[HTML2]You ever have one of those posts where you’re really excited by something that you can’t seem to explain sufficiently? Where—conceptually—you get it, but you don’t feel like you’re doing the subject matter justice?
Well, that’s where I’ve been for the past few days with Don Park’s latest project, a fine piece of Portland geogeeking called Geomena, a creative-commons licensed access point location database—or as Don so eloquently puts it “the Wikipedia of access point locations.”
And that, my friends, is a subject which I have not been able to justice. But I’m going to try. Read More
Portland has always had an interesting geolocation contingent here in town—companies like Platial, gatherings like WhereCampPDX, and mobile apps like Ice Condor. So what better town to help with the OpenStreetMap project?
Portland has always had an interesting geolocation contingent here in town—with companies like Platial, gatherings like WhereCampPDX, and mobile apps like Ice Condor. So what better town to help with the OpenStreetMap project?
No better place, my friend.
That’s why the OpenStreetMap folks will be hosting two events this weekend. Read More
Portland-based Platial, one of the original social mapping applications and caretaker of more than 150 million geobits of information, has rolled out a new build of its application that promises to take a critical step forward in social mapping, moving from the ability “to plot points on a map” to the ability to have much deeper and meaningful experiences with locations and the people who love them.
Not the least of which are a ton of new categories for your map items:
Sharing the experience
But the most important part of the release may not be the things that you see. The most important part of the release may be the things that you feel.
Because the latest build of Platial focuses on helping the viewer move from disconnected innocent bystander to participant, by immersing him or her in the rich contextual fabric of the location.
“We’re trying to push a little further,” said Di-Ann Eisnor, Platial CEO. “We’re trying to capture that experience by providing relevant and contextual information.”
And that experience is definitely heightened by Platial’s move into the content space.
I’m happy to see Platial’s flavor of social mapping move beyond the realm of “writing a few notes about this pin on the map” to something that furthers the storytelling that has always been at the very core of the Platial service.
And with the Flanders build, I see them moving into something that truly gives meaning to location: history, context, deep content, and differing views.
