Atlas Goes to Spring Training
Yesterday was a big day here in the Boston area: The Red Sox equipment truck left Fenway Park for Ft Myers, FL. Major League Baseball’s spring training season starts in three days, and Boston is ready.
Boston.com is all over this story, and we’re happy to report that Atlas is a part of their coverage. On Sunday they launched their Red Sox Fan’s Guide to Ft. Myers with a series of Atlas maps.
The package takes advantage of a number of new Atlas features, including photo uploading and Google Local Search integration. Fans can plot photos on a satellite image of City of Palms Park and annotate maps with watering holes and eating establishments they’ve found via Google Local.
This package is mostly about fun. Every year the Red Sox manage to turn a city of sober doctors and academics into a nation of zealous baseball addicts. Spring Training marks the beginning of that process.
But there’s something else going on here: Boston.com’s community of readers now has the power to describe a geographic area that they care about. Cities and neighborhoods are rich places that aren’t reflected in simple lists of businesses and events. Communities are composed of thousands of individual pictures, stories and bits of information.
We have tons of work left do, but we think that by helping Boston.com open up the gates and invite Red Sox fans to describe Ft. Meyers as they see it, we’ve come closer to describing that city’s real vitality and depth.
Finally, the best thing about this project: it was built with Atlas. That means other publishers can create something similar without too much work. If you’re interested, try it out on your own at www.fmatlas.com, or contact me. I’m happy to help.
