We had a family event this weekend, and one of my guests was raving about his new "Crackberry" (he's a DC lawyer who's completely addicted to his email device).

I figured he was going to show off his new Pearl, but this is what he pulled out of his pocket.

I asked if he knew what this device was, and he replied, "yes, it's  a high-end version of the Blackberry".

Sticking an image on a map is easy, but registering an image on a map and generating the requisite tiles out of it so that users can navigate your image on an underlying basemap is something altogether different. This is the role of Mapcruncher, and while I've used similar tools in the past, Mapcruncher was by far the easiest to use.

I created a video tutorial of a mapcrunch session in which I took an image of detroyed villages in Darfur, registered the map in Mapcruncher, and output the results to a web server. Check it out and enjoy crunching your own maps!

  
Video: 5 Minute Mapcruncher Tutorial

Link to MSR MapCruncher

David Luna wrote a thought-provoking question the other day after viewing some ads in Virtual Earth. His basic premise is around applying real-world concepts such as land preservation to the virtual world...and that's a very interesting concept.

I responded to his note, but wanted to explore the topic a bit further and solicit other input. So put on your thinking caps and join me for a sip of ale.

Virtual Earth can be considered at the point of the Garden of Eden...or a tad earlier in its development cycle. Yes, there are buildings and roads, but not yet covering the entire globe. The sun does not rise nor set, but casts a variety of shadows across buildings and landscape that make it nearly impossible to determine the time of day!

After flying flight simulators for so many years, Virtual Earth is deathly quiet to me. Yes, I fly through the landscape with my handy Xbox 360 PC controller, and it's quite satisfying to view real cities as opposed to the auto-generated ones of Flight Simulator.

So what are the positives?

1. Beautiful scenery
2. Big 3D textured cities
3. Clean...no pollution
4. No established political systems
5. No established religious systems
6. No taxes
7. No wars
8. Quiet
9. Accurate (buildings to within 15 cm)
10. Platform focus for developers

Let's keep it to 10 for now. And the negatives?

1. Not enough beautiful scenery (but rapidly increasing with monthly updates - 20TB in December alone!)
2. Not enough international coverage or 3D cities
3. Too clean - doesn't model the real world
4. Limited social interaction and engagement
5. No commerce system or in-world currency
6. Quiet - there should be an immersive sound checkbox to  pick up either existing or simulated sounds in cities, rural areas, beaches, etc.
7. In conjunction with 6, should have seamless VOIP for in-world social interaction - e.g. meet me at {permalink} and when we get in range, allow our voices to be heard - sort of like in real life.
8. Limited developer APIs at present
9. Too closely linked to search - Virtual Earth can be much bigger than search. Look what IBM is doing with Circuit City in Second Life.
10. Your thoughts?

If you were to create a digital earth representation of the real earth for business, government and consumers, what parts of the real world would you include and which would you prevent from ever entering "your" world?