I'm excited to show off #Atlas - a social mapping server for the #Fediverse.

I'm excited to show off #Atlas - a social mapping server for the #Fediverse. In about two weeks, we've gone from crazy on I70 to a fledgling app that lets me annotate any location on the globe and share it over #ActivityPub

There's still a lot to do. But there's enough here for me to ask for your help. I would love to hear what you think of this short video, and to start talking to everyone out there who's interested in making maps on the Fediverse.

Atlas Demo #1

I'm really pleased with my progress on #Atlas - a social mapping server for the #Fediverse. In about two weeks, we've gone from tooting an 85mph brainstorm on I70 to a fledgling app that lets me a...

clip.place (clip.place)

I'm expecting this kind of street-level annotation to have lots of uses, from groups of friends replicating #FourSquare, to communities organizing events, or citizen #Journalists recording what's going on in their neighborhood.

Please share this with anyone who might benefit from sharing location notes online. It's time for me to start collecting some needs from real-world users.

GitHub - EmissarySocial/atlas: Annotate real-world locations on the Fediverse

Annotate real-world locations on the Fediverse. Contribute to EmissarySocial/atlas development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub (github.com)

@benpate
Does it support the location tagging #Honk has had for many years?

@ddlyh I'm not familiar with that one. I've studied apps like FourSquare (and others) though.

When I go searching for Honk, I only see an app for parking lots. Where can I learn more about Honk?

@benpate
#Honk is an existing microblogging Fedi software that also allows for the tagging of posts with locations as one of its features. I investigated it a while back with an idea of setting up a server, but was put off by the lack of favourites etc..

@benpate Sounds like it could be used for reporting ICE? Like those apps that were banned recently.

@benpate This is awesome. I've been toying with an idea like this for years and it will IMHO be a killer app for AR.

@benpate

Sure, doing taxiteam for the german yellow cabs. Described some aspects in https://github.com/w3c/activitystreams/issues/582

Would be interested in finishing the federated geocoding part together.

benpate@mastodon.social this is super super cool. Are you integrating with places.pub as well?

cc evan

@benpate Ben this is so impressive!

I can’t come up with coherent comments or questions just now but I’m definitely tuned in and pondering how this connects to all my Future Cities/civic tech tangles.

Cc @samnabi this is one of the “somebody had an idea sometime around FediForum two weeks ago and now there’s a whole new dimension…” things I was trying to explain. I will include Ben’s FediCON talk in what I send you, as well.

@benpate this is pretty exciting! do you have any idea what safety features will look like? would you build something into it that, say, actively prevents others from doxing someone?

@benpate love what you’ve done so far. Can see so many uses. There’s a definite need to have ‘private’ tags / entries as well as public ones.

@benpate Super cool! I wish the README had instructions on how to run this

@benpate ooh!

Better Atlas than the other one. A couple of questions:
- are you envisioning this to be a federated Foursquare or Yelp?
- inserting location tags to people's posts increases their personal data exposure quite a lot. What privacy implications do you see here?
- I didn't catch in the video what is the identity model you're basing this on. New identity on Atlas, or a tie-in to an existing fedi identity?
@benpate

@benpate This is really great! One project that could very well be a nail for this hammer is https://wanderer.to !

osma@mas.to benpate@mastodon.social I'd assume that if you're using Atlas that you're explicitly aware that the location data is being broadcast out, yeah?

I'd imagine it to be akin to an opt-in mechanism.

I think we have enough evidence by now to know that even people who should have training to know better, accidentally reveal too much on apps, and that location is a particularly sensitive item.

Just a moment...

(dl.acm.org)

Strava users utilises the app segment functionality to spy on the Israeli military

Unidentified members have used the fitness app's segment feature to track military running routes around classified sites

Runner's World (www.runnersworld.com)

Fitness App Strava Gives Away Location of Biden, Trump and Other Leaders, French Newspaper Says

Movements of Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, and other leaders can be easily tracked online via a fitness app used by bodyguards.

SecurityWeek (www.securityweek.com)

@julian @benpate

@julian @osma @benpate  I don’t think that an app should tie my physical location to posting about a location, and it is not necessarily true that you need to be there to talk about that location.

And that could be anything from trip advisor like blog posts and reviews to boosting and chatting about social activism or events happening at a location.

For example, I may want to location tag Yosemite when writing about the current lack of funding to protect the land from human aggression. Or I would want to do so when writing about my experience at the top of Half  Dome decades ago as part of a shared human experience.

@benpate this could be fun for geocaching