Google Earth Community: What is GEC's future?

Hello geveN,

First just a little remark about your initial post about Sai Baba. I think that "Baba" doesn't means a "childlike person". But "baba" is a common and loving name for a man in a lot of countries and indo-european languages. That means in English "daddy" or "dad", a childlike word for "father". One can meet that expression in all Africa, Hebrew, Arab... That what you want to say, I believe (I'm French) in English with "old man". In French the word is "papa", but it is not used in that context of familiarity...

Well now the main subject of this post.

Your Shirdi post can be considred as textbook-case. See the image below:

GE can't give that kind of composition, so I did it with an image software to show a good example of "duplicate placemarks" (you can download a full version here).

Around Shirdi one can find at least 4 placemarks:

a Panoramio one;
a post from dvdboyster;
the geveN's post;
and a Wikipedia placemark.

First I think that TheLedge's remark is useful and meaningful. The dvdboyster's placemark and post are dated 02/12/05, the geveN's one are dated 21/03/07. So you could not make another "duplicate" post, but make a reply in the previous dvdboyster's. You could enrich this post with your text and other images.

Now, I am sure that you are explaining your choice (maybe it is ignorance...). But I can consider for you some reasons. If dvdboyster made a post in a completly different state of mind, say, for a hard critic of Sai Baba personality cult. Maybe it is justify to create another post. But this can be discuss...

In another area on the Earth, in my Panoram'Earth, there are some duplicate placemarks. They are all deliberate. All the placemarks are discriminate with a standard title (what is displayed when you mouse over). By example at lat/lon: 45.172167,0.704400 one can find 3 superimposed placemarks named:

Panoram'Earth : 02/11/2007-13:30 (Coulounieix Chamiers)
Panoram'Earth : 02/02/2008-14:33 (Coulounieix Chamiers)
Panoram'Earth : 24/02/2008-14:10 (Coulounieix Chamiers)

The difference is thus date and hour. Each placemark opens an info-window which in its turn lead to a web site page for more information and a HD video. 3 superimposed placemarks is a technical choice, I don't say it is the best and that I could choose another method (eg, to put the links for the 3 web pages in the same placemark-info-window). Simply, the Panoram'Earth principle (an arbitrary postulate) is one-placemark-one-page-one-video.

For coming back to the Shirdi case, it is obvious that "institutional" placemarks as Panoramio or Wikipedia need their own placemarks and links (for Panoramio and for Wikipedia).

As a temporary conclusion, the future of GE could be an integrative system. The present layers system will soon touch its limits. Now it already becomes a... we say in French "gasworks" (I think that an English speaker will find the good image expression). Something very very complicated!

To re-think the layers system in GE, Google has to decide another strategy and to put money in this other strategy. Two levels has to be discriminated: the public level and the "professional" level (or other naming). At the public level the system is open to everybody and to the wild use of GE with the permanent avalanche of placemarks and posts (this is like the sediment rain continuously falling in the oceans and making "layer" by "layer" sedimentary layer during millions of years).

Then at a professional level (that means paid employees) a rational and technical integration of these sediment is produced with tools that we can hardly imagine at the present time.

As geveN wondered, the future of the GEC is a big question. If the both level system, as I explained, is happening, where this community will take place? In the wild sediment? In the professional team? Or between both?

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A Memory of the Earth

Edited by panoramaddict (03/08/08 04:30 AM)

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