Thing 32. Google Maps and Mashups

View Come Visit My Roseville in a larger map
Uh, I created a map using the Google maps that takes you on a purely cursory tour of the neighborhood by the temporary location of the Roseville library. I did it because I had to, so don't judge. It seems fairly easy to do, but I honestly don't know how often I'd necessarily use this. I'm sure a lot of brides out there would love this and I think it could be really great for all sorts of specific purposes, I just can't think of any off the top of my head. Two really cool mashups are WalkJogRun, which enables you to track a route in your neighborhood or access the routes of others, and Panedia, where you click on a marker on the map and it shows you truly beautiful panoramas of the scene around you. Panepedia seems based in Australia, however, so there are few entries other than Australian ones. I cannot wait until it gets filled out, though I bet if I searched Flickr I could find some pretty good stuff.

Thing Four

photo by massdistraction

I can't say that this is going as smoothly as I would like. I've been really distracted here at work (the only place where I have computer access currently)and it's all because I'm obsessively trying to upload photos to my blog. First of, let me say that I think visuals are intrinsic to the Web 2.0 experience. I don't think that they (the visuals) necessarily have to be photos, but I can tell you that when photos are involved I am fifty percent more likely to be interested. Even for simple things like finding books: despite what's been said, you can tell a lot about a book by it's cover. I love the concept of scrolling over a picture of something, like a bookshelf, and having it give me information about that thing. I've seen it done with aerial view maps, too, and that's totally rad.

I already had a Flickr account but, as I've mentioned, I'm not really interested in posting my own image or those of my friends and family online. I know, I know-I reap the rewards without having to take the leap myself. I struggle with how much people are willing to put out there about themselves ; but I LOVE IT!!!! I, however, cannot do it myself.

So, let me say that one of my favorite bloggers is Sharyn Morrow from right here in St. Paul MN, and it just so happens that she is a voracious Flickr-er also.

She's awesome, isn't she? With all of that said I don't know how much I will use Flickr. I would definitely recommend it to people, I will certainly peruse it when my favorite blogs link to it, if I continue blogging I'll most surely use it to add pizzazz to my pages, but I don't even own a camera. I have a three-year-old and I've probably taken no more than twenty photos total of him his whole life. Yes, that's how lame I am about photography. Personally. Come to think of it, I think this is fundamentally about me: I want everyone else to do the stuff so that I can enjoy it.