Facebook and Google Maps in Iran

Following up from my previous post on the use of new media and citizen journalism in Iran recently, I came across two more powerful examples today. Facebook it seems, in Persian, is now an important means of mobilising and disseminating information produced by polity and society opposed to the Presidential election outcome. The very fact […]

Location based information in real time: Help or hindrance?

Looking at this Google Map created by Omar Chatriwala, a web journalist at Al Jazeera, and the plethora of location aware devices plus options to put up geo-referenced information and news on the web in real time, I wondered whether this was helpful or not in times of crisis? Ushahidi’s leading the field in addressing […]

Colombo and Kandy the first in Sri Lanka to get street level information on Google Maps

Up until now, I’ve used Colombo eMap whenever I’ve wanted to plot a route in Colombo. Now there’s a better option. Although it’s yet to percolate to the mobile version, Google Maps on the web now has street level information in Colombo and Kandy. Click the image above for a higher resolution screenshot. Google Maps […]

Google Latitude: Real time location awareness through mobiles

At the time I last wrote about the potential of location aware web / mobile mashups and services, Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence disallowed the sale of GPS enabled mobile phones. That seems to have changed in the past month. Airtel and Dialog both sport the Blackberry Bold, which has in built GPS, and Dialog’s […]

The new Google Maps for mobile

Google Maps (on the PC or on mobiles) is not that useful in Sri Lanka, but I was in Copenhagen this week and using it on my Blackberry I was able to locate my hotel as I was walking along. The street level detail is quite amazing and coupled with the Blackberry 8310′s GPS, the […]

A grotesque picture – Election violence in Sri Lanka

Spent the last couple of days updating a map of election violence in Sri Lanka. It’s depressing work. A culture of violence, largely perpetrated by the ruling party (the UPFA), and also demonstrating signs of mindless tit-for-tat attacks by the UNP pervades the Sabaragamuwa and North Central Provinces in the lead up to election day […]

UNICEF and Google Maps

UNICEF uses a simple mash-up of Google Maps to highlight stories of the agencies initiatives and activities around the world.    UNICEF is an agency that uses a range of new media mechanisms, from podcasts to vodcasts, to raise awareness of its work and the challenges it responds to. In this it differs from many […]

Map of local peacebuilding initiatives in Sri Lanka from Insight on Conflict

Peace Direct’s Insight on Conflict has a great Google Map with details of peacebuilding initiatives at the grassroots in Sri Lanka. I first wrote about Insight on Conflict around two years ago (Introducing Buddhist monks to non-violence…) and it’s great to see how their web presence has evolved to now embrace tools like Google Maps to […]

Google Earth in the browser. So what?

I’ve been working on Google Maps (GM) quite a bit lately to map incidents and trends related to humanitarian access, election violence and human rights. It’s exciting to note that Google has now released a Google Earth (GE) plug-in for browsers that allows for a richer, 3D experience provided you have the bandwidth to spare. […]

Ushahidi – Testimonies of violence in Kenya on the web

“Google Earth supposedly shows in great detail where the damage is being done on the ground. It occurs to me that it will be useful to keep a record of this, if one is thinking long-term. For the reconciliation process to occur at the local level the truth of what happened will first have to […]