... The determining of a positon based on distance measurements is TRILATERATION, not triangulation!

#2 Hugh on 2008-01-09 16:35 (Reply)

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In reply to	[ Top level ]#1: Atanas Entchev on 2008-01-08 09:28   #1.1: Hugh on 2008-01-09 16:35
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