Iran plans 'Islamic Google Earth'

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

The Iranian authorities have long accused Google Earth of being a tool for western spy agencies, but now they have taken their attacks on the 3D mapping service one step further – by planning the launch of an "Islamic" competitor.

Iran's minister for information and communications technology, Mohammad Hassan Nami, announced this week that his country was developing what he described as an "Islamic Google Earth" to be called Basir (spectator in Farsi) which will be ready for use "within the next four months".

"Preparations have been made for launching our world's 3D map project and we are currently creating an appropriate data centre which could be capable of processing this volume of information," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Nami as saying on Tuesday.

Nami, a former deputy chairman of Iran's joint chiefs of staff and the armed forces, was appointed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the new technology minister in February. Nami, who studied political geography in Iran, is also a PhD graduate in "country management" from North Korea's Kim Il-sung University, according to local media.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/10/iran-plans-islamic-google-earth

[cstanleytech]

1. Yes of course the western nations decided posting satellite images

online would be the perfect spy tool

[Coyotl]

4. Use your imagination a bit more and some other possibilities may come to mind

Do you write KML? Other code? Why do they use so many decimal places to encode a coordinate that lacks that resolution? What encrypted information is being written into those file exchanges? What is hiding in plain sight?

[cstanleytech]

9. Or

Was there a shooter on the hill? Did a aliens crash at roswell? Did Hitler survive WW2? Does Elvis live?
They are all equally as plausible after all as the ones you listed.

[Coyotl]

12. "Did a aliens crash at roswell?"

Yeah, if you say say.

[leftyohiolib]

2. what will they say when they find the two maps show the same thing?

[randome]

6. They won't.

The center of the North American continent will be labelled: "The Great Satan".

[madrchsod]

3. dam i thought this was from the onion...

[Hugabear]

5. I'm looking forward to the Evangelical Google Earth

You know, the one that's just flat.

[NoGOPZone]

8. That should take only six days to complete nt

[Xithras]

7. Actually, this could be kind of interesting.

Google has made no secret of the fact that many sites in Google Earth are digitally altered or manipulated. Huge chunks of Tel Aviv, for example, are digitally redrawn to hide various government buildings and facilities. Most of the military sites in India are also altered by either being erased entirely, or altered to hide their real size or purpose. There are hundreds of other sites around the world that are similarly altered at the request of various foreign governments, or which are simply "fuzzed" to obscure the details about the site.

Google was largely forced into this by various countries under the threat of being prosecuted, or at least blocked, by their governments. Their transparency site lists the alteration requests, but it's not possible to see the original satellite imagery.

I would assume that Spectator will have no such limitations. This could actually be useful for a lot of people around the world.

[cstanleytech]

11. If the images were realtime live updates I could honestly understand somewhat why

some of the governments might not want them to be to clear due to the real risk of terrorists using the intel to plan an attack.

[Ash_F]

16. They are not though.

A lot of the images are quite out of date(months/years). Maybe some governments have more up to date images, but they don't end up on Google.

[cstanleytech]

17. Yes I am well aware of that which is why some of it does not imo

make much sense.

[Ash_F]

20. I don't think it is meant to make sense

The government puts up these 'feel good' projects to pander to nationalist pride. They do this to draw people's attention away from their social and economic needs, which the right wingers in power have either oppressed or ignored. The nuclear program, the fighter jet, this project and several others can be viewed through this lens. Sadly, enough citizens don't question it much so the government doesn't have to try too hard to convince them. They just get to keep wasting precious resources and effort on boondoggles.

Of course, the US does all these things plus has been bombing third world countries almost continuously for 60 years. And it seems like the government here doesn't need to try too hard to convince its citizens either.

[Posteritatis]

10. I actually find this interesting

Both on a technical level and because I've been getting an interest in the lenses through which different cultures would view things like this.

Got maps on the mind a lot lately, fiddling with the larval stages of an historical mapping one flowing out of stuff I've been doing for work.

(I also find the idea of a country management program from a North Korean university interesting, though that's on a straight-up comedic level.)

[Heywood J]

13. "Nami, who studied political geography in Iran, is also a PhD graduate in "country management" from

North Korea's Kim Il-sung University, according to local media."

[grantcart]

14. Because Kennedy-Western University didn't have space.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy-Western_University

You almost have to wonder if the Iranian reporter wasn't having some fun with that line.

[Pterodactyl]

15. I'll bet the street view will auto-blur all the women's faces!

Kidding! Just kidding!

[Enrique]

18. it sounded ridiculous to me

but on reading the article there is nothing inherently ridiculous about it.

[ripcord]

19. I know I'm dating myself

I can't help but think of the map of Siam in The King and I

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