Some things I only post on my own blog thinking that they probably have limited appeal. However, now that this has been picked up by several others I’m thinking that perhaps it’s worth a CT mention.
Frappr uses Google Maps to present the locations of people who share some type of affiliation. Frappr maps can have whatever theme you choose. I created one for Crooked Timber readers. You can add your own location (with or without photo plus a short message). Despite what it may seem like at first, non-U.S. locations are supported as well.
So far I’m the only one on the map. I’m heading to bed now. It would be cool to have the map populated with all sorts of CT readers (and writers:) by the time I wake up.
UPDATE: Thanks for the many additions, keep on pushing those pins onto the map! A few logistical notes: If you’re not in the US then be sure to click on “Not in the US? Click Here” below the “Zipcode” field. You will then have to enter both city and country. (And yes, it does hte curious thing of assuming that your city is in a county with the same name even if it isn’t (e.g. Budapest, Budapest, Hungary), but so it is.) Although it looks like you are required to leave a Shoutout, try leaving some spaces or a hyphen if you’re not inspired to leave a message. That should work.
[thanks]
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Chris Bertram 10.26.05 at 1:33 am
I’d happily have added myself, but I’m afraid it keeps telling me that Bristol, UK (and Bristol, United Kingdom, and Bristol, England … ) is an “invalid city”. Is it too agricultural or something?
Isabel 10.26.05 at 3:11 am
And I don’t seem to show up in Brussels! Is it too devoid of identity?
Isabel 10.26.05 at 3:14 am
Hey! How come Maria shows up and I don’t???
Chris Bertram 10.26.05 at 3:31 am
I’m on now. For some reason my pc at work gave me a drop-down menu which wasn’t available from home (same setup: Windows XP + Firefox).
Anyway, for others having trouble with UK cities, you need to enter
Cityname, Countryname (United Kingdom)
e.g
Bristol, England (United Kingdom)
Isabel 10.26.05 at 3:33 am
OK, OK, I’ve managed to put myself in Lisbon, then! It’s good for geographical diversity, although the collusion between computers and the imperialism of English language made my shoutout look pretty weird. Oh well.
Chris Bertram 10.26.05 at 3:37 am
BTW, it thinks Chepstow is in England, though Monmouth is in Wales ….
cornellian 10.26.05 at 3:42 am
It liked the zip code of the cornell admissions office (14850), but not of the administation building (14853). Strange.
luci phyrr 10.26.05 at 4:04 am
Neat thingie.
chris y 10.26.05 at 4:14 am
Help! Chris Bertram and the entire city of Bristol are drowning in the middle of the North Sea (see Satellite Map).
Anna in Cairo 10.26.05 at 5:25 am
Wow, this is a very cool thing. I got the drop down menu listed as Cairo, Cairo (Egypt). OK. (I guess they mean Cairo the city in Cairo the state.)
John Quiggin 10.26.05 at 7:07 am
I couldn’t make it select Brisbane Australia, but maybe it will work with a different browser.
Matt McGrattan 10.26.05 at 7:31 am
Oxford came up with no problems. It turns out that there are a LOT of Oxfords in the US.
Jeremy Osner 10.26.05 at 8:20 am
Chris — any fool know Monmouth is in New Jersey.
neil 10.26.05 at 8:49 am
Perhaps a little counterintuitive, but it seems that there is -less- geographical diversity on CT than I would’ve thought. I mean, I knew there were readers in Singapore, Egypt, Israel.. I just didn’t know those were going to be the -only places- not in the US or Western Europe.
abb1 10.26.05 at 8:57 am
Neil, if you zoom-out the map you’ll see Singapore, Egypt and Israel.
Eszter 10.26.05 at 8:59 am
Neil – Only a small percentage of our readers are putting their locations on the map and it may not be randomly distributed. I suspect that people with low connectivity speeds are going to be much less likely to bother or it may take too long even if they try. Connectivity quality may not be randomly distributed among our readers so that could be one factor influencing who is showing up on the map and who isn’t. Point being, I wouldn’t try to generalize too much from the map pegs to our readers.
abb1 10.26.05 at 8:59 am
And more.
neil 10.26.05 at 9:01 am
I saw Singapore, Egypt and Israel. I expected _more_, that’s all.
Jeremy Osner 10.26.05 at 9:07 am
Singapore, Egypt and Israel
And don’t forget Saskatchewan!
chris y 10.26.05 at 10:32 am
Hope you keep this in a sidebar or something for posterity. It’s fun.
abb1 10.26.05 at 11:48 am
Well, obviously this place is anglophonic-centric, just because of the language. I’m actually surprised that continental Europe is represented so well.
