30 Second Words fully endorses the Chumby as an interesting platform and effective approach to content delivery. After bartering for artwork in exchange for an authentic endorsement (which we would have given anyway) for SwagBot, I thought I would demonstrate the Chumby using Chumby’s Create a Virtual Chumby application.

In this demonstration channel, are a blend the following feeds and widgets:

• A Sixty Minutes Laptop
• RSS Feed from SwagBot (Feed)
• David Letterman’s Top Ten List from the latest episode (Entertainment)
• A Chumby Clock (Utility)
• RSS Feed from 30 Second Words (Feed)
• RSS Feed from the Low Tech Times
• RSS Feed from Robot in the Woods
• ChumbyTips (Training)

I do not know where Chumby plans on taking this device, but it has a vast potential. Their code is open-source and even the exterior is designed to be modified. There are still some bottlenecks to be worked out, such as podcast delivery and though there is a great deal of quality content, there could always be more.

How I would use a Chumby, I would put it on my desk and read all my blogs in a glance without having the leave the computer. I get entertainment, education, facebook updates, my flickr feed, my queue in Netflix and many other services as I am doing work.

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Even though I made Wednesdays “no-blogging days” so that I can get some rest, the SP Gass at Low Tech Times has an interesting article called There’s No Substitute for Looking At A Real Map.  Open Source Geography (dot org, FYI), soon to be moving to its own site, fully endorses this notion of looking at a Real Map.

I am interested in SP Gass’s view on the accuracy of the AAA TripTic.  SP Gass is talking about reference maps and how one’s on paper are much more usable.  Beyond portability of a paper map, paper allows one to come up with their own route.    SP Gass knows what he means when he is choosing a route.  But without expert knowledge or human behavior factored in as a determinant in the route choice algorithm, the computer can never approximate what means, his geographic semantics.  Dr. Martin Raubal at University of California-Santa Barbara teaches a course in Geographic Semantics.

Anyway, flexibility in route choice using online mapping software would greatly improve the service.  As a Geographic Information Scientist, by training, I would suggest to Google that they open their street network dataset to allow a local crowd to suggest alternate routes.  Another option would be to generate a sample of automobiles and collect GPS points along their chosen routes, rather than the predictive routes.

I am still imaging the algorithm and/or data-structure required to enable a sample link on a chosen route be chosen to improve the predictive path.  Especially considering that the data would need to be split into nodes and links.  Not to mention, the process of formatting.  Unless of course, you are generating an cloud-enabled database with a G-Phone Android Program in which these points are collected real-time.

Is this possible?  It seems like it should be considering bluetooth tracking and cell-phone tracking would be a great medium for updating Google Maps.

Also, check out Google’s Newest Feature:  GoogleWalking.  Its still in Beta, but there is a smattering of commentary around the web.

Google Walking Maps by Daily Wireless

Google Maps Walks the Long Way Around by Google Maps Mania.

And this list of 100 Google Earth Mashups isn’t particularly about GoogleWalking, but it is still useful information for improving the semantic web rich with digitized human knowledge.

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So some GIS Specialist at Yale has figured out how to produce standardized areal units based on the geographic, latitude/longitude grid and how to produce it on a global scale.   It is GIS of a sort.  Definitely not an ESRI product, but could be converted.

The site is called G-CON, Geographically Based Economic Data.  Note the release of their data for you use and visualization.  Creating a grid in ArcGIS to thier specifications is a relatively simple process.  They also provide fully detailed documentation.

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Cross posted at Open Source Geography.

The Open-Source Geography Content has outgrown iand splintered its niche from 30 Second Words Podcast Productions. Previously published content, see below, will remain on the site, but all new Geography material will be published on Open Source Geography. We are not affiliated with OpenSource GIS or OpenSource Matters, but we do come at education from an open-source mindset.

