Death by statistics

There's a very interesting BBC News site, sensationally entitled Crash: Death on Britain's roads. It's a mashup of Department of Transport road traffic accident fatalities plus Google Maps. The statistics make for sobering reading.

This was my vision of Web 2.whatever -- vast amounts of data overlayed in numerous ways, with the ability to mix-and-pick the data and the delivery. Imagine health statistics in the same light: mapping out the nation's ailments for all to see. Or utilities data: being able to see the network of energy, water and waste street by street.

A few years ago I remember seeing a Time Travel Map. No, not in a Dr Who way. This was an actual map of how much time it took you to travel from one place another. The longer the time, the greater the distance on the map. It was interesting, because it was a relative map, and depended where you were travelling from and too. London I remember looked like a great black hole, sucking in the provinces along railway lines and motorways.

Oh yes, and happy new year!