Here's one for any map-lovers among our readers: the new Rumsey Maps islands in Second Life offer a treasure-trove of historical maps, drawn from the private collection of David Rumsey. And the way they've been transferred to the virtual world is innovative.
For example, there’s a fly-through topographic model of Yosemite Valley in 1882, as well as a suitably mind-blowing collection of celestial spheres, representing how people in the 18th century saw the heavens. In other words, Rumsey’s collection hasn’t just been chucked into Second Life as flat bitmaps. He certainly seems keen:
“Virtual worlds are the logical next step for my collection. I’ve digitized over 17,000 maps at full resolution, which I am providing free for use on my site, and my maps have been featured as layers in both Google Earth and Google Sky. Using a virtual world allows me to create new ways of experiencing these maps in avatarized form and at unprecedented scale, for both learning and entertainment.”
With ongoing speculation that Google might take on Second Life by launching a virtual world based on Google Earth, it’s interesting to see the competition working vice versa. The Rumsey Islands also have a bunch of freebies for visitors, including interactive multi-zooming map viewers, static maps, globes and other mapping tools.
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