VMAP
Exploring the world on Google Maps and being able to watch a video of the locations you discover is endlessly fascinating. One of the problems, however, of using the YouTube API to create a video map is that many of the geotagged videos on YouTube are of very poor quality.
VMAP have decided therefore to crowdsource video selection for their map of videos about places. Registered users of VMAP help organise the video collection by adding videos to the map, adding tags to existing videos, and voting on the ones that deserve better visibility. This ensures that the videos are representative of their location and of good quality.
Users of the map can browse the videos by location and by category. It is also possible to view the most recently added videos.
Electric Vehicles App with Google Maps
PlugShare
I guess one of the biggest problems for an owner of an electric car is where to plug it in. PlugShare is an iPhone application for electric vehicles that can help drivers find places to charge their batteries.
The application uses Google Maps to show the nearby paid charging stations and also locations where you can recharge for free. The application itself is free from the App Store and looks like a must have app for any owners of electric vehicles.
Via: Techcrunch
OpenSignalMaps
OpenSignalMaps is a great source for data about cell phone towers, cell phone signal strength readings, and Wi-Fi access points around the world. OpenSignalsMaps uses Google Maps to allow you to view the mobile signal strength for any location and view the locations of nearby towers for your carrier.
Using the map you can search by location and view a heat map of the signal strength for each of the carriers available in your area. You can select to view the data of individual carriers and quickly see how their local coverage compares. It is also possible to view the cell tower locations for each of your local mobile phone service providers.
The data for the map is collected from users of the OpenSignalsMaps Android application. Data from the downloaded apps is stripped of any identifying information.
Root Metrics
Root Metrics allows you to compare the signal strength of different mobile phone carriers at different locations in the United States. You can search a Google Map by zip code or address to find the strength of coverage at any location.
The Root Metrics Google Map allows you to compare the signal strength of different mobile phone carriers. The map shows you each carrier's aggregate grade and the carrier's voice and data strength.
The Root Metrics iPhone app allows you to view the data from your mobile phone. Users of the app also contribute to the accuracy of the data shown. Data from downloaded apps is collected anonymously to track each carrier's performance.
État Civil Paris
Paris has created an open data portal called ParisData. Bluenove and Mapize have created a Google Maps mashup of the data for births, marriages and deaths in the 20 districts of the French capital for the years 2004 to 2009.
Using the map it is possible to view the number of births, marriages and deaths in each of Paris' districts. Visualising the data geographically presents some interesting results. For example, the number of deaths in the 15th arrondissement is far larger than in other districts.
Via: GeoinWeb
SIC
SIC is a Google Maps interface to explore open data from the French city of Rennes. Using SIC it is possible to select and view local points of interest on a map.
The application uses an interface optimised to be accessible from mobile phones. From the menu you can select from a number of points of interest, such as public buildings, parks, sports facilities and bike stands. It is also possible to view the points of interest by neighbourhood.
Libya Crisis Map
The UN OCHA’s Information Management unit in Geneva has asked the CrisisMappers Standby Task Force to provide a live map of reports of the current crisis in Libya generated from Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and mainstream media sources.
The CrisisMappers Standby Task Force was established in response to the Haiti earthquake. The Task Force partners include CrisisMappers, CrisisCommons, Humanity Road, ICT4Peace, Open Street Map and MapAction.
The Libya Crisis Map uses the Ushahidi crowdsourced crisis reporting system to map the latest news from Libya, as gleaned from social media and traditional news sources. The map has also pulled in the data collected by Arasmus, who has been using Google My Maps to map Twitter reports from Libya.
If you want to learn more about CrisisMappers the Standby Task Force blog is very informative.
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