tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11315842009-06-16T11:01:07.588+02:00An angry, young cartographer: all about visualising geographic information online, except when it's not.Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comBlogger554125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-6912806345068909942009-06-16T10:23:00.007+02:002009-06-16T11:01:07.597+02:00

It's a busy conference season for Webmapper! Check out the list below: June 17th - 20th, 2009 The British Cartographic Society Annual Symposium : Mapping at Work, Newport Pagnell, UK July 10th - 12th, 2009 State of the Map 2009, Amsterdam, Netherlands September 7th - 9th, 2009 45th Annual Summer School of the Society of Cartographers, Southampton, UK September 23rd - 24th, 2009 AGI

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-90841154920607973432009-06-10T14:30:00.000+02:002009-06-10T14:31:45.861+02:00

The results of the election for the European parliament that took place between 4 and 7 June have been consolidated. While most news websites simply map the results for their home country, some map the results from across Europe. No static maps or Google Maps mash-ups this time: all maps are interactive and make use of Flash. The German newspapers Die Zeit and Der Spiegel, the Dutch public

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-90234200956019618782009-06-04T22:25:00.002+02:002009-06-04T22:31:02.395+02:00

Not only did Microsoft bring Live Maps and Virtual Earth under one name: Bing Maps and Bing Maps for Enterprise respectively, also Google Maps and Google Earth recently updated their looks with a new logo! Will Bing bring some of the much needed consistency in naming Microsoft's mapping activities? Who could really tell the difference between Virtual Earth, Live Local, Live Search Maps, and

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-18163423407670222922009-05-26T10:45:00.003+02:002009-05-26T11:56:52.576+02:00

There's more than one way to do it (TIMTOWTDI)! Do what? Well, to get from A to B. Last Friday, Google Maps still shows you the best route, but in addition now shows one or two additional routes under the Suggested Routes heading. While the best route has the lowest cost (determined by a mixture of factors such as distance, travel time, and number of turns), the other suggestions may be more

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-6138833818467383222009-05-23T20:47:00.001+02:002009-05-23T20:48:22.728+02:00

This week at Where 2.0, Nokia announced their opening up of Ovi Maps by starting an invitation-based beta for the Ovi Maps Player API. I have just signed up and received an automated reply from Nokia Forum: Thank you for registering for the Maps Player beta programme. We?re looking through applications for the program, and we?ll be in touch very soon. In the meantime, you can share your thoughts

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-29323860170501898282009-05-19T09:11:00.007+02:002009-05-19T09:39:45.917+02:00

Turning over the front page of the newspaper Trouw this morning, my eyes caught the striking image of a still taken from the video The Earth, The Human Being by Xu Huijing. Each of us is a universe. We used to be integrated with the earth, but are shattered apart in the reality. This is the world where we walk around like fearless monsters. We are limbs incised from a body, a finger, a neck, a

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-41634080718345408082009-05-18T09:00:00.009+02:002009-05-18T12:35:16.938+02:00

The Ordnance Survey (OS), the British National Mapping Agency (NMA), is finally getting to grips with Web 2.0 and has relaunched its JavaScript-based mapping API OpenSpace under a much more lenient agreement. Under this new agreement, only commercial websites that are directly making money from the use of data (e.g. by charging for a service) or high-volume websites that exceed the daily usage

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-90553997208469758482009-05-13T21:18:00.006+02:002009-05-13T23:26:07.911+02:00

Close the Java console and wait for the Loading Latest Navteq Map banner to disappear before you can admire the new Navteq website. As of yesterday, the website features the beta release of a showcase for maps, real-time traffic (US-only for now) and dynamic location content (i.e. POIs). The change comes only within weeks of the overhaul of Traffic.com. Rather than the humble message of Navteq

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-86802811362114580962009-05-08T21:38:00.002+02:002009-05-08T21:41:00.605+02:00

Although the newly-launched hier.nl is first and foremost a location-based application for mobile phones that can also be accessed in a mobile browser, it is also available on the Web. Here you can register, have the application downloaded to your mobile phone, and see on the map what is going on near you. It takes information from many of the other online properties from ilse media such as

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-17390978773700554742009-05-07T18:46:00.001+02:002009-05-07T18:51:43.329+02:00

The 45th Annual Summer School of the Society of Cartographers is to take place in Southampton from September 7 to 9. Some talks (including mine!) and workshops have already been confirmed, but you can still submit paper proposals about a diverse range of themes, including map symbolisation, transport and emergency mapping, crowdsourcing data, and mapping for Wikispaces. Going by my experience of

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-76295423932054544732009-05-07T16:40:00.005+02:002009-05-07T16:57:51.801+02:00

The UK-based mapping website Multimap debuts an exciting new section on the website: Explore with Multimap. You can read travel tips from MSN editors (Map Readings), find the favourite places from other Multimap visitors (Viewpoints), and most of all: try handy map tools for Outlook 2007, IE8 and Firefox 3.0 (Toolbox). Tim Warr, Technology Specialist and Evangelist at Multimap, explains that the

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-37239250143983662932009-05-01T23:38:00.006+02:002009-05-02T09:50:03.689+02:00

The overhaul of Traffic.com unveiled earlier this week, marks the long-overdue alignment of Navteq's online presence and branding after the acquisitions of Traffic.com and Map24. The visual brand alignment of Map24 was completed already back in February this year. Also TomTom's agreement with TrafficCast is visible online now that the TomTom Route Planner doesn't only include traffic information

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-59494633961895626722009-04-19T18:50:00.002+02:002009-04-19T19:03:29.525+02:00

