Day: August 28, 2006

Geotags in Flickr

I heard about adding geotags to Flickr images today and had to give it a try.

Examine this Flickr link

I apologize for the example – it was a picture that existed in my Flickr account from a recent trip and I knew exactly where the picture was taken. If you try the link, you will see me with a “trophy” fish. In the annotation associated with the picture, you will find a link (the geotag) that will take you to the map location of the lake where the fish was caught.

The page for generating the geotags can be located at http://www.beeloop.com/.

Now that we have learned how this works we intend to generate a Flickr account for Cindy’s trip to Europe and geotag some of her images.

With a little creativity, this capability would seem suited to lots of educational projects. Even the tool for linking to precise map locations can be used to generate the code necessary to embed a link to a specific location – e.g., my office (courtesy of BeeLoop SL – the Mapware & Mobility Solutions Company). My office is initially difficult to see – click the + button on the slider a few times and the building will become visible.

Tech Crunch description of new service

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Google For Education

Google appears to bundling several of their apps (gmail, calendar, chat) and promoting them to educational institutions. If I understand the promotion, it appears that institutions are allowed to create an interface that would feature the school logo, etc. as a way to “brand” the site for the school. The sites will feature the familiar google ad words.

This promotion will put Google in competition with companies or initiatives of many institutions to create a portal through which alumni, students, future students, etc. will experience an institution online. Perhaps the approach will appeal to some smaller schools. However, I must admit I wish my institution would offer me the same email capacity, secure browser-based email, and spam control quality as Gmail.

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