James Thornett The views and opinions expressed here are my own and not those of the BBC, my employer.
Posts Tagged ‘Technology’
Birmingham Local Blogs Wire
Following my recent post on Will Perrin’s Talk About Local initiative, Jon Bounds has pushed ahead and created a Birmingham Local Blogs Wire by feeding a selection of blogs about Birmingham through Yahoo! Pipes. You can read all about the thinking behind the Birmingham Blog Wire here. Robin Hamman (@cybersoc) and I spent many an [...]
Google Street View in the clear
Following protests and complaints over the introduction of Google’s Street View technology in the UK, the UK’s Information Commissioner has today ruled that it should not be stopped. A spokesman for the privacy watchdog said removing the entire service would be “disproportionate to the relatively small risk of privacy detriment”. More from BBC News.
Residents complain over Google street view cameras
Another story from BBC News today on the privacy issues surrounding Google’s Street View technology – residents of Broughton, near Milton Keynes, staged a protest and accused Google of invading their privacy and facilitating crime. Twenty five UK cities went live on 19th March with the Netherlands version also going live on the same date, [...]
Guardian allows users to geo-tag content with launch of new Open Platform tool
The Guardian has today launched Open Platform with the hope of freeing up their data and allowing users to build other tools and services using Guardian content. Of particular interest is the work on a crowd-sourced solution to geo-tagging. “Stamen and OpenStreetMap developed a service that they hope will encourage Guardian readers to “geo-tag” the [...]
Google Latitude launches
Google launched it’s own Fire Eagle today, enabling you to ‘See your friends on a map and get in touch‘. I haven’t had enough time to get properly stuck in but from first viewing the Google Latitude user experience is more map-based and the ‘sales pitch’ is much more end-user focused. Whilst all the hype [...]
Google maps gone wrong?
Google Maps is now exclusively using TeleAtlas as it’s mapping data provider, dropping all previous information supplied from NavTeq. This appears to have resulted in a noticeable increase in errors according to reports from The Map Room and The Earth is Square.
The Google mobile phone has arrived
The G1 phone has today been officially unveiled in the United States and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page were present at the launch. Essentially a 3G phone that has been optimised for Google services like mail and maps it is available on the T-Mobile network and requires signing up for a two-year contract. [...]
Mikel Maron and Andrew Turner at Web 2.0 Expo
Mikel Maron and Andrew Turner went to the Web 2.0 Expo in New York and talked about Where 2.0 (and Burning Man). Their presentations are below (View notes from Kris Jordan). Trends And Technologies In Where2.0 – Web2 Expo New Yorkhttp://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=web2expo-nyc-trends-and-technologies-in-where2-1221763079973470-8&stripped_title=trends-and-technologies-in-where20-web2-expo-new-york-presentation View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: lbs location) Burning Man Earth at [...]
I really should make more of my Nokia N95…
So I’m sat at departure gate 15 of Glasgow airport, the dark clouds are so low they are literally sitting on the runway, rain is pouring from the sky, I’m drinking lucozade and my insides are full of painkillers that are having almost no effect on the onset of flu, oh, and the plane that [...]
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 [...]
