A few years ago I was in San
Francisco for a conference when a Chevy Cobalt with a series of lenses
attached to it's roof drove slowly by me. The lenses dwarfed
the small car and looked like the eyes of a giant fly. It would
be months later until I found out that Google was using the car -
and many others in cities across the world - to create city street
view to add to Google maps. This feature allows users to view
panoramic street level views of a city. If you look closely, somewhere
in Google Maps San Francisco, you'll see my puzzled face.
Since launching Google Maps
in 2005, Google has unveiled a host of new maps and services for this
popular and now ubiquitous site. A few of the interesting launches
lately:
Google Earth 5.0 -
the newest version of Google Earth, Google's satellite imaging service
allows users to explore the oceans - and not just the surface but
deep, deep into the oceans. Users can explore a detailed bathymetric
map of the ocean floor and explore places such as the Marianas Trench
or visit the site of shipwrecks including the famous Tonquin and Princess
Sophie.
Google 3D - Vancouver
is one of the first cities to go entirely 3D in Google Earth.
Google has added 1400 textured 3D buildings that allow a user to experience
all of Vancouver's skyscrapers, the 5 sails of the Convention Centre
and Library Square with depth.
Google Latitude -
this latest Google product is a location-based application that lets
mobile phone users track each other via Google Maps. A user can
add settings to their phone and allow specified users to track them
on Google Maps anywhere in the world there is a cell phone coverage.
These map products are important
tools for navigation and for those of us interested in exploring the
world from our computer screens, but museums can also tap into these
tools in a way richer than just offering directions to interested visitors.
A few museums that are using Google Maps in interesting ways:
Museo del Prado is one
of the first museums to embrace Google maps and allow users to navigate
it's museum as well as it's collection. A user can find the
museum on Google Maps, zoom into a 3D replica of the building and then
zoom further to explore the collection in minute detail. The museum
has taken extremely high resolution photographs of 14 pieces from it's
collection. These photographs are about 14,000 million pixels
each or 1,400 times more detailed than the image a 10 megapixel digital
camera would take so a user can see every brush stroke of the paintings.
The Bishop Museum in
Hawaii is using Google Earth to put their collection in context for
visitors. They have created a dataset that users can download
and view via Google Earth. The dataset shows the geographical
location of items from the museum's cultural and natural history collections.
For example, users can pinpoint exactly where indigenous Hawaiian flora
can be found.
The United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum is using Google Earth to allow users to fully understand
and to witness global events. Their Genocide Prevention Mapping
Initiative allows user to geographically immerse themselves in such
horrors as Darfur and the Holocaust.
Whether it is placing a collection
in it's location, using a map to create community or recreating an
event, Google Maps is helping how museums tell their stories
David Alexander (david@zeroonedesign.com) from Zero One Design can be found
- if you look really closely - somewhere in Google Earth.
LINKS
Google Maps Canada: http://maps.google.ca/
Google Latitude: http://www.google.com/
Google Earth: http://earth.google.com/
Google Earth Oceans: http://earth.google.com/ocean/
Museo del Prado: http://www.museodelprado.es/
The Prado in Google Earth: http://www.google.com/intl/en/
The Bishop Museum: http://www.bishopmuseum.org
The Bishop Museum's data
for Google Earth: http://www.bishopmuseum.org/
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: http://www.ushmm.org/
The United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum's Mapping Initiatives: http://www.ushmm.org/maps/
New Mexico Stories: http://newmexicostories.org/