I read with interest (see article) about the increase in the lack of common sense people are using when utilising services such as online directions, maps on phones and personal navigation devices.

Why can’t people take responsibility for their own stupidity…really…”Walk down Highway X for 5klms (just watch for the cars in the lane next to you and by the way while your at it you shouldn’t have jumped that sound barrier to follow the directions so closely!)”.

Do people not look and go “Hey, maybe I shouldn’t be here”. I am often used as a personal navigation device myself (don’t snigger) where by those friends without some sort of spatial intellect (the gets lost often type) ring up from their phone and say, “I am on Smith street in Paddo, how do I get to the Rocks?”

They do tend to use a computer generated report or directions these days but most often will use some common sense (that is MOST of them) to steer themselves clear of any danger.

The big story that does keep popping up is how often data is updated and the use of crowd sourcing to achieve these updates.

I am going to follow this with interest as some Government agencies look at how crowd sourcing could assist in this area and compete with the likes of Navteq and other content providers.

How reliant are we on other poeples ideas and changes and how much do you trust your ‘spatial expert’ supplying the new details.

Till next time, and I promise to make it more regular.

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As a constant traveller with a new favourite film of “Up in the Air” my Latitude is constantly changing, along with my attitide to parts of the industry I work in.

So this blog will serve as a place to vent, add insight into my work life, and to enable the sharing of ideas.

First up together with ‘Project Spatial’ we will be blogging and tweeting during FIG2010 in Sydney April 10-16 2010. So come say hi.

Look forward to throwing out a few more words during the coming weeks.

Regards
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