[Geowanking] beyond map mashups

[stephen white]

On 17/06/2008, at 8:36 AM, Raj Singh wrote:
> One simple way to discuss this in the short term is to start "wanking"
> on the various spatially-enabled, Yahoo Pipes-like tools. I know this
> isn't as meta or universal as you're talking about, but it's a place
> we can mess around with coding and not just talk theory.


I took a couple of days before replying so that I could think of an  
explanation for my problem with Pipes/mashups in this context.

First, the points in favour of your suggestion are that removing the  
map interface does generalise the information to a more general  
context. The use of programming does create the flexibility to relate  
information that is not reduced to a red dot on a map.

But... :)

The problem is that the information has already been reduced before it  
can be manipulated by the code. It is no longer three dimensional, and  
it is no longer surrounded by the original context. The data has been  
captured and slotted into categories.

So pipes and mashups are the valley of death that we keep rushing our  
minds into, because it's not one problem. It's two different problems.  
The mashup has specific interfaces to display the data it is handling.  
The information needs to be the full amount of data that was captured.

So we need to concentrate on 3d, audio, video, and the real world like  
Google Earth's and Microsoft Virtual Earth's 3d modelling efforts.  
Capturing data and extracting computable information, rather than  
humans translating for computing convenience.

So I believe a 3d environment in real time is the minimum starting  
point. So I could go to something like Second Life, but that lacks the  
scope and ambition of mirroring reality itself.

Sure, I could go work for companies doing that kind of stuff, but to  
be a matter of routine existence it does need to be ad-free. So...  
free. :)

Steve.

--
   steve at adam.com.au