From H+ magazine, Surfdaddy Orca says,

“Metanomics is an emerging – even edgy – field of academic study that deals with the economic, legal, and regulatory issues of of virtual worlds.”

He shows how the bank collapse in the real world was preceded by a bank collapse in Second Life, a year before.

But think about it.  Forget the porn and the wasted hours spent by folks looking for a “second” life.  It’s like these are very sophisticated tools that end up getting used for the wrong things.

The military uses virtual environments to prep for missions.  Government and Real Estate use GIS for looking at alternatives.  So are there ways to package this for use in people’s personal lives?

See Motionbased’s Distance Splits,  Routes and Dot Player.  Then think scenarios.

Boston.com has a great story about the growth of GPS.

Along the same lines, check out triangler.

At Tolmie About to head into the trail.

I need to start thinking about what information I want to grab and the fastest means to that end.

Thiis is from Rock Candy Rd, first major crossroads and transmission line.

Getting ready for the annual street market.

And today it is a happening thing. And, with some tools out now, it’s quickly becoming all about the data. Just a note here that Wired magazine is picking up on the trend. In their latest “Where 2.0 Gives the World Meaning” they speak of “a generation of coders whose work is inspired by easily obtained map data”. This is going to be exciting to see play out over the next several years.

Some other Wired articles:

• Map Mashups Get Personal
• Explorers map World’s Offramps
• Map Hacks on Crack
• Hey Google, Map This!
• Pinpointing Voters on a Map