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bLink 20

What's a geograph?

Thom Wong 2 Feb 2006TheTyee.ca

Thom Wong writes regularly about music for The Tyee. He has also been a teacher and contract specialist. With eight years of education and three bachelor degree, Thom focuses mostly on marketing writing.
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When I'm in the mood for a recreational game, I tend to pick Pictionary. But the people who started Geograph would clearly find such games child's play. Their mission: to photograph every square kilometre of the British Isles.

The site makes use of beta software that allows you to view all of the kilometres that have associated photographs and the entire project plays out like some drunken bar bet, albeit one made by MIT students. The map's grid has 109,965 pictures already, which amazingly still only accounts for less than 30% of the whole country (just wait until someone decides to do Canada).

The number of statistics being charted is a little staggering. You can check the most pictures submitted in a day, future estimates, current totals and the number of Hectads (10km by 10km squares) remaining.

If you register, you will be given a point for every photograph, or geograph, you submit that passes muster (the picture must properly represent that square kilometre). Take enough snaps and you might challenge Richard Webb, who, to date, has submitted 3908 geographs -- enough to cover an area larger than Greater Vancouver.

Thom Wong is a law student who spends an unreasonable amount of time online. His 40 bLinks column runs every Monday and Thursday on The Tyee. What's he all about? Click here.

For previous 40 bLinks, click here. [Tyee]

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