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."

Comments

Privacy?

[Anonymous Coward]

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

But will content be automatically labeled?

[MyNameIsFred]

A fundamental question is whether all content will automatically be labeled. One of the great benefits of the internet is anonymity. That one can say anything without revealing who you are. In fact, the U.S. court system has commented on this, and how it benefits freedom of speech. I certainly use the freedom, and millions of others do it. Sure with enough effort someone could find out who "MyNameIsFred" really is, but I have no desire to make that easier for them. Given a preference, I would turn-off automatic labelling. If not given a preference, I would not go to such a site. Based on the many slashdotters who hate the registration requirement at NY Times, I don't think I am alone.

Reducing anonymity a bit more

[nurb432]

Doesn't anyone realize the goal is tracking *everything* you do? One more step to total governmental domination of all content, movement, thought....

This is just one more major step in that direction.

Come on people, wake the hell up.. before its too late ( or is it already... i wonder sometimes )

Interesting concept, but...

[Noryungi]

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... ;-)

Re:We should avoid using "content" to describe thi

[Space cowboy]

... 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.

I care what you say, not where you are.

[ignoramus]

I guess I can imagine a few circumstances in which this type of information could be useful... but this smells to me like a way to find the closest wal-mart and other marketing schemes more than anything I might find actually useful.

Really, if you're looking to meet people in your neighborhood, go take a walk outside, if you're looking to hear your own point of view (or that of people just like you), turn the TV off for a few minutes.

Digital Imaging!

[Raetsel]

• "...when all content is automatically tagged with the geographical location of its production?"

I would love to have all my digital media tagged in this manner! Yes, high-end Nikon equipment accepts GPS input (remember this?), but that's a separate, external device.

I'd love to see it built into cameras (both still & video) and audio recorders. And for visual data, add in a compass so I can know both where it was taken, and which direction it was pointing!

I can do without knowing where an email/document/webpage was written, though. Sometimes more data is good... and sometimes it's just noise.

Interesting

[Uruk]

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.

GeoURL

[bergie]

The GeoURL service seems to have a pseudo-standard for this. To geo-code your content add the following META tags to it:

<meta name="ICBM" content="XX.XXXXX, XX.XXXXX">
<meta name="DC.title" content="THE NAME OF YOUR SITE">

The ICBM meta-tag there is where you put the coordinates. More info.

Another similar service seems to be GeoTags

/Bergie

Danger with Tobler's First Law

[Kefaa]

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 ?

A few more examples?

[phorm]

People whom you don't want to know your geographic location:

• 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.