soutschek.com - dive into the map

Love My Maps? I love “your maps” but besides the excitement of announcements, such as the one about adding editing functionality to the Google Maps API, which was made on the Official Google Maps API Blog this morning, some kind of frustration also comes along with it. Why? How many developers do you think are solving the same problems again and again? We have come to know Google as a company, which does not like to let people know too much about what’s next. Fair enough you may say - maybe you have to stick to these rules for surviving in a market, which is increasingly showing signs and giving rise to speculations about becoming disrupted or changing from a blue ocean to a red ocean or for the Google supertanker. I guess Google really has transformed into a supertanker in the last few years.

By the way, the addition of editing functionality to the Google Maps API was just one of several “new Google Maps things” in the last week. We have now got a Google Map Flash API, new user functions and content to explore and discover the world around and far away or the new real estate options.

So why is there also frustration besides the excitement? While some people certainly like to “prototype-(p)re-invent” wheels, others specifically DO NOT like to. Especially for smaller businesses, which use Google Maps or Google Maps Enterprise as a tool for making some kind of business idea work, it can be really frustrating to spend time and resources on developments that can literally often go in the bin a few weeks later - when the exact announcement that you were waiting for some weeks ago, is finally made.

For those, who even just intend to use Google Maps as a platform to realise their new mashup idea, planning ahead is extremely difficult. Do you want to spend a few weeks or months developing some fancy new feature, which is not available on Google Maps yet, or not exposed in the API just yet - and then find exactly that feature being added after you have engineered it yourself? If you are still working on it, you may save yourself some night shifts and this might bring at least some excitement besides the frustration that you have just wasted a lot of valuable time on inventing a wheel which is now given away to anyone for free! Or go and risk it - you may become famous in the visionary or technology enthusiasts departments and communities for a few days, and if you are quick and successful in crossing the chasm, you may become even more famous and rich - or you may end up at the bottom of the crevasse - with all the others that vanish in the awesomeness icefall.

I’ll give you an example: Google released a static maps API earlier this year. Then, a little later, Google added support for more marker options and paths on the static maps along with the message that lines can only contain 50 vertice points. Now if you need a hundred? Draw two lines? Should be an OK hack. If you need 1000 - hmm, how about building something yourself. Sophisticated server-side solution? Enough tools out there to do something like that… Or wait until Google decides that lines can be longer now? You decide! Good luck - and be sure to not be frustrated, but excited instead, if things keep changing… you know!

If you want a bit more planning, and you can afford to do without a substantial set of free geodata, then you may answer the question, “must it always be Google Maps?” with a clear “no”! For example, follow the Open Layers Blog and you have a pretty good idea about what will be next - in fact, you can even contribute to make it happen faster!

Excitement and frustration are often very close together and timing is what may decide whether you will smile or get annoyed digesting your daily news. I’ll start my day going out for a run now - awesome nature is waiting for me!

Too many choices, too much content is a great brief article, which was recently published on ReadWriteWeb. The article offers a familiar perspective on (I guess) many people’s daily reading slot challenge. It also reminded me of an interesting book about what we all do on the Web these days. It is called The Cult of the Amateur and it offers a thought provoking perspective about the problem of filtering the useful from the not so useful content on the Web. Andrew Keen uses the metaphor of typewriting monkeys, to refer to the majority of content producers, who are responsible for the not so useful content, in which we all struggle to not drown day by day. Read about the infinite monkey theorem and you get a good idea about the message of the book.

Anyway… Sarah, the author of the article I was referring to at the start, points out that the real challenge is to find the useful content and technologies - the next big thing(s) and the next killer app(s) out there… she concludes:

There’s also this little thing called “going outside” that we would like to take part in, too. Hopefully we’ll see the killer web app to filter the noise someday soon to help us do so, but it’s definitely not here yet.

Maybe the next killer app(s) will be one(s), which will motivate and drive us to actually “go outside” and experience the “awesomeness” of all the nature to be explored and discovered on our “real” earth - Otherwise I guess we’ll keep drowning until the magical filter becomes available or we figure out a super-strategy to find the few monkey scripts with lines of wisdom… “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.” 

Today, I read a blog post on folksonomy mapping on the United Maps Blog, which triggered me to think about how the geography of map use may relate to the geography of map making, especially with regard to projects such as Open Street Map. Are there patterns that may suggest that the most popular areas that people look at on Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth are also the areas that are best mapped by folksonomy mappers worldwide?

