Glocalmap.to – social tagging for mobile phones

Glocalmap.to (site currently in Italian only) is a large-scale cultural “social tagging” project that integrates web mapping, thematic tagging and mobile phone messaging, to create a new urban narrative for the city of Turin.

It allows citizens and visitors alike to enrich a detailed satellite map of Turin and its surroundings with thematic text and mms messages of all sorts, sent directly from their mobile phones, thus creating a detailed and easily consultable immaterial narrative that reflects the city’s many levels of vibrant cultural activity.

The project, which is part of the Turin Cultural Olympics, will enter into a testing phase in November 2005, and be fully launched on 1 February 2006, in time for Turin’s Olympic Winter Games.

Building on various experiences of social tagging, including the New Orleans disaster information tool recently developed as an overlay on Google Maps, the Turin project goes several steps further: it focuses on cultural meaning and narrative, rather than just practical information; it uses Italy’s top digital tool – the mobile phone; and it makes all citizens active players and contributors.

The project is developed by the architect/urbanist Maurizio Cilli and the new media expert Carlo Infante, and has meanwhile received support from various authorities and foundations, and from the internationally acclaimed Domus Magazine.

Related: performing media – teatron (both sites in Italian only)