Vancouver Interactive Digital Week

by BRITTA RICKER PETERS on June 15, 2010 • game ipad iphone location: conference • COMMENT

Mapkist was fortunate enough to attend Vancouver Interactive Digital Week (VIDWeek) organized by Digi BC. (I am late blogging about it but this is definitely an event worth blogging about). I was the moderator for a panel in the Wireless Business & Innovation Track: You are Your Location – location and enhanced experience.

We had a stacked panel that led to a rich discussion covering topics related to location-based gaming and services.

Let’s meet the panel…

Jereon Mol, Co-Founder, buzzAR (Holland)

buzzAR is a Dutch company that has developed a new visual search platform and an augmented reality tool for smartphones. Jereon offered a unique perspective on “location-aware” search and devices because his apps use image recognition and are not bound by location. buzzAR is taking a context aware approach to Augmented Reality, not just location aware.

Dan Walton, Co-Founder, Retronyms

Retronyms – GeoSeek; games in the great outdoors. These guys make really cool apps for multiple platforms. They are specifically skilled in developing location-based games and music apps. Their coolest game is Seek ‘n Spell…think location based scrabble where you have to run to collect the pieces you need to form a word. Super fun. They also develop musical apps for the iPad. All of our lunch buddies got a kick out of these apps. Highly entertaining.

Ben Hesketh, Founder, Compass Engine

Compass Engine and Ben are currently working on an app called Catch the Canary. Ben invited me to come visit him at work in beautiful Gastown in Vancouver last week. It was really cool to get to preview his location-based game that will be launched soon… I will likely blog about it when it is ready.

Vladimir Savchenko, Founder,  Sound of Motion

Sound of Motion – creators of an app (VeloComputer) that transforms mobile devices into cycling computers that can track speed; lap and trip distance; acceleration and altitude.  It also records trip data on the phone in CSV files and can be uploaded to a spreadsheet for training analysis or Google Earth for tracking. This computer can be used for more than just biking too!

If you have any questions about this panel session and what was discussed… give us a shout or comment below… would love to keep the dialogue going!

Mapping Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill- From the water up

by BRITTA RICKER PETERS on June 4, 2010 • google earth imagery map visualization • COMMENT

Here are some links to mapping initiatives taking place to monitor the disastrous Gulf Oil Spill.

This mashup by Paul Rademacher portrays the size of the spill in relation to major cities.  The map aims to give the reader a sense of the scale of this disaster (you will need the Google Earth browser plug-in).

Grassroots Mapping is covering the mapping of the oil spill. MIT students are using balloons and kites to map the disaster.

BP response maps – Static .pdf files

New York Times has a series of animated maps showing oil dispersion, where oil has made landfall, and links to multimedia coverage of the oil spill.

Also, almost every government agency is addressing the oil spill on their websites.

USGS is using satellite imagery. They also have a series of maps (static made with traditional GIS) showing the coastal washup of oil.

USGS data repository – Hazards Data Distribution System (HDDS). You could use this to make your own mashup!

NASA has the latest images of the oil spill here. They have also stitched together this movie. From a Geovisualization standpoint, this is a very simple animation of only satellite imagery but portrays a very powerful message.

EPA uses Google Earth!

This is by no means an exhaustive list of mapping the oil spill but a start.

Kumiko and I both did work mapping for FEMA in Louisiana post Hurricane Katrina and Rita back in 2005-2006. I spent about two months in the region and I would return in a heartbeat. The Gulf Coast is absolutely an amazing place full of people who are warm and fun loving hard workers.

The wildlife and ecosystem are extremely unique. If you ever get the chance, you have to check this place out! Holy cow! Actually I see that Alligator Bayou is closed and for sale!!! If you love wetlands and have some cash, buy it and preserve this wonderful place!

iPad assessment by a Geographer who does not have one

by BRITTA RICKER PETERS on May 10, 2010 • apps atlas ipad iphone review • 1 COMMENT

My feelings about the iPad have been evolving. I am sure a lot of you feel that way. When it first came out and I heard no camera and no GPS (I now hear the 3G does have a GPS) I was selfishly disappointed since my research is going in the direction of mobile augmented reality and location based services. The lack of these sensors really highlighted the point that This Week in Tech host Leo Laporte makes in that this device is for consuming information not producing and sharing information. I then started to accept the iPad for what it is. It is a map viewer not a map producer or manipulator.