The idea is to develop a Joomla based content management system for managing student work and publishing thier assigned articles. This come with the idea that a student’s work should have value beyond the classroom. Thus, they should provide quality content both in structure and holistically. Even though student identities are fully cloaked, they are encouraged to interact and critique each other’s content. Stories submitted will be published openly. In a way, this is a method for developing a student written, and teacher editted, crowdsourced Geography textbook written.

As a pre-announcement, lookout for a partnership with 30 Second Words Podcast Productions to prepare a series of short podcasts about geography called 30 Second Geography. In the meantime, in case you missed them, the following are all stories tagged with Open Source Geography from 30 Second Words:

Building an Effective Student-Professor Relationship

Letter of Motivation to University of Zurich - Geographic Information Visualization and Analysis Group

Building a Globalized Geographic Information Infrastructure.

Obama Has A Crowd of Map-Makers

Geography, I Welcome You Back to My Life!

Critique of “Keyword: Evil - Google’s Addiction to Cheap Energy”

Ideas for Internet Infrastructure Analysis for Economic Geographers and Industrial Location Specialists

What is the state of Science Fiction in any of the UN’s G77 Nations

Open-Source Geography: Revolutionizing Learning by Crowdsourcing a Textbook

Donate Used Geography Texts for Open-Source Geography Project

Open Source Geography: Keyword Collection Method

8 Reasons to Blog Your Resume In Preparing for Graduate School

Where is Margarittaville? Parrothead Songs in Google Earth

Towards a Localized Content Aggregator

The Role of Geographic Information Systems as Instructional Technology

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Letter of Motivation

The term geographic relevance is new, but is still a familiar concept. With my Master of Science in the Geographic and Cartographic Science and ten years of work experience, I can offer a wide range of real-world contexts in which mobile computing could be studied. I have worked in the geographies of disease, elections, census gathering, business and local urban planning. I can imagine geographic informational relevant applications for each of these and other more popular activities.

To reiterate my understanding of the funded PhD Research Assistant position at the University of Zurich, Department of Geography, Geographic Information Visualization and Analysis Group, the goal of this project is to:

1. Develop methodologies for evaluating the human response to geographic relevance in mobile contexts, starting with activity theory as the research framework.
2. Development of mobile geographic informational applications using Java and data source Mash-Ups
3. Prepare a dissertation

I am interested in this research project as I seek to specialize in the Geography of ubiquitous computing and the energy, infrastructure, policy and locational requirements. I have been looking for a PhD program in this area as they relate to Educational Technologies in Geography. This funded PhD opportunity would enable full development of my ideas, while in direct synergy with the requirements for this project.

My strength would be in the development of the models for human subjects. I was responsible for handling confidential patient data and accountable for adhering to the University Research Protocol Regarding Experimentation with Human Subjects at the University of Virginia. And I was introduced to Activity Theory in my University of Virginia Graduate-level Theories of Learning course. In regards to application development in java, I have a vested interest in strengthening my programming skills. In my spare time, I tinker with the Internet and my latest project is working with the Android programming environment. Android is an open-source java-based programming language on which the GooglePhone (G-Phone) is compiled.

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This is a preview of the 30 Second Words podcast. These are short podcasts for students preparing for standardized tests, such as the GRE, PSAT,SAT,LSAT,GMAT,CLEP or any other test with a vocabulary component.

The first podcast can be found at Podango.com.

This ad for SwagBot, brandtastically customized apparel, has been brought to you by the word BREVITY. Comics.Com, hosts a strip called Brevity which is available at Amazon.com.

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The Low-Tech Times hopes that the volunteer army of GIS agents will not be using their hi-tech methods to help a political campaign target households with annoying uninvited campaign visits and unsolicited mailings. I believe web entrepreneur Jason Calacanis would consider efforts like those as counterproductive to the war on spam.

However, I must admit that technology is playing a larger role in presidential politics this year. For example, the McCain campaign just utilized a web spider to sting Obama: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/07/mccain-campaign.html

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