There is an interesting research paper (pdf) on hotmaps (more commonly known as heat maps these days, I guess) by Danyel Fisher, available from Microsoft Research. The paper provides insights into the geography of map use, for instance, with regard to a tourism context. The areas, in which map tiles are most frequently requested are the “hot” or “heat” areas. These places are often popular tourist attractions.

I thought it would be interesting to overlap these heat maps or hotmaps with maps showing the degree of completion and coverage in the Open Street Map geodata. I haven’t really looked closely, whether someone may have already done this. If so, please let me know. Otherwise, maybe someone is keen for a mashup, maybe as a little research project in a geography or a GIS related course at university? I think it would be interesting to find out if there are distinct patterns. It seems obvious that an overlap will show that the big cities are most popular in terms of map access and also in terms of completion of coverage in Open Street Map. But what other patterns may be found? And how may they be explained?

To be honest. I haven’t tried Twitter yet. And I am not even sure why. Maybe I’ll have a closer look at some stage… maybe when it will turn into Live Earth. Sure, we’ve got webcams already. But don’t you think it would be exciting to have them mounted (excuse me) to people. Head mounted webcams already brings up three hits on Google. Of course there would be an option to switch them on and off. In “tourism”, things have proceeded from exploration by a few explorers to travel by a few more to tourism by many more - and from looking to experiencing… Parallels on the Web?!? Don’t you think this will happen with Twitter as well? Maybe YouTube becomes boring one day - because it is old hat - stuff that happened in the past and people are more excited to know what is happening right now. Too much stumbling already for today? How about enjoying someone ski down a fresh powder slope - live - in real time! Just need to upgrade some of those helmet cameras … In addition to real time satellite imagery, the social part of live earth will complete ground-truthing in real-time.

Today, I am getting 55.000 hits for a “google killer” search using Google. The same search on Microsoft even brings up 64.800 results - wonder if this is a surprise, coincidence or evil. Currently, there is a lot of discussion about the Web, the Web 2.0 and 3.0 and whatever else lies ahead and may become the next big thing. Ever since Spencer Johnson told us that the cheese is moving, and Clayton Christensen explained how disruptive innovations and technologies change the rules of the game, there seems to be a pleasant or not so pleasant anticipation for seeing what or who will make Google’s giant cheese station move. Or is it already gone, since I couldn’t actually find it any more. You can read about some of the potential Google killers here or here or here …

After we were already the person of the year 2006, maybe THE Google killer will be us! Why? Because we may rely less and less on Google to find stuff - because we know other places to better meet our special and diverse - or not so diverse information needs. Or we may find better tools to help us solve problems or spend our Online leisure time at other places. I would not be surprised to see some tough battles ahead to defend the huge Planet Google territory. The more fingers in the pies, the more places you need to show excellence.

In the last few days, I discovered a few neat new tools for planning my next trips.

• Topo Explorer or Backpacker for planning my next hikes overseas.
• Nile Guide for planning my next trip to Paris.
• TripIt to get all the trip details organised.

Now I just need to find out whether I can be bothered sitting in front of my good “old” P4, 1.5 GHz, with not even 1 GB of RAM and torture myself, waiting for all the javascript code to load and parse and eventually allow me to actually DO something… Sometimes I really wonder how it was possible to play all those great graphics computer games on a Commodore 64 almost 20 years ago? Today I have to cross my fingers and hope that my machine will win the performance battle and finally let me draw a line with a few hundred points, without making me start swearing and arguing because it is taking ages for all this to happen. Do I need to adopt and get myself a dual or quad core processor machine that can cope with state-of-the-art requirements of the Web 2.0 world or shall I get some books and a printed map instead. Oh dear I so want my C-64 back!

After figuring out whether to fix the bindings regular or goofy, there was nothing to stop him. Getting a feeling for the right balance is the first step to a successful snowboarding career. Secret hint for anyone who wants to have a go - do not wear too many thermals on a warm day! Our friend lost an estimated 3 litres of sweat this day…

I was really impressed by Aaron’s performance. He said he did water skiing before. Good on ya mate!

I don’t know how often he fell over that day, but he always got up again. Good spirit, and that’s how you learn it.

Champion performance! Have fun practising on Mount Ruapehu as soon as the season starts!

This is a secret tip for all Zipflbob enthusiasts out there. The winter season is ending. Most ski resorts have already closed, or are about to close. Why? Probably because the snow is melting, it has been a long season and everybody needs a break, or because people are now getting onto their mountain bikes instead of their skis and snowboards. Now here comes the hint: While the meadows are already green in the valleys and up to about 1200m, there is still compressed snow on the runs, which lasts a little bit longer. As long as you stay away from the grassy bits and try to not destroy the recovering ground, you can still enjoy Zipflbob rides for a little longer. And the best of all - you are almost by yourself as hardly anyone is keen enough to walk up instead of taking the gondola when it is not running.

