James Thornett The views and opinions expressed here are my own and not those of the BBC, my employer.
Archive for June, 2008
Links (30th June 2008)
Review of the new Local Priorities web service from the Dept of Communities and Local GovernmentNick Booth likes the idea (but not the execution) of a new web service from the Dept. of Communities and Local Government. Weather TweetsWalter Rafelsberger has created a weather map which uses an analysis of tweets to determine current conditions. [...]
The State of the Map Conference 2008
The second international State of the Map conference from OpenStreetMap takes place in Limerick, Ireland on 12th-13th July, 2008. Ed Parsons won’t be attending but recommends everyone else does so if you are interested take a look at the schedule. Lots of useful information on openstreetmap for those that are going this year.
Links (25th June 2008)
Y! GeoA new Yahoo blog focusing on geo technologies. The Map Room reports that “it replaces the mapping side of the now-defunct Yahoo Local and Maps blog“. The MetaCarta BlogMetacarta have launched their own blog which they aim to be “a community forum to discuss the evolution of the Geoweb“. Google Releases More Map Crowdsourcing [...]
Media coverage of the BBC Local Video PVT
Here is an updating list (thanks to the miracle that is del.icio.us) of links to media coverage of the BBC‘s application to provide a local video service on bbc.co.uk. (Disclaimer: I am involved in this application as part of my day job at the BBC.) The PVT began on 24th June 2008. my del.icio.us
BBC Trust begins public value test into local video proposal
The BBC Trust has today started its public value test (PVT) of the BBC’s local video proposal. (Disclaimer: I am involved in this proposal as part of my day job at the BBC.) The Trust has published BBC management’s application as well as supporting documents, a service description and a full timetable for the PVT. [...]
Links (24th June 2008)
Online, all journalism is potentially local | Online Journalism BlogThis month’s Carnival of Journalism is asking whether journalism is better the more local it is. News aggregator Topix adds six new content partnersNews aggregation service Topix has signed deals with six new content partners to expand its local information offering, TechCrunch reports. Newspaper Society launches [...]
The effect of GPS on geo-intelligence
Some interesting reaction to an ABC News article titled Will GPS Make Us Dumb?. Geocarta points out that “One problem with Ms. Shasha’s argument is that she presupposes that everyone actually had a sense of direction in the first place. Lots of people, my wife included, don’t.“ The Map Room has similar issues with the [...]
ITV Local has 4 million video views in May
Media Guardian reports that ITV’s web video figures rocket. ITV Local, which offers news, weather and entertainment content to different regions, recorded four million video views in May. The four ITV regions where video has taken off the most are Meridian, which accounted for 16% of views, Central at15%, Anglia with 11% and London at [...]
Huffington Post goes local
From Media Guardian article – Huffington Post starts local news push. The Huffington Post is planning to expand into local news across the US, founder Arianna Huffington said last night, beginning with a site edited for the community of Chicago. Huffington said the Chicago site would aggregate news, sports, crime, arts and business news from [...]
Mapping public information
An interesting post from Andrew Turner with his thoughts on the Beyond Broadcast Conference, this year looking at Mapping Public Media. It is quite obvious the very prevalent impact and interest in mapping and geographic visualization of data. The tools have become approachable and the public comfortable, even expecting, rich cartographic interfaces and exploration. Also, [...]
Lessons learned from hyperlocal
While we are on the subject of news becoming ‘more local’, here’s an interesting post from Rob Curley on the experience of running the hyperlocal project LoudounExtra.com, developed by Washington Post Newsweek International. “…I thought the two biggest problems with LoudounExtra.com were poor integration of the site with washingtonpost.com and not enough outreach into the [...]
Northcliffe re-vamps local websites with geo-coding on stories
Northcliffe Media have begun geo-coding stories produced on their “thisis” websites as the group prepares to introduce geographical targeting on the “next generation” of local news websites. The 10 remodeled sites, including thisiscornwall.co.uk, are part of the plans to re-vamp the 55 existing sites and to add 35 new regional websites under Northcliffe’s ‘thisis’ brand, [...]
Links (16th June 2008)
Google Maps – More, Not Richer DataWork to do for Google when it comes to searching on the map. iPhone GPS and Google Mobile SearchMore on the GPS capability of the iPhone. Is GoogleMaps GIS? :: High Earth OrbitAndrew Turner discusses the definition of GIS and the relationship with mapping technologies/services such as Google Maps. [...]
Where 2.0 Conference 2008
The main inspiration for getting this blog up and running was the O’Reilly Where2.0 Conference which took place in Burlingame, CA, from 12th-14th May this year. I’ve been meaning to write up some overall thoughts of the event but have been waiting to get the site live first. So, full review to come along shortly, [...]
O’Reilly release Geospatial report
As spotted on The AnyGeo Blog , a 22-page report on the state of the GeoSpatial web is now available from O’Reilly. Geo functionality is everywhere, and more geo data is being created and freely disseminated than ever before. This emerging technology space, growing in tandem with Web 2.0, has been called Where 2.0. In [...]
About Me
I am currently the Executive Product Manager for Local and Location Services within BBC Future Media and Technology. This includes responsibility for the development of regional and local interactive services across the UK, improving the delivery of local content and location services across bbc.co.uk, and coordinating the use of maps/mapping technology on the BBC’s interactive [...]
Just testing…
I’m still a couple of weeks away from being able to say that this site is fully up and running. However, for future reference, and in case you care, this post shows that the website was first published on Friday 13th (June 2008).
