Another gem un-Earthed
I get a lot of stuff in my inbox pointing me at things around the web. The worst ones are badly-conceived sales pitches, which usually contain words such as βcompellingβ and βaddictiveβ when the product is anything but...
The best are when you get an example of something youβve thought of yourself and never done because you (or your colleagues) have neither the time, energy or skills.
From a work perspective, the best example is . In 2001 I was in Munich watching and some guys in a van try to recreate the goals in 3D - and would you believe beforehand we wondered whether weβd have enough interesting incidents to try it out? It was nearly three years later when technology caught up and a different method proved successful.
I don't know whether took that long to develop (I doubt it). But almost inevitably it is responsible for now making another dream a reality - near-3D modelling of the entire route.
Google's spinning globe has recently become almost as big an obsession for me as Le Tour. Itβs one of the first web applications that you can just sit on the sofa and watch for hours, flying around the worldβs great wonders, hidden secrets and of course sports venues
Have you done all ? Or the worldβs ?
Thereβs fun for all the family too. My son likes to see the β especially the New York track combined with the 3D model of the city. My parents spent hours looking for all their old homes, which Iβm sure most users have done.
As if to prove that nothing brings generations together like sport, what we all wanted to see was a map of the Tour route. Until recently the organisers have seemed to guard the exact details like the military hides troop movements, at least until a few days before the event. But so a . All the sprints, mountains and even the feed zones are there. This was the best email I received this week!
So should we even bother with ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Sport's route guide now? Many of you will be reading this in an office where the IT manager is not likely to allow something like Google Earth to be installed so I can assure you we will be building on in time for the race.
But it does make me wonder. In time will the Tour organisation produce these Google Earth files? Or the broadcasters covering the race - , , ?
I actually reckon the enthusiasts and fans who put this together are probably better-qualified than us professionals. You can argue about the quality of the public's writing or photography, but this new world is where "user-generated content" is already miles ahead of most of what those of us who get paid to this are creating. After all Google Earth appeared just before last year's Tour and within days people were creating some stuff about the route.
Now, sure, this is not purely a grassroots uprising. Google have played a major role developing a product, but Earth or things like or are nothing without the growing number of people putting incredibly strong content onto the web. Does anyone really still doubt the ability of ordinary people to create amazing things?
But allow me one moan. The quality of the photos in the Alps and Pyrenees are simply not up to scratch. So, come on Google, get a plane flying over the mountains and give us the kind of detail we get in Paris and Strasbourg in time for July.
Until then make do with a which appeared on Velonews.com last year. No idea whether this is user-generated content or not. It's just one of the most stunning photos I've ever seen. And really that's the point - who cares who makes the content, just whether it's any good.
