Post subject: Twitter fails in attempt to trademark "tweet"
Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 6:02 am
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:09 am Posts: 1455
Social networking site Twitter has failed in its initial attempts to trademark the word "tweet" which has been adopted by the site"s users as their favoured verb to describe the act of telling the online world what they are up to.
Name: Mihai Voiculescu (Cartograful) Day job: Web programmer at itbox.ro Region mapped: Romania Until last month, Romania wasn"t on Google Maps. Users started a Facebook Cause and a Twitter Petition to get Google"s attention on adding Romania to the map. "I found out about Map Maker opening in Romania over Twitter -- I follow Google Maps on Twitter," says Mihai Voiculescu. Mihai is now the #1 mapper in Romania with more than 5,000 map edits made since Google Map Maker opened in Romania in August, and as of last month many of those edits are now live in Google Maps for the world to see.
Like many mappers, Mihai started by mapping his hometown -- Trgu Jiu, the city in the southwest of Romania where sculptorConstantin Brancusi lived and where several of his large works of sculpture have become tourist attractions. From there, Mihai went on to help map Bucureti (Bucharest) -- the video below shows how the map of Bucharest grew quickly from 5 highways to a complete city over a two week period:
Mihai runs a Romanian travel web site (itbox.ro) that uses the Google Maps API, and says that having a detailed and accurate map of Romania on Google Maps is important for local tourism. "Many people who came to Romania asked me why Romania isn"t on Google. People think that Romania is empty, like a desert. Having Romania on Google Maps is a big plus." Mihai also uses Panoramio and has had some of his photos published in Google Earth; "I love the Web, programming and travel," he says.
Normally, Google Map Maker mappers use Google"s satellite imagery to draw roads and locate schools, parks and businesses. When the satellite imagery isn"t clear enough (due to clouds or low resolution) to trace from directly, Mihai uses a GPS device to create GPS tracks for roads or to locate hotels, then exports the tracks as KML files and uses the Map Maker Overlays feature to draw the roads and hotel locations accurately. He also uses KML files to locate hotels on the map for his travel web site.
Mihai collaborates with other Romanian mappers and co-created a Romania Map Maker discussion group. "I met these people online," says Mihai. However, he will soon be getting together with his fellow mappers in person as they have scheduled a Map Maker training event and mapping party in Bucharest at the Bucharest Academy of Economic Sciences on November 14th (a Google team member will also attend the event in person). "I want to thank all the people from Romania who contribute to build the map on Google."
Posted by Jennifer Mazzon, Maps Community Organizer
Post subject: Saving the world, one line of code at a time
Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 5:30 pm
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 4:48 pm Posts: 1543
The whole thing started last spring at the first-ever Crisis Camp in Washington DC where we heard about the challenges that NGOs, governments, and first responders face during disaster response.
We discussed these challenges with colleagues from Microsoft, and Yahoo. We all agreed that we could provide technological development. But, even for large companies, resources are finite. So, the question became, How do we make this happen quickly
We decided to reach out to our active development communities. Out of this effort, Random Hacks of Kindness, a hackathon for humanity, was born. Random Hacks of Kindness, jointly sponsored by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, NASA, and the World Bank, aims to build an active developer community around disaster response and humanitarian relief.
This weekend, benevolently-inclined hackers will listen to a keynote from FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate. Then theyll churn out some of the most important open source code on the planetcode that saves lives and mitigates human suffering. They"ll address problems like, how do we crowdsource information from local citizens to aid first resonders How do we quickly collect and publish fresh aerial imagery of an affected area How do we create a comprehensive missing persons finder after a disaster
Their work will have a positive, lasting impact on the state of the human experience, not just here in the U.S, but all around the globe.
While its no exaggeration to call these coders modern-day superheroes, theyll be going home with just a T-shirt for their efforts. It"s a nice T-shirt, but perhaps masks and capes would have been more appropriate.
Post subject: "140 Characters": How Twitter Was Born (A Tracy Sh
Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 7:23 am
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:31 am Posts: 1365
"140 Characters": How Twitter Was Born (A Tracy Sheridan VIDEO Interview With Twitter"s Co-Creator)
To read more and view an exclusive video demo of Square -redefining the world of commerce as we know it and live it founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, go to tracysheridan.com
140 Characters How Twitter Was Born is the seminal users style quide to the emergent 21st century Twitterverse that will redefine publishing as we know it.
As both a book and dynamic iPhone app thatis constantly updated with fresh content,140 Characters is the ultimate insiders guide to how to makethe most of your messages on Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites.
The advent of Twitter and other social networking sites, as well as the popularity of text messaging, have made short-form communication an everyday reality. But expressing yourself clearly in short bursts-particularly in the 140-character limit of Twitter-takes special writing skill. Author and Twitter co-creator, Dom Segola,covers all the basics of great short-form writing, including the importance of communicating with simplicity, honesty, and humor.
To read more about "140 Characters" and view an exclusive video demo of Square -redefining the world of commerce as we live it founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, go to tracysheridan.com
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