Platial News and Neogeography

MIT Emerging Technology Round-Up

Some of the highlights from this inspired and thought provoking conference.

The format of TR35 presentations was fantastic. Each of the 35 young innovators had the stage for 90 seconds to give a high level overview of their research, company or application. It was refreshing to hear from scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs from outside our own industry niche, surely a fertile ground for collaboration. We heard from fields of nanowires, self assembling systems, synthetic biology, molecular biology and more. Well done.

Other noteworthy talks included (but of course we couldn't attend them all).

Charles Simonyi, Co-founder, Intentional Software Simonyi’s work at Microsoft revolutionized technology as we know it. Can he do it again with Intentional  Software?

The summary of the talk was about getting the domain expert more involved in the software process, making room for the domain expert and the programmer to work more effectively.

Second Earth: Virtual Worlds, Amazing Maps, and the Future  of the Metaverse
Social virtual worlds such as Second Life and mapping tools such as Google Earth and Microsoft's Virtual Earth are beginning to overlap, perhaps foreshadowing the advent of an immersive, 3-D “metaverse” similar to those described in the science fiction of Neal Stephenson and William Gibson. How do today’s projects relate to the ultimate vision of an information-rich metaverse, and how could that metaverse change the way we do business?
Panelists: John Lester, Boston Operations Director, Linden Lab; John Hanke, Director, Google Earth   and Maps; Gur Kim Chi, Software Architect, Microsoft Virtual Earth; Jerry   Paffendorf, Cofounder, WelloHorld

Intensely interesting and relevant. Jerry continues to lead the thinking on the integrated future of maps, virtual worlds and more. John is always interesting and shows how Google Earths work is impacting the world for good in real world application.

Gilberto Gil Moreira, Minister of Culture, Brazil. How can technology influence and strengthen culture? Minister Gil addresses topics like Brazil ’s commitment to “free culture,” open-source software, and the $100 laptop.

OK if all of the noteworthy talk were meant to inspire than this was the highlight of the entire show. When was the last time we in the US had a chance to hear a politician talk about open science and technology in such poetic and terms. He talked of civil culture in ways we consider historic but believes in a new Athens of open discussion. Makes me think we should add Brazil to our Platial Tour Map.


 

 

AND HERE's OUR HUMBLE PANEL...

Keynote Panel: Creating Media 

From personal Web pages and blogs to podcasts and video sharing, what’s next in personal publishing? Leaders from the top content-creation companies discuss their technologies, with live demonstrations. Di-Ann Eisnor,  CEO, Platial; Carlos  Garcia, CEO, Scrapblog; Guillaume Cohen,   Founder and CEO, Veodia

Those are two of our movement aking users behind us; Kahleen Weldon from New England Grown and Pauric O'Callaghan from 3Com and Make Magazine. Thanks so much for using Platial in your important efforts and for representing us so well. The best part of this entire conference is that I got the chance to meet and collaborate with these two people.

Check out the full video FREE here (but sorry you'll need to register at Technology review.

Oh So Many Worlds

If you haven't seen the Neogeography group on flickr, it's worth a gander.

USA Collage

From an essay by Frances Stark via a reading list from the Using Global Media workshop.

Neurosonic Tour Map

Platial is proud to announce our latest tour map for Neurosonic. After performing on the mainstage of the 2007 Family Values Tour all summer long alongside acts such as Korn, Evanescence and Atreyu, Neurosonic is embarking on a European tour from September 12th-October 7th. You can keep up to date with their travels and receive picture updates from their shows by checking out their European Tour Platial Map on their MySpace Page.


Check out their latest video that debuted #1 on Fuses Ovenfresh "So Many People"

Platial Facelift-- Whee!

We're so excited about this big release of little things. It's different than many of our releases because there are no new features. This release is really the work of Tracy and David who worked with our users for months to sort through the best ways to view map data and annotate places. It's also the first major release on our new code framework Chris and Jake developed using our new api which Chris pretty much single handedly created. Andrew has been a tremendous help in testing out the api calls and collaborating with what needs to be included. The new formal api release is still to come. Jason of course made it all come together at the end like always!

The reason we're all so excited is that both the code base and the UI are more solid than ever (also lots of back-end tweaking and turning are targeting content eve more effectively!). This was a methodical build and is just the first on the new solid framework which is going to allow us to be even faster and even more responsive to our amazing users!!  Now that the Platial platform is for a good part established we can finally obsess over the details.

