/How We Built/ platial.com

02/07/2007 | Filed under Discover > How We Built

We all have a constantly evolving list of places we want to go to. That’s why Di-Ann Eisnor created Platial – The People’s Atlas, a combination of social networking and mapping APIs

.net: With an abundance of mapping tools on the web, why was Platial needed and how does it differ from other services?

DE: Platial (The People’s Atlas) is a constantly evolving user-generated atlas that represents people’s view about places around the world. Typical mapping tools provide directions, road data and some offer commercial directory listings. Platial is a layer on top of all that, which offers photos, videos, stories and comments by people.

We found that there were plenty of sources for base geographic data and commercial recommendations, yet no resource for finding your kind of place based on recommendations from locals. If you see images, read stories and see tags, you can get a sense of a place.

.net: Do you see it as a mashup or something more than that?
DE: I see Platial as an enabler of mashups, various sources of information blended together, in our case on a map. We found that it’s only a limited number of inspiring people who want to intentionally make maps. The broader audience wants to share child-friendly places on parenting sites and surf spots on surfing sites. That’s why we launched MapKit – it takes the important Platial community mapping tools and enables anyone to put them on their own site, blog or profile page so their own readers/users can comment and add material within a more relevant social context.

People have created more than 15,000 mashups on Platial, bringing in data from their own personal stories, RSS feeds of their favourite restaurants or travels; their own place databases of their related interests, such as activism, business, music, art etc.

.net: Who are your users and how do you think the user base will expand in the future?
DE: Our users are the most interesting people I’ve ever encountered. They’re from around the world and have truly diverse interests. I’ve met a mum from Ghana, travellers from Brazil, ex pats in Taipei, the mayor of a small US town, countless artists, DIY kids, foodies and local businesses on the site. They share a common passion about places, and want to tell their stories. Only, now that I see all of these great places, I wish I had more time to travel!

We conducted a small survey last year and learned that our users are 25 to 44 years old, online a lot, they like maps, reading and travelling. They use Platial to annotate local places of personal importance, such as restaurants and parks, or personal stories such as where they had their first kiss.

.net: What tools were used to make the site?
DE: We’re the product of API culture and economics. We’ve integrated APIs from Google maps, Yahoo Local, ESRI, Flickr, EVDB, Skyhook Wireless and other lesser-known folk. We don’t rely on any one of these sources, but our service is better with each of them and, in exchange, we have fairly open data policies and our own API.

.net: There’s rumoured interest from big web companies in Platial. What do you hope will happen?
DE: We’ve had exploratory conversations with web giants about partnership opportunities, and we’ll probably strike a few deals to help power some of them. No other kind of relationship discussion has been relevant. We’re focused on our mission and creating value for our users and in our business. As long as we create value and build a great application that can be a free global resource, our options will be open.

.net: Will you continue to guide Platial’s development or is most of it in the hands of the user community now?
DE: We work very closely with our community. The second hire we made was our old friend, Tracy, our community advocate. She spends her time connecting with users and the broader online community, gauging needs and problems. Think customer service but much more proactive!

.net: What has been the biggest surprise to you since you released the service?
DE: The diversity of “use cases” including a surprising trend in wedding mapping last summer. We underestimated the role of storytelling on maps and of “autobiogeography” (outlining your life on a map).

.net: What are the Map Awards all about?
DE: All of those “use cases” added up to one year and thousands of user-created maps. We’re beginning to understand the ways this can be important to people and wanted to honour this great work and creative efforts. We recognised maps in 22 categories, including local guides, travel journals, and so on.

.net: What new elements could you introduce?
DE: We’ve been working with the bloggers and other site developers using MapKit to see how to make it even better. The updated MapKit is out now.

.net: How might changes to Google/Yahoo Maps affect the service in the future?
DE: Google and Yahoo both have bold moves in the emerging geoweb. We feel like Platial is compatible with a longer-term Google strategy. It looks like it’s on course to dominate local search, pointing to all geographic content via Google Maps or Google Earth. We are different enough and specific enough that I suspect we’ll be able to continue to capitalise on Google’s efforts, and it will help make Platial’s service better and better.

Yahoo is a bit different since it’s making a strong play in user-generated content. We’ll see how rapidly the company can ramp up and how it structures the local offering. I like its new local mashup concept for India. It’s suspiciously devoid of places … I hope they use ours!