Blog home3 items of news in brief about maps…..
Google MapMaker
OK, I admit, I have missed covering this one: http://mapmaker.google.com/
Google MapMaker is a Google Maps service that allows you to add or edit features, such as roads, businesses, parks, schools and more.
Good writeup about enhancements to it on Techcrunch, including a rather nice before and after shot of a map in Pakistan.
I previously wrote about other opensource map data sources back in June (e.g. OpenPlaces, OpenStreetmap etc)
iPhone application
Interesting iPhone application of Paris – a map in 3D.
From French developers Newscape Technology
More cities coming, apparently.
Twitterlogue
Nick O’Leary is currently driving around New Zealand in a camper van. Sounds like fun (and my wife and I did a similar trip a few years back)
Not quite sure if he has managed to scoop the 900 GBP (approx 1500 USD) 10 day camper van hire and flights package that Quantas Holidays are currently promoting as advertised on the 101 holidays website but I am sure he got a good deal!
He was looking for a neat way to keep friends and family updated as to where they had got to. The answer, of course (!), is to mash up a Twitter feed with a Google map.
The tweets would help record what we were doing, but they would lose the where. So, after a few hours hacking, I have created a real-time twitterlogue of the trip.
This is a simple mash-up of a twitter feed along with a google map of where we were when I sent the update. As we’re driving, it also records how far we’ve driven at that point.
Under the covers it works like this… I send a direct message to my secret twitter account using the format:
[lat,long] [distance] [message]
When the DM is received, the information is injected into a database which feeds the page. It also sends the update, sans GPS/distance, to my twitter account, including a link to the update on the map. As each update has its own permalink on the map they are individually linkable. Awesome.
To make life easier on the road, and because I can, I’ve put together a little python app for my phone that gathers the GPS location and lets me enter the other information before sending it off to twitter.
Currently had a bit of a technical issue as none of the tweets texted to the NZ shortcode came through…. so the updates have had to be updated manually. Teething issues.
Full details in this blog post
View the trip plotted on a Google map [Click the locations on the left hand side of the screen]
The problem with most itinerary sharing services that travel websites provide is that they are about pre-travel (as then the itinerary can be used as an advertising object) (e.g. Dopplr / TripIt etc). Not many online travel services focus on in-trip travelogues? How else could Nick have created this Twitterlogue without having to roll his own?
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