I'm at Where 2.0 2006 this week, and I've got to say that from the perspective of this conference room it's like geo-data is the most important development on the Web since the <img> tag. I'm getting a little tired of seeing Google Maps mashups -- although I'm hoping to see someone who does a mashup of Google Maps on Google Maps. Or Yahoo Maps on Google Maps. Overlay them, so you can click a link on Google Maps and get a Google Map of that particular place. Over and over and over forever.
Two hot things this morning have been my very favorite geo-project, OpenStreetMap, which is a wiki-based mapping system that lets users upload map traces to a centralized DB of open content data.
Most important for me was the Mapstraction library, which is an abstraction library that makes it easy to use the Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft mapping services transparently. Eventually it will also support OSM, which means it's a good library for Wikitravel to use today. Bonus.
Other stuff that's hot: Google Earth for Linux (finally), GeoRSS, and the continued growth of the OGC so far. Should be more this afternoon.
tags: where2.0 where2006 wikitravel san jose openstreetmap mapstraction ogc
My brilliant invention
So, I don't know if there's a word for it, but there's a particular head-gesture that people make when you're at a conference: they look down from your face to the middle of your chest to read your name tag and determine if you're anybody worth talking to. If you are, they'll look back up in your face and start talking. If you're not, they'll look at you for a second with an apologetic grin ("Sorry, you're not worth my time") and move on. Of course, if you're really important, they'll avert their eyes so they don't look like fanboys.
Anyways, my invention is a two-parter. First, it's a nametag headband, like the terrycloth tennis one that Luke Wilson wears in The Royal Tenenbaums. Your nametag goes right on your forehead, so people can pretend to look at your face while evaluating you.
The other half of the idea is that there's a mood-ring style indicator of how important you are on the tag. Like a little LED that glows red if you're red-hot, blue if you're nobody, green if you're the cool-kid dark-horse outsider. I'm not sure how the algorithm would work -- I'm thinking some kind of RFID transponder with other people's head movements counting as a vote gesture.
I think I can get it funded just with the headband, though.
tags: headband nametag conference rfid
Creative re-use of Wikitravel content
Mark Jaroski pointed out this cool re-use of Wikitravel's content. Learn Italian Pod is a podcast that includes, among other data feeds, a phrasebook based on the Wikitravel Italian phrasebook. That's just the kind of creative re-use that make WT worthwhile.
tags: wikitravel italian phrasebook podcast
Speaking of Italian
Wikitravel has a new language version: Italian Wikitravel. Congratulations to the Wikitravel:Italian Wikitravel Expedition!
tags: wikitravel italian