So, we have the picture of the team, we have some of us post our funny and not-so-funny experiences, and we have a couple of posts on story-telling. But why, you ask, are we solving a solved problem? Why does the world, and specifically India, need an other mapping site, when you have Yahoo! and Google do a really neat job with their satellite + street maps? Do we want to be another GMaps-wannabe?
As you know, the answer is a resounding NO. Virtual India is a platform for many things. One is to showcase (showoff?) Microsoft technologies – not just Virtual Earth, but also MSRI’s own multi-lingual capabilities, and our strengths in different forms of digital geography. But primarily, we believe as a team, that the final word in maps has not been heard. We believe that the potential of a digital map as a platform for narratives, as a platform for collaboration, and as a platform for learning, has still remained in its promise. We hope that through this endeavour, we end up exploiting a little more of this potential.
