"The goal of this [Patholog, red.] research is to explore the ability of a path-based publishing
system, based upon GPS tracking technologies, to foster new relationships
between communities of users and their environments. Current mobile technologies are rapidly expanding our information space,
canvasing the physical environment with location-specifc media. Patholog
aims to contexualize this increasingly ubiquitous location-data through an
association with movement, specifically by tracking user's paths -- the
places through which they have travelled. With patholog, we wish to explore these connections with our surroundings.
We want to establish this relationship on a content level that allows
people using the system to perhaps see these places in a different light,
to extract information from these locations that will enhance their sense
of place. By publishing weblogs based on this site-specific information,
users will also have the ability to author content points and insert
themselves back into the community."
Nice initiative call Patholog from the US. There seem to be two different angles to the phenomenon. One is like the project stated above and a tool called Crunkie. Sam Kinsley, Trendwatching.com and Patholog with some external links are focusing on this angle and elaborates on different examples of physical reality with virtual information on specific objects, persons or locations. Another is where there is a virtual map with virtual information related to objects or locations while browsing physical space like in Frequency 1550 and MOGI. Both are interesting from my point of view with the former having a even bigger impact on society than the latter.
Patholog will be extending its service to more visualisation, social software around path-based mobile blogging and bottom-up tagging in the near future. We'll keep you posted on all of this....
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