Now scrolling: The Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Week 3, Thing #6: Flickr Mash-ups and Third Party Sites


Lincoln Sightings Across the Nation

Not really. These are Lincoln sites, not sightings. But I thought the headline was catchy. I chose six locations pertinent to Lincoln's life and career-- again from a website -- and uploaded them to Flickr. This was successful. Then I had to transfer them to Mappr.

Mappr almost killed me. I misunderstood the whole tag issue at first. When they say generic, they really mean generic. "Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C." was not accepted. "Building, Washington, District of Columbia" was accepted. Once I renamed all my tags and sent them back to Mappr, the next stage of placing them on the map went quickly enough. The map has to be "zoomed" in to a size big enough to recognize the states, or again, you will be told "Wait, don't you want to make this map larger?" or something like that, I forget the exact prompt. I got beeped often in this process, but once the map came together, it really was fantastic. I can hardly believe a program like this exists. To see my map, try this link. http://www.flickr.com/photos/8939400@N04/map/ It was still working for me as of yesterday and I hope it is still live. Anyway, enjoy Mappr as much as I did. This whole exercise was a great adventure. Also, look for my technology article, forthcoming.
P.S. What I really love about Mappr is how unfailingly polite it is. No curt, one-word commands here. An entire page is devoted to telling you what you did wrong. The prompts go something like this: "Mappr thinks there is a low possibility that this picture was really taken in Washington, D.C. Is there something missing from your tag? Mappr could be wrong, but we can't find this location." Imagine, an interactive program implying it might be wrong. Well you know darn well Mappr isn't wrong. So that leaves you. If you want to feel right about the world today, check in to Mappr and make a few mistakes. Some engineer went to a lot of trouble programming manners into this thing, so you might as well enjoy it.

4 comments:

Anthony said...

You've been tagged! Follow this link to find out what this is.

LincolnFreak said...

Uh-oh. I seem to be vulnerable to tags lately. Stay posted for the results.

Ellen said...

Mappr looks pretty cool. I think I'll try this for my genealogy.

JimD said...

Hello, I thought of you when I was down in D.C. this weekend. Here's a photo of Ford's Theatre.