It's nice to be known. I was kind of surprised during Where 2.0 to talk to people who knew the Wikitravel name -- and my name, no less -- and came up and talked to me about it. Cool stuff! Speaking of cool stuff at Where 2.0 -- I was seriously bummed to see people walking around in Geowankers t-shirts during the conference. I don't know who made them, but the tagline was perfect: We put the 'l' in 'a/s/l'. Genius! I'm bitterly jealous.
One of the most interesting things about the conference, which I think I already mentioned, was Chris Spurgeon's "greatest geohacks of all time" talk. My favorite hack was "Mr. Beck's map"; that is, the map of the London Underground made in 1934. (There's a book called Mr. Beck's Underground Map available at Amazon.) The big "hack" was to make an abstract, schematic map rather than one that was proportional and objectively "true". Although we take this style of railway map for granted -- you see them in every subway station on the planet -- previous to Mr. Beck, they were unheard-of. He borrowed the technique from circuit design schematics, by the way.
Anyways, my point is that Beck's map really resonated with me, in that the maps we need for Wikitravel need to be more informative than accurate. I don't know if there's a name for this pursuit, but I'd call it subjective cartography -- the creation of maps that provide information for humans, not satellites. If you're going to be visiting a town rather than lobbing bombs at it, you have a very different perspective on what data and point-of-view is important. If you've ever made a map for someone on the back of a napkin, you've practiced subjective cartography.
Talking to people at Where, I mentioned quite frequently our need at Wikitravel for this kind of map. What you leave out of a tourist map is almost as important as what you leave in. I'm interested in finding techniques to make it easy for WT contributors to create tourist maps from publicly-available data sources. Sadly, most of what I got from people was, "That's an interesting but difficult problem." Sigh.
tags: where2.0 cartography mr becks map chris spurgeon subjectivity
Names
But, back to my original point: it's nice to have people know your site. Maj's mom went to Charles Schwab to open an account, got in a discussion with the broker, and found out that he knew about Wikitravel. We've met people at dinner parties and weddings who love the site. And of course, people mention it on blogs and in the paper and etc. and etc.
I've been calling some companies today about some business stuff, and it was cool that people responded to the name Wikitravel. Wow. They like us; they really like us!
tags: name wikitravel media
Trippin'
We flew down from the Bay Area (California) to Southern California today, and the flight turned out fine. We flew on Southwest Airlines; it had been a while, and I'd forgotten how great it was to be treated like a human being by an airline. The price is right, the people are cool and like their jobs, and they get you from Point A to Point B. Why is it that other airlines don't work this way? Why do they think that the "Southwest Model" consists of giving people less and less and less, and treating them really badly? My guess is that airline execs never fly Southwest.
Anyways, Amita June was fabulous on the flight. We got the bulkhead seats, so she was able to sit on the ground and play with empty peanut bags while we flew. The sights out the window were great; sere central California, then out over the Pacific and approaching John Wayne Airport of Orange County from the west. Which was fantastic; flying down over the sailboats and the beaches was just great. Is there another place as fantastically beachworthy as Southern California? I dunno. Most island paradises have sewage and plastic bags in the water on their beach. My guess is that the beaches of Australia are probably this nice, but then again Australia is just California's Bizarro counterpart at the antipodes.
We got to Mike and Rita's (Maj's parents') new house around 4PM, and we took Amita out on the back patio. She got excited about playing with the fountain out back, but as she got more and more wet from the water, she got more and more naked, until she was standing bare-assed in the backyard, playing with the water. A good time was had by all.
We're off to see a friend in Manhattan Beach for dinner, then back here in Long Beach for the night. Lots of driving in the Golden State, apparently.
tags: southern california southwest airlines amitajune long beach travel backyard naked