A few years back, my friend's dad asked me to show him my mom's house on the map. I knew we didn't have Street View in Zimbabwe yet, but I looked anyway, and of course, we couldn't find it. When you look at most mapping platforms, you will find that parts of the African continent are largely missing. And I've wondered: Is it the people? Is it the technology? Or is it the terrain? For nearly a billion people on the continent, it's an accepted reality that certain technologies are just not built for us.
几年前, 我朋友的父亲让我在地图上 给他看看我母亲的房子。 我知道津巴布韦还没有街景地图, 但是我还是找了找, 我们当然没找到。 如果你去看大部分的地图平台, 你会发现非洲大陆 大面积缺失。 我就想: 是因为人吗? 是因为科技吗? 还是地形? 非洲大陆上有将近十亿人, 有些科技不是为我们而生, 已经成为我们普遍的认知。
When Cyclone Idai flattened parts of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi in 2019, killing 1,300 people and displacing hundreds of thousands of others, it left more than just destruction. It left a new awareness of the consequences of omission in the way we build technology. As rescue workers arrived in the region in search of survivors, we learned that thousands of displaced people were in unmapped areas, making it difficult to reach them with much-needed food and medical supplies. There was no accurate accounting of what had been lost. For those in unmapped areas, a natural disaster often means no one will come to find you.
当气旋“伊代”在 2019 年扫平了莫桑比克、 津巴布韦、马拉维的多处, 造成 1300 人死亡, 迫使成千上万的人背井离乡时, 它留下的不只是破坏。 它警示了我们忽视 科技建设方式的后果。 救援人员到达受灾地 寻找幸存者时, 我们发现几千名流离失所的人 在没有采集地图的地区, 让急需的食物和医疗物资 难以到他们的手中。 无法精确计算失去了什么。 在这些没有绘制地图的地区, 一场自然灾害就意味着 没人能来救你。
Thankfully, as the tools used to build some of the maps we use today become more easily accessible, we can be part of the solution. Anyone with a computer or a cell phone can play a role in improving the representation of communities that are missing accurate maps.
好在如今我们制作地图的工具 已经变得更容易获取。 我们可以是解决办法的一环。 每个有电脑或者手机的人 都可以帮助标注 精密地图上缺失的社区。
In two weeks, I photographed 2,000 miles of Zimbabwe, and with every single mile I captured, I got closer to an answer and a better sense of what it means to not be on the map. As I started to prepare for my mapping journey, I learned that while many of the maps we use today are built on proprietary technology, the pieces that make up that canvas often have open-source origins. I could combine those pieces with off-the-shelf products to build maps that are accessible on both commercial and open-source platforms.
就在两周里, 我拍摄了津巴布韦 两千英里的图景, 我拍摄每一英里, 都更能体会到 没被地图标注意味着什么。 我开始准备我的制图之旅时, 我发现虽然很多我们现在用的地图 是基于专有技术, 但是很多部分都始于开源。 我可以把这些部分 和现成产品融合, 做成可以从商用或开源的平台上 容易获取的地图。
I started with a very rudimentary setup: a 360-degree action camera stuck outside the window of my brother's car. After capturing a few dozen miles of city streets, I borrowed a proper camera from the Street View camera loan program, allowing me to capture high-resolution imagery, complete with location, speed and other vital layers of data. I adapted that camera to sit on a backpack I could carry, and with the help of a few more contraptions, we were able to mount it to the dash of a helicopter, the bow of a speedboat and the hood of an all-terrain vehicle. My journey started at Victoria Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, and then I headed east to the 11th-century city of Great Zimbabwe, before retracing my footprints home, finally putting my hometown on the map. And yet, much of the region remains all but invisible on some of the most widely used mapping platforms.
