huh
http://earth.google.com/mars/giovanni.html
so now you can tour Mars and get data and images about Mars that is only a couple hours delayed from NASA and ESA.
if you think about that a little bit.. that is pretty amazing. In the early 90's I was thrilled when my folks bought me the TIME Life books subscription to the space series. Every couple weeks a new book would arrive with great images and historical background with little hints about what 'amazing' future prospects we have. I never considered that the books that I so enjoyed, to the point that I saved them for my children would in of themselves be an ironic testament to the amazing future prospects. I let my 3 years leaf through a couple books and she enjoys them as a novelty and on the same day my 7 months old was impressed with some random you tube musical supernova compilation that walked us through a 4 billion year life span of a star. Print perhaps is not dead, but it is becoming relegated to a narrower niche for sure. Print that had been used as the immediate medium of dispensing information had lost ground since radio and television started pushing it around. multiple daily editions of the newspaper solidified into once daily and now newspapers are starting to fold. And why shouldn't they? Why both wading through cnn headline news or the local 11 o clock news to get just small snips of info you should be able to procure yourselves.
the only real issue standing between consumers and information is that the net has a bloat of information as not everyone understands how to parse it well for their needs. this is evident in the quality of informational web sites and the gap between the national and local body of information.
the social networking bandwagon allows for the ubiquity of local 'conversations' and information sharing but not really a reputable news source. Local newspapers and network stations 'try' to grasp the concept but outside of metro areas I have seen no examples of a superior content service for local communities.
somewhere between blogs, social networks, 11 oclock news and the new york times there is an available and vastly expansive market to bring a form factor to aggregate information for the local communities.
the other big market not being fully explored here is the high quality print. perhaps gone are the days for mega bookstores and we will see a resurgence of the artform of bookmaking and binding.
the instant availability of information and the high quality of content. damn.
so now you can tour Mars and get data and images about Mars that is only a couple hours delayed from NASA and ESA.
if you think about that a little bit.. that is pretty amazing. In the early 90's I was thrilled when my folks bought me the TIME Life books subscription to the space series. Every couple weeks a new book would arrive with great images and historical background with little hints about what 'amazing' future prospects we have. I never considered that the books that I so enjoyed, to the point that I saved them for my children would in of themselves be an ironic testament to the amazing future prospects. I let my 3 years leaf through a couple books and she enjoys them as a novelty and on the same day my 7 months old was impressed with some random you tube musical supernova compilation that walked us through a 4 billion year life span of a star. Print perhaps is not dead, but it is becoming relegated to a narrower niche for sure. Print that had been used as the immediate medium of dispensing information had lost ground since radio and television started pushing it around. multiple daily editions of the newspaper solidified into once daily and now newspapers are starting to fold. And why shouldn't they? Why both wading through cnn headline news or the local 11 o clock news to get just small snips of info you should be able to procure yourselves.
the only real issue standing between consumers and information is that the net has a bloat of information as not everyone understands how to parse it well for their needs. this is evident in the quality of informational web sites and the gap between the national and local body of information.
the social networking bandwagon allows for the ubiquity of local 'conversations' and information sharing but not really a reputable news source. Local newspapers and network stations 'try' to grasp the concept but outside of metro areas I have seen no examples of a superior content service for local communities.
somewhere between blogs, social networks, 11 oclock news and the new york times there is an available and vastly expansive market to bring a form factor to aggregate information for the local communities.
the other big market not being fully explored here is the high quality print. perhaps gone are the days for mega bookstores and we will see a resurgence of the artform of bookmaking and binding.
the instant availability of information and the high quality of content. damn.