iPhone/OS X Park Map App

Little off-topic here, but as I try to plan our trip to the Smokies this weekend, I find that planning for a hike of a specific type (short, flat) is a bit arduous- especially having to go back and forth between the park map, brown book and computer (to find out trail closings/bear warnings). I think it would be very handy to have one place that could aggregate all of that information into one easy place.

Hurdles/Issues:

• The National Park System map is free, and since it is a government document, is public domain so copyright issues would not apply to that. The National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map, or TOPO map would be ideal, but there would be legal channels I’d have to navigate.
• The Brown Book IS copyrighted, but judging by the communal nature of how the book was compiled, I don’t forsee a tough battle to get rights to use the text.

Benefits:

• An added benefit would be the ability to mark off trails and campsites that you have already been to.
• Could integrate with Google Maps/Flickr when internet is available to provide contextual photos and information.
• The GPS and compass functionality of the iPhone 3GS would make way finding very easy.
• Could integrate a trail journal, as well as geo-tagged photos.

Privacy

What has been potentially the biggest obstacle in my development of the new site is the same issue that has been plaguing the internet since its conception. Privacy. I realize it is foolish to think that anything I do on the tubes is really and truly private, but when you get down to it, you just don’t want everyone knowing everything about you.

What then to do with a site which by its nature should tell the world everything that I do on the web… I think I have come to a decision. Instead of allowing full access to everyone and everything in the world to see everything about me, I’ll have a public AND private timeline. I haven’t quite decided on what type of authentication system I’m going to deploy, and how hard it will be to view my private timeline, but I think this solution will provide me with the privacy and publicity I am looking for.

Portfolio

A place to showcase my work across multiple disciplines and mediums.

Although the majority of my work is digital (I am a web designer, after all), the presentation should be pretty straightforward. I do have some 3-dimensional work that I would like to include, so whatever way I choose to present work should ideally facilitate both types. Here is a general list of the different types of work I would potentially show:

• Website design
• Illustration
• Photography
• Books
• Packaging
• Video
• Writing?

Aggregation

I would like a single place where I can aggregate all as much of my activity as I need/would like.

With the advent of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Linked-In and Digg (to name a very few), people including myself interact with the web a lot more than in the past. These sites more often than not have some easy(-ish) way to publish one’s activity, or if not publish it, access it in such a way that you can interact with it while not actually on the site. With a little bit of technical know-how, it is possible to weave all of these separate timelines into one single timeline.

All of these timelines aggregated into one singular stream help to paint a portrait of one’s activity in the cyber world, and in effect embody that person in an etherial way. It is an avatar, in almost every sense of the word.

The question arises of how much information is too much information. While cyber-crimes such as identity theft are certainly serious issues, the more pertinent question to ask is, “How much am I comfortable with other people knowing.” The answer, of course will vary from person to person. Some people choose to restrict access to their Twitter profiles, and that certainly has its place. The truth is, once you put something onto the internet, it is there, forever. Your information is around for everyone to see, it is just a matter of how interested a person is and to what length a person is prepared to go to get at that information.