So, here are some highlights and as always please let us know if you find any bugs. We are so excited to finally have the first of many launches for the site we always wanted to build! Thanks to all of our beta testers who have helped on QA AND on telling what you wanted.

I. Updates to design and navigation of remote mapkits like these for Ricky Martin and Placebo/Capitol Records.

II. Big navigation improvements including Add a Place tray with all options clearer than ever.

III. Place details where you want them (Not obscuring your marker OR opening a lightbox) (Lots of tiny improvements here)

IV. Add Marker shortcut. Now just grab that magic marker on the bottom of the map and Whee! drop it wherever you want.

   

Urban Foraging

It's the end of the Summer. The blackberries are dying to be picked. Mushroom-hunting season is upon us. The pears are falling off the trees.

The original urban foraging map on Platial was Fallen Fruit by Austin, who also has a really nice website also called Fallen Fruit. He's based in Los Angeles.

Another user, Bacchus, pointed out a couple of these to me today and then I did a quick search. I'm sure I've missed some, so if you have a map like this or know of one, post it in the comments.

Kitchener, Ontario
Urban Foraging by Elski
Fairfax, CA
Food Foraging around Fairfax, California by Tobodi
Orange County, CA
Fallen Fruit - North Orange County by Rwoods
Portland, OR
fruit of my labors by Monsieurcris

These maps have only a few Places on them, but I figured I'd mention them anyway.

Free Fruit in Portland, OR by Pdxfruit
Durango Free-Fruit Map by Dangerousn8
medicinal & edible crops: eugene by Jadecricket (Check out the blog)

Elsewhere on the web...
The Echo Park Fruit Map on Flickr
Urban Edibles in Portland
Wild Food Adventures
Glean the Planet

Making April fan Map

Platial is proud to highlight our latest musical fan map for Making April. Hailing from Cortlandt Manor NY, Making April is among the most popular truly independent bands on the music scene today. Their infectious piano rock melodies have led to them being featured on MTV's 'Laguna Beach' and have earned them a spot among the top unsigned artists on MySpace. They have now sold over 70,000 singles on Itunes worldwide. Stop by to add yourself to their fan map and check out their song, "I Wrote This Song" on their MySpace page.

Here's a video of the group!

Some New Story Maps

Lit City was compiled by Zassenhaus. The map shows the locations of Places written about in one issue of the literary journal, Instant City, which Zassenhaus edits with a friend named Gravity Goldberg. (Cool movie-star name.) You can read a review of the project on SFGate.

There's work from several writers including Joe Donohoe and Broke Ass Stuart. Not all of the Places have stories attached to them, but many do. Here's an excerpt from Stuart's story:

"The old guy next to me suddenly got all animated and started silently waving his cigarette around in the air and grinning like someone who just had their first taste of flesh and realized that they loved it. This was the point when I realized that the Brown Jug probably was the best bar in the world, but that it was far too much for my fragile soul to handle. It was like having your mind opened up to all the secrets of the universe and realizing that maybe you didn’t want to know those secrets after all."

Where the Stories Happen by Pierceta links to the stories on We are Pioneers, the blog of writer Thomas Pierce. None of the stories are actually on the map, but each place links to his website, where you can read a lot of great essays. In his about section, Pierce says, "I'm a radio producer, writer, amateur documentary filmmaker, and sometime reporter."

His site has a lot of great stuff to explore. Especially cool are the two documantaries. (My favorite film genre!) One of them is a documentary about a botched documentary.

Here are a couple other great maps which tell stories:

Places Where I Been Ditched by Jennpants is full of hobo stories, hitchhiking stories, and adventures.

20 hours to Budapest by Marthalfreeman tells the highlights of a long trip.

The History of...

I discovered a new history map today. It's The Encyclopedia of Islam by Qwickmalik. The website seems to be based in Ghana, but the map and the rest of the site are in English. It's a pretty interesting resource for anyone curious about Islam. They have many interesting links.

Some other awesome history maps on Platial:

Psychodiscography by Spinneyhead tells the musical history of the Manchester area. This one would make a cool guide book. Be sure to check out the Spinneyhead website

The Boston History Map and the excellent blog that goes along with it are well worth a look.

The History of Videogames by Scootdown is edifying.

Portland Radical History Tour by Jason is an old favorite of mine.