That's the term Jon Udell used for his five-minute walking tour of Keene, NH. I like it! [via Tim Bray]
After dinking around for a while at Google Mapping, I get 90% of it (the bookmarklet data loading trick is both inspired and sick).
javascript:(
function() {
window.name = 'receiver';
var remoteWin=window.open('','','resizable=yes,width=223,height=337,left=508,top=122');
remoteWin.document.write('<html><body>');
remoteWin.document.write('<script src="http://www.gnik.com/maps/google/load.js"><'+'/script>');
})();
What's not apparent is the encoding of the point data which looks like this: gu|nEvlsqUClBMbBCfAMt@Vt@g@lAc (and so on, lot's of @'s in there). The first bit looks like a signature of some sort and then... jibberish. Even without a GPS, I've got lots of Geo coordinate data lying about (I got a bit carried away a couple years ago) and the rest is relatively easy to find with sources like TerraServer. Next step? Figure out how to encode the points (path data I guess).
If a picture truly is worth a thousand words then I think the screencasting concept (homebrew multimedia if you will; live and static pictures along with words, written and spoken) is wonderful and the new sideline of mapcasting is going to be a very interesting endeavor that many will do all by themselves. I hope Jon also expands on how he's creating the flash content. I know how to capture on screen actions into a movie, but have no idea how you go about down sampling that into a flash movie with a lower frame rate (oops, missed it, he's already done so in Heavy Metal Umlaut: The Making of the Movie). He leaves us with this interesting thought:
Screencasting is a cool way to tell stories about software, and that's reason enough to care about it. But when the focus shifts from the software itself to our software-mediated social and political and economic lives, the true significance of the medium becomes clear.Posted by Dave at March 1, 2005 11:38 PM