The launch of Microsoft's Live Search Maps Netherlands with local listings from the telephone directory De Telefoongids and the business directory De Gouden Gids was already back in January and was picked up by quite a few mapping blogs at the time. However, it wasn't until about two weeks ago that Dutch marketing blogs such as Marketingfacts, Dutch Cowboys, and Adformatie finally spread the news

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-91688264632096215812009-04-05T14:06:00.002+02:002009-04-05T14:11:25.436+02:00

Within the last week, the People's Map, Google, and Tele Atlas made their next steps in collaborative mapping to gather Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). The new People's Map website was launched with a bigger map, improved performance of the map navigation, and better geocoding results. Google just announced Map Maker Download, offering the base map of Kenya, either as an ESRI shapefile

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-73573756265095567232009-03-25T16:20:00.000+01:002009-03-26T16:20:15.281+01:00

Today's launch of Cartifact Maps marks another step in the evolution of web cartography. The new website aims to create a visually enhanced environment for custom cartography focusing on Los Angeles for this beta release. It certainly succeeded in this by unchaining the map design from the rigor of the Navteq base map that still dominated the Yahoo Local map redesign by Cartifact almost two years

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-4454853005185921822009-03-20T17:10:00.003+01:002009-03-22T12:06:20.756+01:00

As of January 2009, every police force in the UK has published its mapped crime statistics online in response to a Home Office initiative to take the rollout of local crime information to the next level. Although the publication may encourage accountability and empower the community, it could just as well hit local house prices if crime-ridden neighbourhoods become stigmatised or it may feed

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-36686213371989662042009-03-12T22:45:00.003+01:002009-03-12T23:04:10.940+01:00

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that SHOW®/USA goes to show, that Web 2.0 has brought cartography more than just slippy maps, at last. We're really beyond red dot fever! A few other websites that really emphasise this point are GeoCommons, Google Map Maker Directions, and CloudMade Style Editor. GeoCommons Finder! is a browser-based application for finding, organising and sharing geographic data.

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-44398951089367775542009-02-23T10:30:00.002+01:002009-02-23T10:33:18.548+01:00

In the US online mapping market, Google Maps has finally managed to take a lead over MapQuest with 42.2 million to 41.5 million monthly unique visitors, according to the latest comScore's report on traffic data for January 2009. Also Mike Blumenthal confirmed Google Maps has surpassed Mapquest based on numbers from Compete.com. The US was one of the last significant internet markets where Google

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-52921389562981268462009-02-11T16:15:00.001+01:002009-02-11T16:15:25.787+01:00

The last few days, the new kids on the block TomTom Route Planner and Nokia Maps on Ovi have both made some further steps. As of last Thursday, TomTom has slightly opened the website removing the need to log-in for Dutch online visitors only. Nokia was a little less cautious and released a major update of Nokia Maps 3.0. From an online mapping perspective, the most important improvement is the

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-81264339158078384662009-02-09T10:45:00.001+01:002009-02-09T10:49:35.179+01:00

Did you know most UFO sightings were in California instead of New Mexico and that Texas has the highest number of Wal-mart stores? The new website SHOW®/USA maps over 140 topics using cartograms, i.e. states are resized in proportion to a particular attribute. SHOW®/USA is part of the broader SHOW®/WORLD initiative by the Amsterdam-based company Mapping Worlds. It has quite a reputation for

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-83228323138571174752009-01-30T16:05:00.001+01:002009-01-30T16:08:22.725+01:00

In case the recent posts about Microsoft Virtual Earth piqued your interest, sign up to secure a place at the MSDN InTrack: Virtual Earth in Barneveld, the Netherlands on 12 February 2009 (via Nederkaart)! Through the course of the day, there will be several presentations explaining how you can use Virtual Earth in your web applications. This reminds me of the Google Geo Developers Day in

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-70883770627982804292009-01-27T20:25:00.006+01:002009-01-27T22:43:21.461+01:00

The founders of Multi Media Mapping Ltd. (a.k.a. Multimap) Sean Phelan and Audrey Mandela have left the company, a year after the acquisition by Microsoft. Their departure was marked by a party with all current and former Multimappers at the Globe Theatre in London two weeks ago. Find the evidence on Flickr! It was a great opportunity to catch up with the old crew. Some were still with Multimap/

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-57144462819303681472009-01-26T16:48:00.014+01:002009-01-27T15:53:34.516+01:00

Just over a week ago, Live Search Maps Netherlands was launched (via Virtual Earth, An Evangelist's Blog). Although the mapping website was built exclusively on the Virtual Earth platform, the interface is fully in Dutch and the business listings contain locally sourced content, provided by the telephone directory De Telefoongids and the business directory De Gouden Gids. Could Live Search Maps

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-16567785187612814082008-12-04T21:19:00.005+01:002008-12-05T10:05:13.297+01:00

Just a day after Nokia launched its Maps on Ovi, TomTom announced its TomTom Route Planner. It has already been suggested that it may become a real competitor to Google Maps and/or Mapquest. The biggest difference between the TomTom online route planner and other route planners is that it the routes it provides are intelligent. That's right, the route calculation does not only benefit from

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131584.post-52996190668318169622008-12-02T21:47:00.005+01:002008-12-03T00:09:31.256+01:00

Against the backdrop of the recent online mapping market shake-out, marked for example by Ask Maps and Sensis' business directory website Yellow abandoning their own mapping platforms for Microsoft's Virtual Earth/MapPoint and Google Maps respectively, it's refreshing to see a new kid on the block! While most attention today goes to the introduction of the Nokia Maps 3.0 mobile navigation

Edward Mac Gillavryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16643360659947492995noreply@blogger.com