It wasn’t long ago that Google Maps introduced their panoramic Street View that allows users to see in all directions and navigate select cities from a first person perspective. A new company is already upping the ante and taking street view indoors. Starting with Boston, New York, Miami, and Aspen, EveryScape is making the mapping process a collaborative effort. They are enrolling the public to start contributing “scapes” and have developed a four tiered system distinguishing the different roles. The lowest level are Graffiti Artists, they are only able to enhance scapes by embedding links and content like web sites, photos, videos, reviews and commentary into pre-existing scapes. Amateur and Master Artists must first receive online training on how to create 3-D images before uploading images and masters must have prior photography experience and an understanding of photographic principles like composition, lighting, staging, etc., and more sophisticated equipment. At the top of the heap are the Commercial Artists, these guys receive 2-3 days training and actually get paid to drive around and capture “scapes.”
Besides the whole collaborative thing, whats really cool is how users can access the insides of restaurants, hotels, stores, and landmarks on their virtual tours. People can wonder around the inside of Guggenheim or take a look at FAO Schwartz and access reviews and addition information about those locations. Not surprisingly, with the ability to pin point exactly what people are interested in, EveryScape are also selling advertising space specific to each location.
This could turn out to be what every brand and marketer who built an elaborate set up in SecondLife actually wanted.
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