What’s with all those markers in Netherlands? Is this blog especially funny when you’re stoned or something? I should try it some time.
Slocum 10.26.05 at 12:36 pm
Well, obviously this place is anglophonic-centric, just because of the language. I’m actually surprised that continental Europe is represented so well.
I thought the educated classes in continental Europe were partly absorbed into the anglosphere some time ago. Can you still be an academic in Europe without being competent in English?
Curious, though, that there’s not a single pin stuck in India.
ogmb 10.26.05 at 1:47 pm
Man, what an East Coast bias.
Isabel 10.26.05 at 3:55 pm
“I thought the educated classes in continental Europe were partly absorbed into the anglosphere some time ago. Can you still be an academic in Europe without being competent in English?”
Say that to the French educated classes. And maybe even the German ones.
Jussi 10.26.05 at 4:25 pm
“Say that to the French educated classes. And maybe even the German ones”
Say it to any of us
Martin 10.26.05 at 4:29 pm
The map projection is weird (seems to be the old Mercator projection). The Scandinavian countries, Canada and Alaska look enormous, not to mention Siberia and Greenland…
Jussi 10.26.05 at 4:41 pm
“Canada and Alaska look enormous, not to mention Siberia and Greenland…”
Well, they ARE enormous, Martin :-)
luci phyrr 10.26.05 at 4:58 pm
Thing seems buggy. After you zoom in on your location, and then wanna see who lives near you (Bay area) when you click on their bubble the map skips to some random location. Hmmm….
Slocum 10.27.05 at 6:43 am
“I thought the educated classes in continental Europe were partly absorbed into the anglosphere some time ago. Can you still be an academic in Europe without being competent in English?â€
Say that to the French educated classes. And maybe even the German ones.
I say that because I have a good friend who’s been an academic in Europe for many years (now in France). My sense from him is that you really cannot be an academic (in the sciences at least) without competence in English. Is that incorrect?
harry b 10.27.05 at 7:49 am
My sense is that, yes, you can be an academic without English. English helps, and *scientific* English is easy to pick up (any given discipline uses a relatively small, specialised, vocabulary). My aural French is good enough to understand 5-year-olds and Economists, but that’s about it…
But you might also note that some things are true, and known to be be true by the people who deny them, even as they deny them in order to express their irritation….
Isabel 10.27.05 at 8:44 am
When I was a researcher (in molecular biology, a field where virtually all the important publications are in English) I’ve met many people that mastered the technical language so that they could read text books etc, and publish (with heavy revising by a native speaker), in English, without really knowing the language. I even remember a Polish lady learning her presentation in a conference by heart… and praying that she wouldn’t get any questions! This was true in an important French research institution, but not totally unknown in, say, Portuguese research institutions.
Granted, this was some 20 years ago, and since then, French as an international language lost a lot to English, as I can see in my current job as a translator in a international organization. Still, I don’t think those people, or their younger and more anglo-proficient counterparts, would be able to read CT, or have that kind of curiosity. I’ve read somewhere that the internets are having the opposite effect that one would imagine: the proportion of English sites to non English sites is shrinking, and the number of non-English blogs is explosing. I think it is probably difficult to appreciate the resillience and importance of cultural and linguistic diversity when seen from an anglo-saxon, and even more, american point of view. But my theory is that this “globalization” is just a thin venner on top of very strong cultural diversities, and I’m convinced that the pervasiveness of (more or less pidgin) English, a language notoriously difficult to master in depth but very easy to use at a basic level as lingua franca, does not really correspond to the deep cultural knowledge that people expect. Which results in a lot of misunderstood misunderstandings.
John Quiggin 10.27.05 at 5:20 pm
In my subfield, which is dominated by Europeans and Israelis, it would be impossible to function without passable English. The conferences are all in English, both the formal sessions and the informal events.
However, this isn’t always an asset for soi-disant Anglophones. I have a strong Australian accent and before one presentation, the chair said “I remind Professor Quiggin that the official language of this conference is English”.
Ehud 10.28.05 at 7:47 am
Look at the geographical distribution of readers in the US. Red state-Blue state, anyone?
Kathryn Cramer 10.28.05 at 7:56 am
Any way to automate this so visitors get added by IP #s?
Kieran Healy 10.28.05 at 8:10 am
Red state-Blue state, anyone
I think you’re seeing a population effect.
Ehud 10.28.05 at 8:16 am
Kieranת I hope you are right (as in “not wrong”)…
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