As the weather warms, I’ve been eying my bicycle hanging in the garage for too-many months. Google Maps is now making it easier to find a quick way from where you are to where you’d like to go following bike-friendly roads and paths.
For example, check out these biking directions from Liberty Park in Salt Lake City, Utah to Sugar House Park. Unfortunately, Utah has few bike-friendly roads (ranking 18th/50 in the USA according to the League of American Bicyclists’ Bicycle Friendly Community campaign) so you may want to check out other bike-friendly cities in the US and around the world:
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Portland, Oregon, USA
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Boulder, Colorado, USA
- Davis, California, USA
- Sandnes, Norway
- Trondheim, Norway
- San Francisco, California, USA
- Berlin, Germany
- Barcelona, Spain
- Basel, Switzerland
And, here’s Google’s own video introducing the service:
Does anybody know if these bike maps show up on mobile google maps’ installs? The Google Maps for Mobile website doesn’t reflect this yet, but this makes a lot of sense, and I am sure it will be there soon enough.
Oh, and you can Tweet to win a new bike using the hashtag #bikewithgoogle (rules/regs)
Rahhb Apps, Tools, human, life, mobile biking, community, commuter, google, google_maps
I’ve been thinking about what Community means.
I spend a lot of time online (sadly) and I have spent a great deal of time (too much time, actually) developing and building online communities… or so I thoug[ht. In fact, I now believe strongly that you should spend as much as 10x the time you spend making online friends in connecting with real-life humans. This might be a good reason why.]
To me, I belive there may be a few requirements that make a difference between just “people you know” and “Community”.
- Investment: People in the community feel ownership, likely because something is on the line if they don’t… like property values, their children’s education, social benefits, etc.
- Emotional Connection: This means you actually care (or something that approximates human caring). You can notice this when you can’t be a part of the community, you feel like you’ve missed out.
- Sacrifice: When someone else in the community needs help, you’re willing to put aside your own self-interest for the benefit of others… because you know they’d do the same for you.
That’s my list… what’s yours?
api Networking, Social Networking, people community, Networking
Anyone who’s been on the ultra-portable micro-update network Twitter for any length of time knows they’ve blown past the tipping point of an acceptable social network.
Here’s Some evidence:
- People actually have “heard about” twitter, even if they haven’t joined.
- People like Shel Israel declare a “Twitter Follow Policy” to clarify why they will or won’t follow someone.
- Usually nay-sayers exclaim “I tried it and I don’t get it” rather than simply “I don’t get it”
- Chuck Norris twitters (Darth Vader was a no-brainer. Of course he would twitter…)
- The number of “non-techy” people jumping onto the platform is astounding.
- People, like ARMGpaul, feel like they’ve been missing something amazing
In fact, many-a-tweeter these days bemoans the time “before the whole world joined”… back when twitter was a small town, not a bustling city.
I laugh a little to myself when a social network gets so big people feel they have to join out of obligation rather than the desire to connect with people. It just begs the question:
If a Social Network falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear it… does it make any noise?
In other words… join when you join. Make the best out of it you can… it’s just like any other conversation you’ve ever taken part in for your whole life: People have been talking before you came along, and they will keep talking when you’re gone.
… the point is to make what YOU add to the conversation meaningful… in your own way.
What do YOU think?
Rahhb Social Networking add, community, connect, join, small_town, Social Networking, socnet, twitter
