by Matt Ball on February 29, 2012
Nokia and the Microsoft Bing Maps team are working jointly on on a new map presentation. The new approach involves a simpler information presentation where the maps have fewer ‘intrusive objects, icons and signs’ and fewer colors, along with clearer fonts and graphics. The maps present more detailed information as you zoom in, with a [...]
by Matt Ball on February 24, 2012
Flipping through the March issue of National Geographic magazine, I was surprised by this ad on page 6, with its tagline, “PAPERbecause.” The subhead that, “a lot of places worth going don’t get a signal, and hopefully never will,” probably speaks to most of the magazine’s audience. The PAPERbecause campaign is a much broader initiative [...]
by Matt Ball on January 23, 2012
White Pages Neighbors provides a map-based view of your neighborhood with the names and phone numbers appearing on top of the houses that surround you. This interactive map-based view launched this summer, with the goal of creating closer community ties through the interactive exploration of your neighborhood. As related by the company’s launch message, we [...]
by Matt Ball on January 20, 2012
UpNext debuts interactive and fluid 3D maps, available on iPad and Android. There are enhanced 3D models of 23 cities in the United States with 50 world cities that show points of interest and Foursquare checkins, with the idea that you’ll be able to see the activities that are “up next” in your area. View [...]
by Matt Ball on October 30, 2011
The BBC is on a quest to provide a human scale to events and places in history in a way that we can all understand. Their How Big Really? and How Many Really? web sites provide an appreciation of events in a way that we can all relate to. The map-based understanding of the ‘How [...]
by Matt Ball on August 2, 2011
The Places & Spaces Mapping Science exhibit aims to inspire cross-disciplinary discussion on ways to communicate human activity and scientific progress on a global scale. This ten-year National Science Foundation-backed outreach effort began in 2005, with 10 maps added each year that will culminate in 100 maps in 2014. In addition to a traveling exhibition [...]
by Matt Ball on July 19, 2011
The province of British Columbia is the first in Canada to launch an open data portal that allows both developers and citizens to download and explore large volumes of government information. The impressive data catalog includes 2,500 sets of data, tools to conduct research and analyze statistics, as well as tools to develop custom applications. [...]
by Matt Ball on July 14, 2011
Urbanflow is a concept for the city of Helsinki that takes the static high-definition screens that are on display throughout the city and turns them into an urban operating system that “seamlessly integrates city services between the Web, mobile devices, and city screens no matter where you are or intend to be.” The Urbanflow project [...]
by Matt Ball on June 16, 2011
There’s a story today from Minneapolis about the closing of the Hudson Map Company that is shuttering their business after 100 years of business. The reason for the closure is the complete lack of paper map demand, although the store will still maintain inventory and sell maps online. Just a year ago there was a [...]
by Matt Ball on March 7, 2011
In a ruling Monday in the case Milner v. Department of the Navy, 09-1163, the Supreme Court ruled that the government can’t withhold data and maps from Freedom of Information Act requests related to Exemption 2. The 8-1 ruling went against the Navy’s decision to withhold maps that showed the extent of damage expected from [...]