Littourati News: Try Out Pinwheel!

In December, a person who stumbled onto Littourati contacted me to ask if I would be willing to become an alpha tester for a new website.  The concept was interesting - the site was founded by a team led by Caterina Fake, who had previously founded Flickr - and it allows you to leave a note about places on Google maps.  You can also post photos.  The site, called Pinwheel, is now online to view and you can find it at Pinwheel.com.  You can sign up to be a beta user if you want.

I'm seeking ways to integrate Pinwheel with some of what I do on Littourati.  I've a great time using the site in the little time that I've had to use it.  Try it out!

Michael Hess

Littourati News: Map Back Up

I apologize to all of you Littourati who tried to go to the map and found that it just went to the world view with no markers.  A mistake in the XML file that I used caused that problem.  I just discovered the problem and fixed it, so now you can go to the map as before.

Thanks for your patience.  I'll have a new post entitled "Cut Bank, Montana" up in the next day or two.

Michael Hess

Littourati News: Interactive Map of Great Journeys

A website called GOOD has mapped out some famous journeys in an interactive fashion.  Here you can find maps of historical and literary journeys with descriptions of pivotal places along the way.  It's a cool way to occupy a few minutes in your spare time, as well as give you a sense of the scope of these journeys.  Check out their Wanderlust map here.

Michael Hess

Littourati News: Blue Highways Stopovers Mapped in Google Earth in 2005

While doing some looking around on the web, I found that someone with the online name of "rvbooth" had mapped Blue Highways in 2005 on Google Earth.  It's a very nice job of mapping his route and includes polylines between the stopover points.

The difference between that earlier map and mine?  The earlier map shows only the stopovers that William Least Heat-Moon (LHM) made, whereas I am trying to map every point along his route that he mentions in the book, whether he stopped there or not.  Second, my map includes the relevant quotes from the book whereas the previous map does not.  Third, in keeping with my blog's stated purpose, I am including entries which are my own impressions, thoughts and recollections as I read LHM's words.  In a sense, it is like I am traveling with LHM, but keeping my own journal as I go.  In that way, I go a little more in depth into the book than the earlier map does.

I think it's a great resource - and will give you some idea of where we're going.  To see the map, you must have Google Earth or the Google Earth plug-in on your browser that will allow you to see Google Maps in Google Earth view. 

Go here to access rvbooth's kmz file. 

To compare with mine, go here to download my Google Earth kml file (in progress). 

Happy traveling!

Michael

Littourati News: Map Problems

I have just discovered that some of the links to the blog posts on the maps don't work.  I'll be fixing these over the next few days.  Thanks for your patience.

Michael Hess