The July issue of WIRED features two interesting articles – and you may have seen them already. If not, please find a brief overview and links to the articles below. I’m also pointing out some sections I found most interesting and like to share why I’ve picked them.

The first article is titled “Google Maps Is Changing the Way We See the World“.
The article gives some fascinating insights into how Google Maps and Google Earth developed over time. You will also learn who the key persons were to drive most of the cool usage possibilities these services are recognized for today. An interesting read beefed up with interviews of some of the leaders and pioneers of the (online) GIS industry like John Hanke, Director of Google Earth and Google Maps, Michael Goodchild, a professor of geography at UC Santa Barbara, Paul Rademacher, creator of the first Google Maps mashup, and David Weinberger, co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto and author of Small Pieces Loosely Joined.

The second article is “Dispatches From the Hyperlocal Future“, written by no other than cyberpunk Bruce Sterling. His protagonist is Harvey Feldspar, a self proclaimed top tier geo blogger, typing dictating away on his Senseo-Transicast 3000 in the summer of 2017. Harvey is ranting and raving about geospatial and hyperlocal gadgets and feature sets.

While I very much recommend reading the two articles yourself first, here are a few quotes or paragraphs I liked most. And I’ll also tell you why.

So TomTom is acquiring Tele Atlas and according to the joined press release, one of the main benefits is “more accurate navigation information” by utilizing “[…] TomTom’s installed user base of over 10 million GPS devices to effectively operate as map surveyors in an automatic and simple way.”
So let’s look at this in more detail.

An interesting article found its way into inbox this morning. The article was written by Sean, who is blogging “From the Digital Frontier” on MediaPost.

He was late the other day and took a cab to ride to work. What he encountered when he got in the cab was a small entertainment system displaying news, weather and clips.
How neat, I though … but then I took a closer look at the photo he took of the system’s screen.

I saw the breaking news first on the GPS Tracklog and thanks very much for already extracting the most interesting bits from the official press release!
TomTom is hoping to use their “installed user base of over 10 million GPS devices to effectively operate as map surveyors in an automatic and simple way“.

I’m wondering how easy it will really be to send back feedback to TeleTomTom, especially as user will somehow need to categorize their feedback using the TomTom device while they are experiencing errors or possible improvements of the map data. I’m also wondering how automatic this feedback will be.

This is exciting news and definitely a story to keep watching in the coming months. Let me know what you think of this deal!

Feel free to read the official joint press release of Tele Atlas N.V. and TomTom.

I went to a small town yesterday where a global fashion brand is headquartered. In the last few years this small town also developed a nice staple of premium brand factory outlets and is now an attractive shopping location. My current boss proposed to take an early train out there to use the opportunity to go shopping and so we did. The four of us arrived quite early in the morning and sat down at an Italian coffee bar to enjoy cappuccinos. We had three hours until our meeting started and a folder of the outlet center with a map.

Driving on the highways these days you see the many cars glowing from the inside. This is especially freaky when driving at night. It’s the navigation devices stuck to the windscreen with their suction cups that look like little TVs when you pass them. I wonder where these people drive to. To or from work I suppose but how did they find their way just two years ago? (Maybe they telecommuted?)