Awesome Stuff: Maps Aren't Just An App On Your Phone

from the where-to-go? dept

I don't know why I've been thinking about maps lately -- perhaps it's because I've been traveling, and as this is posted, I'll actually be in an airplane flying home. I've always been a fan of maps -- all kinds of maps -- and can spend an inordinate amount of time looking at various maps. So it's interesting to see a few map or map-related products all show up at the same time on Kickstarter. These days, "maps" for many mean the app they can call up on their smartphone -- but people are doing some fun things with the more old-fashioned kind of maps as well:
  • We'll start with a cool idea: making Risk-like boards that highlight certain regions. So, rather than the "world" map you see in regular Risk, you can play a Risk-like game in your home city. Of course, as it is they have a limited number of places right now -- but they include San Francisco, New York and a variety of other places as well.
    Of course, there's an IP angle here too. The folks who made this don't own the rights to Risk. They're trying to deal with this by (1) being clear that they're obviously building off of Risk (not trying to hide it) and (2) making the game unplayable unless you have an official copy to go along with it and (I think...) use the pieces from the official game. With this project getting greater attention, hopefully Hasbro realizes that it actually helps their brand, rather than hurts it.
    ,
  • Next up, we've got Bucketlistmap: Putting the Awesome Back in Maps -- which clearly fits in with our theme here. If you like old maps and their great design, you'll probably really like this one. These guys are trying to take the beautiful design and style of really old maps and update them for a modern era. They've already done really cool world maps for skiing, surfing and football (soccer for us uncultured Americans) and now they want to do a "bucketlistmap," which will be the same sort of thing, but highlighting "the world's most awesome sights, smells, sounds and eats." Definitely click through on this one to check out the pictures.
    They've already met their goals on this one though, there's still a single $10,000 option available, in which they'll throw a dart at a map (they don't say if it will be one of their own) and send you to wherever the dart lands on an all-expenses paid trip. I would imagine that might be a bit tricky if it lands in the middle of the ocean somewhere -- or if it ends up in a place where "all expenses" exceed $10,000. Still, I think this one is more for the amusement factor anyway.
  • Finally, we've got some guys trying to put together Grant Rising: First in a New Series of Civil War Map Books. It's an "atlas" of maps that try to tell the story of Civil War general and one-time US President Ulysses S. Grant. It's an interesting idea. I'd never thought of telling someone's life story through maps.
    This one hasn't yet matched its goal, and is still below 50%. I'm guessing that the topic is so specific that it might have a limited audience. You'd need to be interested both in maps and the life of Ulysses S. Grant, and I'm not sure how big the overlapping populations really are. Still, I think it's neat to think about someone's life in the form of a collection of maps.
That's it for this week. Go check out some maps.
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Filed Under: awesome stuff, maps


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  1. This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Jun 2013 @ 9:52am

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Jun 2013 @ 10:00am

    http://hackaday.com/2013/06/08/3d-mapping-of-rooms-again/

    WARNING!
    Inappropriate references below


    I am waiting for the kids to map their schools and somebody come screaming "Columbine! Columbine!"

    or

    Terrorists will do something bad with realtime mapping technology.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Nate, 8 Jun 2013 @ 10:31am

    Re:

    It's funny you should post that; I just started eating the one on the left.

    He's yummy.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Jun 2013 @ 10:36am

    Re:

    Breaking new ground, AJ is already a law student at the young age of 5.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    gnudist, 8 Jun 2013 @ 11:31am

    The anti Mike trolls were in rare form this week.

    I point out evidence that Mike's view's have not changed from google's contribution to the sky is rising report since he has held his views BEFORE there ever was a google, and somehow they still claim Mike was being loyal to a "paymaster" a a time when they did not exist!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Jun 2013 @ 2:03pm

    With this project getting greater attention, hopefully Hasbro realizes that it actually helps their brand, rather than hurts it.

    Hasbro? The same "we are legally required to sue our fans" Hasbro? Yeah, that's not happening. They're gonna get C&D'd within 3 days of being funded, probably within 24 hours.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    Seegras (profile), 8 Jun 2013 @ 4:41pm

    Game Rules

    Do they know game rules aren't copyrightable? Like totally, not at all?

    http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. icon
    snarkosaurus (profile), 8 Jun 2013 @ 10:16pm

    Landgrab.net has been doing that with Risklike maps online for many years. In addition to both real and fantasy-world maps, they have user-generated ones for things like a coffee cup and a cat's digestive system.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. icon
    Andrew F (profile), 9 Jun 2013 @ 3:44pm

    Personally a fan of wargear.net -- same idea, slick maps and UI, and some great experimentation with different rule variations.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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