Slashdot Mirror
Geocoding All Content
martin dodge writes "What happens when all content is automatically tagged with the geographical location of its production? We are all used to having a date stamp on documents, but I think adding a location stamp opens up lots of new possibilities. Two recent articles look at many of the interesting possible apps/services which are made possible when you ground cyberspace with location. 'Get Caught Mapping' from Guardian Online and 'The Revenge of Geography' by Tom (writer of The Victorian Internet) Standage in the Economist. I think one of the most exciting is for locating online conversations by geographic proximity. Taking Waldo Tobler's First Law of Geography ("Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things"), often nearby conversations are most relevant and interesting. See UpMyStreet's Conversations for an example."
To paraphrase the poster,
imagine Freenet with content geocoded. Kinda removes the privacy element, right?
What's this Submit thingy do?
How many people on the internet do you *really* want to know your real location?
Ok... now what if I told you that "she" is really a "he", and that the picture "she" game you was off some amateur porn site. Anyone else you'd like to know your real location?
I see this only becoming a privacy issue -- it's removing one of the greatest parts of the internet -- it's anonymity. I've known people like "her" who can express themselves in ways heretofore impossible were it not for the (at least percieved) absolute anonymity of the internet. It would be a shame to see that go, at least from a standpoint of creative expression.
-d
On a more important note - whilst I don't have a problem with open-sourcing the code for that site, which is a mishmash of C++ and php, who knows anything about attempts to come up with a concept of open source datasets? Somewherenear has a useful collection of data relating to bars, restaurants and accommodation in the UK, but it seems to me that just as a form of GPL for software benefits most users, so would an open dataset licence so that the kind of information stored there. The more geolocated information the world has, the more useful it becomes.
Geo-stamping data published on the www?
;-)
Why not? And, by the way, make cows fly while you are at it, will you? Thanks.
Case in point: I publish data on a web site located somewhere in North America, using computers based in Europe, through the magic of OpenSSH. And my European ISP does not keep a log of my activities.
Most of the data I publish come from, for example, from web sites published in South-East Asia and China, which is translated by a friend who spends half his time in Taiwan and half his time in Japan, with an occasional stay in Korea.
Now, where on earth is my info created? In Asia, where my friend is, in Europe, where I do most of the web design, or in Northern America, where the web site is officially hosted?
Oh, and I forgot: the information is created using open-source products and a reasonable amount of paranoia, which means all data is anonymized before being posted.
Now, where does my data comes from?
And to those who think this is a silly example: it's actually close to the truth...
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
... and people wonder why the image of GNU-addicts is so tarnished.
For [insert deity here]'s sake!
Q: What are you providing as a content-provider for X?
A: The contents of X.
Enough said. There are many important battles to be fought against too-greedy IP and copyright holders. This isn't one of them.
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
The harm this will do to content far outweighs its good.
It is a very easy way to let authority figures restrict all objectional material.
We have embargoed products based on their country of origin (think cigars from Cuba). I don't want the possibilty of that happening to information for any citizen of the planet.
The concept of finding local conversations more interesting than other ones is itself interesting. One of the neat features of the internet that everybody loved at first was the fact that it made geography meaningless, and TeenLuvr16 that you met in that AOL chatroom could as easily be a hairy-backed man from Australia as it could be Steve Case in Northern Virginia, or some schmoe in Japan.
Now that people have complete geographical independence, they want more geographical specific information? I guess it sort of makes sense as people want to expand the functionality of the internet, but what's really interesting about this is not how it's done or whether it's done, but if it focuses the social interest of the internet more inward than it traditionally has been.
Anything like this though is definitely a good example of something that should be optional, not mandatory.
-- Truth goes out the door when rumor comes innuendo. -- Groucho Marx
2. you have those that think this is the greatest thing
Then you have those like myself that see this as just another technology/technique that will find a use or two but in general will just make doing technical stuff more complicated without any real benefit.
There is an inherent danger in using Tobler's First Law in a communications context. It's focus is on the impact of similar experiences as felt by the individual. We "empathize" with an injustice 16,000 miles away. We "experience" one 6 miles away.
The danger is when one group believes they have a "better perspective" because of location. If you are having a conversation with a person about Iraq and they tell you they are from Pakistan or the United States does it influence how you interpret what they say? Should it? Do you provide their ideas with stronger support if they are closer to you or the event?
As the people of Iraq are closest to Saddam, they are a better judge of the current US/Iraq situation. Equally so, because Americans are closest to their government, they are a better judge of what is right. Now with Americans in Iraq who is a better judge?
While GeoTagging is becoming more popular, it carries a prejudice. You are no longer expressing your opinion you are expressing your "French" opinion or your "German" opinion. Your facts are "Swiss" facts, or "American" facts. Your beliefs are "South African" beliefs or "Australian" beliefs.
There may be value in putting context around what you state, however it may serve just as well to cloud the message by providing context before the message. And that may lead to the question of what is the Truth ?
I've been thinking about this topic for awhile. Especially something analogous to the WorldBoard idea. If this sort of thing becomes pervasive it could have quite a big impact.
As possibilities think of the following:
Private location boards - when I go abroad, I leave markers at certain locations that say things like "This restaurant is good", or "Avoid the fish here", or even "The toilet in this airport is in this direction", later on my friends and relations in the same place can pick up this information. All you need for this is ubiquitous GPS and simple database associating co-ordinates and height with information.
Public web boards - targetted adverts together with reputation rating sites. Think of some of the restaurant review sites you access, except in this case the board stores a marker associated with the location of the restaurant itself, you pull up the reviews then and there.
How soon before there are lawsuits over the concept of what exactly constitutes the 'private space' around a restaurant - will you be only able to leave markers in certain places, will public boards censor this sort of information ?
Just some thoughts.
- The mentally unstable MMORPG addict... whom you just roasted the lvl 100+ character that he/she has spent the last week (straight, without sleep) building
- Anyone who happens to disagree with your religious/political views (people do die over this)
- The programmer for an organization which decided to use your beta-coded app as a production system
- Oh, and um...if you're female, probably about 90% of the slashdot population
Yeah... I can think of any number of other scary examples to add to this.Anonymous communication has a long and valid history in the U.S., and is constitutionally protected.
Remember that if it weren't, various whistle blowers would never have brought horrid practices to light.
Remember Watergate?
I forget what 8 was for.