Mountains Made Of News

July 7, 2007 4:23 AM

The IDIOM Media Watch on Climate Change aggregates web content from 150 sources, accessible in the form of semantic maps, on which the topology of the Earth is redrawn as mountains and valleys according to the density of available information, or a three-dimensional 'knowledge planet' viewable in NASA World Wind. [Via Information Aesthetics.]
posted by jack_mo (5 comments total)

As much as I wanted to like it, I couldn't get past the abstracted mumbo-jumbo about visualizing data, the location of just five news stories, and a pitch for a book. I'm throwing in the towel on this one.
posted by rolypolyman at 10:04 AM on July 7, 2007

I got your semantic map. It's been raining and overcast since the beginning of June here in Stockholm.

Climate change? Where is my promised Mediterranean climate? I want my global warming. And I want it now.
posted by three blind mice at 10:19 AM on July 7, 2007

great, an ECG that reminds me of how fucked we are. (I kid). Thanks for posting it.

Interesting resource and visualization - see how much info we have on a topic by making it a mountain. I wonder if anyone else is doing something similar - it's a good start...
posted by rmm at 11:19 AM on July 7, 2007

While this is an interesting concept and a great application of technology, the application itself is a bit short-sighted, as it only provides topology of media coverage. This would be far more interesting and useful if they provided a topological map of places where we actually have data on climate, and the extent of that data. Where is climate data being gathered? Where do we need more? I'd love to see that map.
posted by barchan at 1:34 PM on July 7, 2007

the location of just five news stories

You can click anywhere on the semantic map to see, er, geo-relevant stories. Well, anywhere that's at least slightly hilly, anyway.
posted by jack_mo at 1:35 PM on July 7, 2007