So before Zipflbob and Zipfljo go hibernating in the basement over summer, they wanted to head for the slopes once again. So here we go. Zipflbob takes the big backpack with all the good food, drinks and the warm and waterproof cloths for the downhill ride. Waterproof turned out to be a bit of a joke, but more about that later…

Since it snowed just a few days ago, walking up was tough. But you really turn into explorer mode when you set your feet in fresh snow and go where nobody has gone before (well, not since the last snowfall at least).

Once you get up, you enjoy the view - green valley, snow covered mountains. You drink some tea, chop some food and then you get dressed up and ready for Zipflbobbing. Here come the tactics: Figure out who has less weight. Let that person go first. Why? Because it will be much easier for a light person to go through 10-20cm of “fresh” wet snow than it is for a heavier person. That way, the first Zipflbobber already leaves a nice track that the second one can follow at an incredible speed.

Next tip: You do not want to go down where it is too flat. It does not need to be super-steep (beware of avalanches and do not take any risks!!!) , but you don’t want it to be flat when the snow is deep and wet. The one, who is leading has to navigate. Tough job. Tip for the one following. Be prepared to break when the Zipflbobber in the lead needs to break. Or perform a super-crazy stunt to get around them or over them. The latter one is for experts only!

When you increase speed on a steeper slope and you get into more flat terrain, Zipflbob turns into a snow mower. I forgot to mention that you should really really wear some proper goggles. Dramatically increases fun, vision and face temperature.

Now if you follow these instructions and you watch out that you can break at any time, for instance if deer crosses the slopes or you get to some red lights, you should be alright - Park Zipflbob and Zipfljo at the end of your run and let them dry. I cannot over-emphasise drying. I have yet to find waterproof clothing which actually stays waterproof. Believe it or not. I had the equivalent amount of snow of 2 snow balls in the inner pocket of my jacket. Don’t ask me how it got there!

May have been the last Zipflbob trip this season. I need to work out how to make Zipflbobs work in summer. I’ve got the wheels figured out, but the brakes are still a bit of a problem. I am pretty sure you need them, but I have no idea how that would work. So all you engineers out there who think you’ve got the idea to make this work, get in touch!

Finding a flat for rent or the right house to buy is actually quite a challenge. Just think about what would be important to you. Close to public transport, walking distance to the bakery (very important!), a supermarket not too far away. How about something green when you look out of the window? Or some mountains, a park, a lake or even the coastline close by. Would be nice, when you want to go for runs, wouldn’t it? Or do you prefer the city centre? Being close to where stuff is happening? I guess you also want to live in a certain kind of neighbourhood, where you feel safe and happy. Not far away from work. You don’t want it to be noisy. If you have kids, how about a child-friendly environment and a kindergarten in the vicinity? Now the favourite place will probably differ, depending on your individual needs, likes and constraints. So how do you go about finding that favourite place? A real estate agent? The newspaper? A map? A walk around? Maybe you’ll combine different strategies to come to a conclusion.

With the new digital earth applications, it has become a whole lot easier to explore and discover places virtually. Plain maps, aerial photographs, birds eye imagery, socio-demographic overlays, Points of Interest such as the bakery, the bus stops, the train station - just select what you want to have displayed in context with other bits of information. However, finding that favourite place is still far from being really straightforward and convenient.

Now take birds-eye imagery and current 3D-City models a little bit further and combine them with the sophisticated databases that already exist and enable you to filter a 3-bedroom place built in the last 5 years within your budget and in a certain area. Imagine, how you walk around in a virtual 3D-landscape, being able to view everything from many different perspectives. Some computer games these days will give you a good idea what will be possible for the “real” mirror earth. With your preferences defined, you start walking around the virtual town. You see the free apartments highlighted in some way and the houses that are yet to be sold. Of course, you can walk inside and have a 360 look around.

Has this potential to disrupt the real estate industry? Introducing Google Earth Real Estate or Microsoft Virtual Earth Flat Finder. Of course by then, anyone will have a digital camera that will output stitched panoramas straight away, ready to be uploaded into digital earth from the mobile device. It will be as easy as just taking a photograph and sending it to someone. Next to no effort required.

I guess efforts are under way to make all this happen, and there will be people claiming that we can already do this. However, I still think the real estate agents will have some more time to prepare… Can’t yet find that place that I am looking for!