Doc Searls Weblog

8 responses to “A tour across the urban Northeast at night”

1. 

   Jon Garfunkel

   April 6, 2008 at 12:54 pm

   Doc–

   Very cool! As with any sublime work of art, I’m amazed I’ve never seen anything like this before. (Of course I’ve seen night skylines, of course, but the series aspect was neat, and the lights on at Yankee Stadium and Camden Yards are unique.) And I can’t even find it now. I was trying to verify the skyline that you say is Boston– it doesn’t quite look like it, and Boston’s coastline/skyline is as distinct as New York’s (all those peninsulas).

   As always, I can’t help but look at the information architecture considerations of this (as I’m unable to summon an actual pilot this moment).

   One, we’re seeing the limits of Flickr’s context-free folksonomy. Suppose you (and others) were to tag your photos like this: location=Boston; subject=skyline; timeofday=night; vantage=airplane. That way, it would be very easy to search for other night skylines from the vantage of an airplane to find the location.

   Two, as I suggested in November, more digital devices ought have built-in geotagging. Then, I had been focusing on phones and emergencies, but obviously this could be in cameras as well.

   Reply
2. 

   Doc Searls

   April 6, 2008 at 9:41 pm

   Thanks, Jon.

   As always, some great ideas from you there. Especially geotagging emergency data.

   Perhaps it’s not too odd that, as I get older, everything about the Networked World, so far, seems very early to me. Even relatively (and yet only apparently) mature technologies such as those in digital cameras seem primitive, because they lack proper connections to the Net, and to other devices.

   Worse, we’re still silo’d with those technologies. I would like to be able to add bluetooth to my Canon 30d SLR, and to my GPS, so the latter could add geo data to every shot. Instead even the USB capabilities of both devices are too silo’d and dumb to allow that.

   Meanwhile, though, you’ve got me thinking. More soon. 🙂

   Oh, by the way, you’re right that the last shot in the series isn’t Boston. It’s Providence. I don’t usually miss those, but I did this time. Thanks for catching the error.

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3. 

   Amar Ashar

   April 6, 2008 at 10:13 pm

   Awesome photoset, Doc! Definitely one of my favorites from your mile-high photo collections.

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4. 

   Chip

   April 7, 2008 at 6:43 pm

   Doc
   On Networked world and expecting better connectivity

   As long time reader (not enough in past decade or so) of “sci-fi” I find myself not amazed by devices but more of “it’s about time”, or “so? we’ve been waiting for …”

   Ciao
   Chip

   Reply
5. 

   Derek K. Miller

   April 8, 2008 at 12:50 am

   It’s a shame that we waste so much energy radiating light out into space, but it’s pretty.

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6. 

   Doc Searls

   April 8, 2008 at 5:54 am

   It’s a privilege to live in an age when we can afford high-altitude aviation as well, all but unaware of its consequences.

   Reply
7. 

   Jon Garfunkel

   April 8, 2008 at 10:19 pm

   consequences? Your link is 404.

   Glad to be of help!

   As for all the light leaking out into space (or at least the atmosphere), you think that’s bad, how about the folks who *live* next to the Yankee Stadium lights!

   Reply
8. 

   Max Obeidin

   June 13, 2009 at 10:36 pm

   I could see the Empire State Building on your Manhattan pictures!

   Reply