Participatory Mapping of Pickpockets in Hangzhou, China
mapping pickpockets: Chinastic reports on an emerging map of places where pickpockets hang out in the southern Chinese city of Hangzhou. It was originally posted on a site called "My E-City" (我的E都市) ) which claims to be the world's first "online 3D urban simulation." The site allows users to view, navigate, and add information to online maps of several Chinese cities.
This is like a wikipedia + Google Maps API + Google Earth + A9 + map hacking
Their claim is wrong in that they are definitely not the first "online 3D online urban simulation," - they may be the first in China. (Historically, they may be the first to create a terrain map.) There's a proliferation of participatory mapping projects in the West that use Google Maps and Earth. Google maps nor a detailed Google Earth is an option in China - YET- since they haven't mapped out China in detail. I am sure once Beijing or Hangzhou is mapped, they will also create their version of an open guide to London and Boston. My E-City is innovative in that developers have created an information service that allows users to contribute to the mapping process of pickpocketing incidences, giving citizens access to information and circumventing the wait time of asking local police officials.
Slashdot, Engadet, Mapping Hacks, and Frot give some good resources of geodata mapping. Here are the ones I found interesting:
- OpenStreetMap is a wiki world map that allows users to edit data.
- Chicago has a project that gives daily updates of reported crime around the city. One can search by ward, zipcode, street, crimetype and etc. The Chinese My E-City is different in that it only focuses on pickpocketing crime and it allows users to update the map, instead of relying on police reports for "officially reported crimes."
- One really cool geodata tool I found is the GeoID Indicator, that identifies your site visitors and creates a real time map.
- VG Map works with Gmap API to allows vector-drawing capabilities.
- I can't ignore the only NYC Subway Google Maps Project! this is could be very useful for tourists or Manhattanites who venture to another borough once a year.
- What NYC really needs is something equivalent to Dublin's Dartmaps - a real time location of all suburban train services in Dublin, Ireland.
- a complete Google Maps API Tutorial!
Ps: here are some tips from a professional pickpocketer on how to avoid pickpockets.
Technorati Tags: google, hack, hacking, map, participatory, pickpockets