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Leave it to a major player like Cisco Systems to investment in showing off their newest data center through a flashy interactive map.  Cisco recently spent $80 million in the renovation of an unused office building on its campus in Richardson, Texas.  What better way to fully display this achievement than through an interactive map? View the Richardson Data Center Interactive Tour. The tour has a collection of videos with all the details about the …

When I look at different interactive maps and virtual tours around the web, more often than not there is a very distinct difference between the two.  After all, a map is a map and a tour sometimes includes a map, but I’ve noticed that people commonly call anything a virtual tour including the following: 360 degree panorama photographs A video of someone walking through locations Detailed text with pictures of locations Pictures accompanied by an …

There are many uses for interactive maps, and as we’ve shared in the past, these uses go far beyond interactive campus maps.  Staying on top of map uses helps keep us up to date on interesting ideas and eventually additional markets for our products.  So in the mean time dissecting and sharing maps like this interactive map of the upcoming Olympic torch relay are just as much a hobby as a learning experience. In 2010 …

Did you see the post last week on the TargetX iThink blog, The “Secret Menu” of the Campus Visit by Trent Gilbert?  Trent has been exploring college campuses getting his fair share of tours of the scripted nature.  In a short video clip Trent tells us, “There are all these things I could do… but I’m never invited to do them.” Touring certain things like the football stadium might seem obvious to inquire for a …

Very similar to the Interactive Airport Map I wrote about last week, this story that broke out in the New York Times, Toxic Waters – Clean Water Laws are Neglected at a Cost in Suffering, is another eye opener that is made even  more compelling through the use of an interactive map. “How can we get digital cable and Internet in our homes but not clean water?” The article above is just one in a …

An interesting article in USA Today last week, Feds keep little-used airports in business, brings to light billions of dollars in tax revenue generated every single year and spent on airports.  Although this very interesting article explains how billions of dollars each year are collected from taxed airline travels, what is so interesting is the number of airports that receive this revenue.  There are close to 3,000 airports nationwide, 2,834 to be exact,  and although …

When web developers think about designing an interactive map or virtual tour one thing that comes up, especially in the education world, is Section 508 compliance.  The basic guidelines for Section 508 is that Federal agencies are required to make electronic and information technology accessible to individuals with disabilities.  With many public education institutes being government entities this requirement also falls on them.  Interactive maps are specifically designed with multimedia elements to enhance the experience, …

If you have been paying any attention to the news over the last few weeks I’m sure you have heard about the fires out in California. What has really interested me about the fires has been the range of really interesting interactive maps being put together to monitor them. People out in California love their web technology and this fire has only shown their innovative uses of technology.

A recent featured article in Wired discussed the idea of “Good Enough” products. What this means is that we don’t care as much about product features as we do about product cost. The article gives a few great examples starting with the Flip video camera, comparing it to the more expensive offerings by Sony and others.
Wal-Mart has proven to us that people care about paying bottom dollar for products. We all want more for less, but with things like electronics I think we can all admit that we don’t use half the features they contain. So why do we need them all? Being able to pay only for what we use isn’t a new idea. It’s just not always that simple or practical. When people design products, having a low and competitive price is definitely important, but each customer wants different features. So in order to make a product competitive and more interesting they add additional features. Additional features allow you to charge more. The other approach is to create additional types, which is what we see in things like gum and soft drink flavors.