Super Colossal

Hive Mind Cartography

Google is employing the hive mind in mapping parts of the planet where existing data is difficult to obtain. Their mapmaker service allows people to chart out their environment using collaborative tools.

Below we see Islamabad, Pakistan taking shape:

[youtube]1vdX1j5KwVc&fmt=18&ap=%2526fmt%3D18[/youtube]

The emphasis of the service on regions where existing map data is thin is represented in this image of the world as currently mapped out by the internet users globally:

google mapmaker

Larger version

Previously:
Photo sharing site as latter day cartography service

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Marcus Trimble

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Comments

One response to “Hive Mind Cartography”

  1. Neville Avatar
    Neville

    It’s a great thing that google is doing this, not only because it brings their high quality maping to parts of the world where data doesn’t exist, but also because of the whole crowdsourcing angle. Unfortunately, OpenMaps – http://www.openstreetmap.org/ – have been doing this for a lot longer, and the content is free to the world (as opposed to being owned by google). Unfortunately, OpenMaps doesn’t have the same brand recognition that google does, and their maps just don’t look as good.

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