Okay, I’ll write about it here, too. I already wrote about this on my professional blog, Bibliotech Web, but I thought I’d share it here since there’s a different audience. There another cool new Google-related program out there called Frappr! and it’s sort of like a shared map where you can put your own push-pins in to represent you. There are all kinds of topics and maps where people have sort of formed online communities.

From their site:

Frappr was created by Brian, Kun and James at Rising Concepts, who wanted to see where all their high school and college friends went after they graduated.

Frappr (Friend Mapper) lets you see the zip code where your friends live or work, letting you find out who works in the office building next door and who lives in the apartment complex across the street.

The really cool thing is that Google’s mapping program is tied in. So when you view a map, you can zoom in and out, drag it around, or even switch between map, satellite, and hybrid views, just like Google Maps.

Now what prompted me to write about this here is not just that it’s a cool new technology. Nope, as I mentioned before, I wrote about Frappr! on my library blog first, and that was specifically because I created a Frappr map for “Blogging Librarians,” as a place for librarians who have blogs to see where all the other blogging librarians are at and to build a type of online community for discussion and collaboration. And to build up everyone’s reader base, I suppose. :-)
It has been exactly 25 hours since I posted my entry on my other blog. I’ve already had three comments and several pingbacks (because people quoted my blog on theirs and linked back to my original post) just in the one day since I wrote about it. And what’s cooler is that there are already 43 members of my Blogging Librarians map. Many of them have uploaded a picture of themselves and almost all have included a link to their own blog. Oh, and that includes several librarians in Canada, one in London, one in Provence, France, and two in Australia!!

It’s very cool to get an idea, run with it, and see it begin working so quickly! And to know that if I get a good idea, I’ve got an audience that talks to others and spreads ideas. That’s HOT! (to quote Michael Stephens) :-D
Current music: Soundtrack from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Danny Elfman