First POST: Tools
BY Micah L. Sifry | Friday, February 28 2014
The new Knight News Challenge is for open internet lovers; why secure private tools are getting more consumer-y; why Uber got a cease-and-desist order in Houston; and much, much more. Read More
The Top Tech-Politics Developments of 2013, So Far
BY Micah L. Sifry | Thursday, August 1 2013
Every six months or so, we add more items to our "Politics and the Internet" Timeline, a living document that now includes more than 160 items stretching back to 1968 and covering a range of domestic, international and online events. Keep in mind, this isn't an official list but just our best subjective judgment on the most important developments at the intersection of technology and politics. If you would like to suggest something that we've left out, or make a correction to the record, please use this form. After the jump--Here's what we've added for the period from January 2013 to the end of July: Read More
Blank Spot No More: North Korea Now Visible on Google Maps, Via Volunteer Cartographers
BY Julia Wetherell | Tuesday, January 29 2013
A view of downtown Pyongyang, via Google Maps.
Three weeks after Eric Schmidt’s visit, Google has made its first inroads in North Korea — at least virtually. The once-blank spot occupied by the country on Google Maps has been revised to include a wealth of geographic and locational detail. Read More
Knight Foundation Announces Support for New Open Mapping Tools
BY Nick Judd | Thursday, September 20 2012
DevelopmentSeed will receive a $575,000 grant from the Knight News Challenge to improve tools for working with OpenStreetMap, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced Thursday at the Online News Association conference in San Francisco.
The DevelopmentSeed grant will be put towards making it easier for users to improve the data in OpenStreetMap, DevelopmentSeed CEO Eric Gundersen said in an interview Thursday morning.
Read MoreOpen Plans Launches Kickstarter Campaign To Fund New iPhone Transit App
BY Sarah Lai Stirland | Monday, July 23 2012
If funded, OpenTripPlanner Mobile will help people to navigate through cities more efficiently
The non-profit group Open Plans formally launched its Kickstarter campaign late last week to fund a new iPhone transit app that will integrate all the publicly-available transit feeds for cities in North America. Read More
Using Google Maps? You May Be Looking at a Home-Made Map
BY Miranda Neubauer | Friday, April 20 2012
Public Laboratory image of WhereCamp, Stanford University (April 2011) in Google Earth
Google Earth is now using 45 maps from the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science, the group announced in an e-mail. The Public Laboratory is a community which develops and applies open-source tools to environmental exploration and investigation. This includes what they call "grassroots mapping" — using relatively low-cost tools like helium balloons and Flip cameras to create satellite imagery independent of big institutions or the government, which made a high-profile appearance along the Gulf Coast after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Read More
Is There a 'Hardly Anyone Uses Foursquare' Badge?
BY Nick Judd | Wednesday, September 7 2011
Americans are still tuned out from the check-in. A study released yesterday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that a paltry seven percent of all adults have their phones set to automatically tag their ... Read More
The Mapmakers for the U.S. Intelligence Community Who Helped Catch Bin Laden
BY Nick Judd | Monday, May 2 2011
The hunt for Osama bin Laden took years and involved some of the most sophisticated technology the U.S. military could bring to bear, including an entire agency devoted to developing intelligence based on maps and ... Read More
Sunrise's Sunset
BY Nancy Scola | Thursday, September 23 2010
Ruhroh. Google Maps lost the city of Sunrise, Florida. Mayor Mike Ryan is not pleased. It's the third time it has happened, he says. And besides, says the mayor of the town of a hundred thousand residents: "If you ... Read More