Platial and Social Mapping
We just saw a presentation by Di-Ann Eisnor from Platial, a social mapping a site that collects the “personal atlases” of its users. They launched in December, and they’ve now mapped 200,000 places, and Platial users have generated over 5,000 custom maps.
Platial users can add photos, comments, and tags to their personal maps. Users can also tag places with “been there” and leave a comment, providing a way for people to find others with common interests.
The most popular uses for Platial members are autobiogeography maps (map your life story), travel maps and common interest maps. There’s even a map for the “Lost” TV series that maps all of the locations shown on the program. One user created a “Where I Was on 9/11″ map that many have contributed to, adding their own personal stories.
Di-Ann made an announcement today about the launch of a new feature: a GeoRSS aggregator. Users can type in a city name or a place name and see all relative GeoRSS feeds. They can take those locations and add them to their personal maps.
The Platial demo was followed by short demos from Josh Petersen of 43 Places and Mike Tatum of Wayfaring.com, two other mapping services that add the social networking element to personalized mapping.