This NPR article brings up the dangers of “Moving from Maps to Apps.” They point out that the demand for printed road atlases is on the decline. In the article Victoria Lawson (if you are doing a google search-the Professor of Geography not the porn star) is quoted saying “I get the impression that we are losing other abilities to navigate by the shape of the land, the orientation of mountains and rivers as we stare at a tiny screen.” I would like to point out that according to her website Dr. Lawson’s “work is concerned with the social and economic effects of global economic restructuring in the Americas and with articulating critical alternative conceptions of processes of impoverishment.” She is not an interface design expert or even a cartographer or critical GIS prof. However her point still made me think of the iPad.

GPS devices and smart phones have tiny screens that are best suited to reveal micro scale location based information. Viewing wide distributions of spatially related information is not optimal on the small screens. However the iPad… The iPad screen is about the same dimension as the medium sized paper atlas that I would stare at for hours during summer car trips with my family. An atlas is great for showing spatial distribution and relationships. An atlas on an iPad could be interactive and allow the user to inquire about specific information that he or she may be interested in on the fly.

The size of the screen is not the only unique feature of the iPad, from the limited exposure time I had with the device, I noticed that interface design for the iPad is like no other. It is not just a large iPhone, or maybe it is but the larger touch screen surface area make the apps seem much different. What this will mean for location based services and other geography related apps is yet to be seen I think.

I would be totally excited to see an app for the iPad to explore the new 3-D data sets of New York City collected by the twin-engine Shrike Commander! Or information from the oil balloon!

Quick AAG review

by BRITTA RICKER PETERS on April 28, 2010 • game geoweb google earth review web2.0 • 1 COMMENT

I was fortunate enough to attend and present at the AAG conference (and meet Kumiko’s new iPad) in Washington DC earlier this month. The AAG is always a great time to be introduced to new ideas, reconnect with old friends and put faces with names. The problem with the AAG is that it is sooooooo BIG! I never feel like I have been to enough talks. I am only going to blog about a few here.

In no particular order, I will first report on the session titled: Geovisualization, Geovisual Analytics, Cognition, Behavior and Representation I: Navigation and Spatial Cognition organized by Kirk Goldsberry and Sara Fabrikant (note: I got here late, it started at 8am). I was really interested in Sandra Metoyer’s talk. In short, she did a study testing interactions among geovisualization tools to measure spatial thinking and student learning. She found that interactive web based maps really helped students learn about complex spatial issues. Horray!

Another session that I found very stimulating was: Global Dialogues for Emerging Science & Technology Africa: Results of two years of collaboration between US Department of State, AAG, and EIS-AFRICA

This panel was chaired by Lee R. Schwartz – who holds the title THE GEOGRAPHER OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! What a title! He is the head geographer for the U.S. Department of State. I was interested in attending this talk because it seems that Mr. Schwatz has his finger on the pulse of Neogeography and Web 2.0 and is trying to think of new ways that these tools can be used to help in the developing world. At the AAG last year I was fortunate enough to talk to him about his interests in incorporating new geospatial tools and software for a more inclusive process with state department work. Therefore when I saw this panel I was very excited to see what Mr. Schwartz has been doing! It seems like he is teaming with key players and they were all there to present their initiatives.

