23rd April 2006

Auto-Bio-Geography

posted in geography, web 2.0 |

Platial: The People’s Atlas is a website enabling people to overlay geographic information of personal interest on top of Google Maps. These creations can become “auto-bio-geography creations,” a term I had not heard of before. According to the website:

Platial enables anyone to find, create and use meaningful maps of Places that matter to them. We hope it can connect people, neighborhoods, cities and countries through a citizen-driven common context that goes beyond geopolitical boundaries. We are building it, because we adore Places.

The creators of Platial hope it will help change the way we view the world. Rather than accepting the “official” version of news or information related to geography, people can “write the web” themselves and share those creations online, using Platial. The following image summarizes the steps for using Platial after you register for it. Like other social networking tools, tagging plays an important role:

Platial steps for use

Search fields are available on Platial to search by WHAT and WHERE. You can add buddies on Platial similar to other social networking sites as well.

I love geographic information system (GIS) tools like this! The creative possibilities are endless. It is free to register for Platial, so get started! I made a quick map to our family’s favorite donut place in Lubbock! :-)
Via NPR’s Digital Culture.

On this day..

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 23rd, 2006 at 5:30 pm and is filed under geography, web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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