Platial News and Neogeography

GPS NavJacket

GPS jacket with built in display (those little blips on the sleeve!)

Check out the details here

Social Mapping Goes Mama (and more)

Frappr and Platial share a single most pervasive use case: communities, groups, enthusiasts collaborating on maps, sharing places, visualizing where their community is around the world.

The concept of shared place and social mapping has grown is now an important part of local search and many online communities. We knew the groups/community aspect is what mattered which is why we created MapKit a fully functional social map application for any site or blog or online community around sailing, 50 cent fans, moms, birders and anything else

We've just taken another big step down this path with Community Maps, a platform which allows others to create their own map-based communities through collaborative mapping. These are customizable for specific communities. Think of it as one great big world-wide map for moms, green activists, dog people, architecture buffs, foodies and more. This means your own readers/users can interact with the map on your own site and see what others around the world are adding!

Together with some of our power users we'll be rolling out 24 of these over the coming months and we are so thrilled! The next step is to roll it out for everyone to create their own.

So, share with your community and tap into relevant recommendations around the world. The first Community Map "MommyMap" was released in testing last week. Please check it out and if you're a mom, mommy blogger or just organize lots of playdates please give it a whirl and let us know what you think! Don't worry dads yours is coming.

Grab your own!

Also please see our local fav mommy bloggers using Mommy Map!

Resident professor, Chris Goad has wanted to release this for two years and finally we get to take this step. Here's what can be customized (and you wondered why we care so much about rdf!):

1. The kinds of information collected
2. How it is displayed
3, Custom pre-populated content
4. Distribution channels

Happy Mapping!

Want to sponsor one? email diann at platial dot com

Want to suggest one? email tracy at platial dot com

USA, The Last UnGreen Nation

America, you are on notice! Following the landslide election in Australia held just last week, the new Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Kevin Rudd ratified the Kyoto Protocol as his first act as leader of the country. This leaves the United States as the sole country that has not ratified this global treaty.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

“This Nation ... must not wield the tools of tyrants even to resist an assault by the forces of tyranny.”

- Judge John Paul Stevens, U.S. Supreme Court

Today, this same Supreme Court will hear presidential administration lawyers try to defend the indefensible: that the President can ignore the writ of habeas corpus and imprison people indefinitely, without charge and without question. Many of us are hopeful that some sense of decorum might return to our nation's identity through this judicial scrutiny.

In light of that going on today, I'd like to post about an item for sale from Amnesty International that commemorates the upcoming 60th anniversary of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Nice as gifts for the socially minded / geographically influenced people in your lives.