Panelists included:

Nathan Heard – U.S. Department of State
Charles Sebukeera – United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)
Rebecca Moore – Google Earth Outreach (my personal hero! Read more about her and Google Earth Outreach to see why)
Carrie Stokes – USAID
Carmelle J. Terborgh – Federal/Global Affairs Team Lead, ESRI
Discussant(s):
Robert Swap – University of Virginia

I understand that panelists had a very limited time to present, but it seemed each shared a laundry list of projects that they were working on without actually explaining any of them in detail. They made it clear that they were “training the trainers” and not simply putting expats in Africa to do the job. Each speaker announced the need for a working organized Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) but they did not address how they were developing one and if Africans were involved in this the process. I did ask at the end and I was told they were going to discuss that in the next panel and made reference to the UN. This to me sounds like a top down approach to SDI development and participatory GIS. No one used the term public participatory GIS. There were very few academics in the room (I know this because they passed around a sign in sheet). Despite these minor let downs it was still great to see ESRI, Google Earth and the government working together to use their expertise and valuable tools to help Africa with issues such as public health, sustainable development, water resources management and a host of other vital challenges facing the African content.

Finally, my session was titled: Participatory Governance via Web 2.0 II and was organized by Dr. Renee Sieber of McGill University. There were several exciting panelist sharing their work harnessing the Geoweb for community engagement. All of the presenters were associated with the Participatory Geoweb research group funded by GEOIDE and the Canadian Government. My talk was titled: The potential for location-based services and serious gaming to enhance participatory governance and education. See my slides here.

TED talks worth Watching

by BRITTA RICKER PETERS on March 30, 2010 • game geoweb visualization web2.0: mashups • COMMENT

There were a few TED talks over the past few weeks that were really interesting and informative. Really, what TED talks are not interesting and informative?

First…Tim Berners-Lee talks Mashups. Tim Berners-Lee gets excited about open data and resulting mashups. He shows us amazing visualizations of Volunteered Geographic Content popping up all over the digital globe. He also talks about the role of this resource for disaster management.  You can see in our portfolio some of the cool mashups Kumiko has made with open data.

Second… Jane McGonigal tells us about the potential for collective online gaming to save the world…not just the world of war craft.

Third…Bing Maps using augmented reality and photo synth, oh my!  Although we do not use Bing Maps here at Mapkist, that may change in the near future. Check out this video to see why.

Enjoy!!

HydroSHEDS- Global River Dataset in Hi-Rez

by BRITTA RICKER PETERS on March 18, 2010 • cartography gis • 1 COMMENT

Data sets are often segmented by political boundaries. Typically, who cares? People who deal with environmental phenomenon that do not stop or change across political boundaries, they are the ones who care. Normally a cartographer or GIS analyst will stitch together datasets, fight with projections and plow through for a quick fix to their problem. My former professor at McGill University, Dr. Bernhard Lehner, decided to take a different route when he ran into this problem when working with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to characterize freshwater habitats within a remote region of the Amazon Basin.

First Dr. Lehner built a map with freshwater habitats of the entire Amazon Basin, then South America and now THE GLOBE! German cartographers do not cut corners!

The project is called “HydroSHEDS” (Hydrological data and maps based on Shuttle Elevation Derivatives at multiple Scales). Dr. Lehner used data gathered in 2000 by NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). He has produced the first high-resolution, seamless global river map in existence. You can read more about this project in the McGill Reporter, on Dr. Lehner’s website and on the WWF website where you can download the data set. This map in paper format will be featured in National Geographic on March 30!

Interactive Atlas Goodness

by BRITTA RICKER PETERS on March 8, 2010 • geoweb map visualization • 1 COMMENT

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) is an organization that focuses on environmental issues across North America. This secretariat was formed as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to ensure that environmental degradation was being monitored fairly and carefully across the continent. One of the many noteworthy CEC initiatives is its new interactive atlas. The CEC works with the environmental ministries from Canada, the United States and Mexico to aggregate environmental data from across North America. They have developed an online atlas to show how environmental phenomenon does not stop at political boundaries. On this atlas you can view conservation areas, species habitats, pollution and waste depositories and other intriguing data sets for the entire continent. Check it out here. http://www.cec.org/atlas/

The CEC also has a featured video. You can see the back of my head around 2:05! Enjoy!

Kumiko is also building a beautiful open source interactive atlas that will be released soon. This atlas will be an exciting way to communicate and visualize a variety of information. The users will be able to navigate through the data at their own pace and hopefully gain new knowledge through this fun geospatial application!