Sunday, December 04, 2011

My favorite Google Maps of the past week were two video maps.

Die Asphaltsurfer is a map of a Californian surfing and skateboarding tour. Whilst the International Olympic Committee's Show Your Best map allows anyone to submit a video of their 'best' performance.

The only non-video map to make it onto this week's round-up is Gemma, another great creation tool from CASA.


Berlin Designers Annette Bruns and Oliver Spies fulfilled the dream of a lifetime by completing a surfing and skateboarding tour of California. Die Asphaltsurfer is a Google Map that documents the tour.

Using the application it is possible to view all the stops on the Asphaltsurfer's tour and view videos of the adventures that the pair experienced along the way.


The International Olympic Committee (IOC) are holding a competition called Show Your Best.

The competition can be entered by anyone aged 13-19. Entrants need to videotape, upload and share their 'personal best' moments. The personal best videos are being showcased and can be watched directly from a Show Your Best Google Map.

The two winners of the competition will win a trip to the London 2012 Summer Games, others will appear in a commercial to be broadcast during the London 2012 Olympic Games.


Gemma (short for Geospatial Engine for Mass Mapping Applications) allows you to create Google Maps with data from a number of different sources.

It is possible to create maps with gemma with layers from MapTube, SurveyMapper, OpenStreetMap and from your own data. Gemma even has an accompanying iPhone app that lets you record observations on the go and then upload them to a gemma map.

Gemma was created by the University College London - Centre for Spatial Analysis. It is not surprising then that it works very well with CASA's own SurveyMapper (a geographic survey and polling tool) and with MapTube.

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