我最初的设置非常的基础: 在我兄弟的车窗外贴了一个 360 度的运动相机。 拍了几百英里街景之后, 我从街景相机租赁计划 借了一台合适的相机, 让我可以拍摄高分辨率的图像, 而且包含位置、 速度和其他关键数据。 我改装了这台相机, 装在我的背包上, 再加上一些别的装置, 就能装在直升机的仪表盘上、 快艇的船头上、 越野车的顶盖上。 我从维多利亚瀑布启程, 它是世界七大自然奇迹之一, 然后向东 前往来自 11 世纪的 大津巴布韦城遗址。 在我回家之前, 终于把我的家乡标注在了地图上。 但是,还有很多地区 在各大地图平台上 依旧不为人所知。
Beyond navigation, maps are a proxy for what we care about. They tell us about the quality of the air we breathe, the potential for renewable energy solutions and the safety of our streets. These lines retrace the journeys we've taken. In a sense, maps are a form of storytelling. When you look at the state of mapping on the African continent today, you'll find a patchwork of coverage, often driven by humanitarian need in the wake of natural disasters, rather than by deliberate and sustained efforts to build out digital infrastructure and improve overall service delivery. What the continent is lacking are maps that tell the story of how people live, work and spend time, illuminating environmental and social issues.
除了导航, 地图还传达了 很多我们关心的事物。 它告诉我们空气质量、 可再生能源的可能性、 街道的安全。 这些线条记录了我们的旅程。 某种程度上, 地图是一种讲故事的方式。 如果你去看非洲大陆 现在绘制地图的状态, 你会发现覆盖区域拼凑的痕迹, 经常是由自然灾害引发的 人道主义需求导致, 而不是 为了建设数字基建 和改善总体民众服务 而做的有计划的、持续的努力。 这片大陆缺少的是 讲述人们如何生活、 如何工作、 如何消磨时间的地图, 体现环境和社会问题。
With more than 600 million cell phones in the hands of people between Cape Town and Cairo and centers of innovation in the cities in between, this is achievable. Every single one of those devices, in the hands of a contributor to an open-source mapping platform, becomes a powerful source of imagery that forms a vital layer of data on maps.
用开普敦和开罗之间 超过 6 亿人的手机 和在此之间城市的创新中心, 我们能做到。 每一个设备 都可以让人们为 开源地图平台做出贡献, 它会成为图像丰富的来源, 形成地图的重要数据层。
With virtual maps, mapping is no longer just about cartography. It's become a way to preserve places that are undergoing constant and sometimes dramatic change. High-resolution imagery turns maps into a living canvas on which we can instantly experience the rhythm and visual iconography of a city, often from thousands of miles away. City planners are able to measure traffic density or pick out problem intersections, and in the case of Northern Ontario, where I mapped ice roads in partnership with the local government, you can now explore 500 miles of winter roads along the western edge of the James Bay. Every winter, after 10 days of minus 20-degree temperatures, engineers begin the work to build the road of the season. These roads only exist for 90 days, connecting communities across hundreds of miles of frozen tundra. Being on the winter roads of Northern Ontario after mapping parts of Namibia, one of the warmest places on the planet, exposed me to the many ways in which communities are using maps to understand the pace and impact of changes in the environment.
有了这些虚拟地图, 制图不仅是制图学的事情。 它变成了一种保存 长年累月经历风云巨变的 地区的方式。 高分辨率图像让地图 变成了一张动态画布, 我们可以在上面瞬间感受到 城市的律动和视觉体验, 这座城可以来自千里之外。 城市规划师们可以测量交通密度, 找出出问题的路口, 在北安大略省的例子中, 我和当地政府合作,绘制冰路。 你现在可以探索詹姆斯湾 西岸沿线 500 英里的冰路。 每年冬天,零下 20 度 持续 10 天之后, 工程师们就开始建设冰路。 这些路只会保留 90 天, 连接几百英里冻土带上的社区。 在绘制了纳米比亚—— 世界上最热的地方之一之后, 行驶在北安大略的冰路上, 我看见了社区 使用地图的不同方式, 去掌握环境变化的速度和影响。
So after mapping 3,000 miles in Zimbabwe, Namibia and Northern Ontario and publishing nearly half a million images to Street View, reaching more than 26 million people on Maps, I know it's not the technology, it's not the people, and it's clearly not the terrain. Every other day, I hear from scientists who are using maps to understand how our built environment influences health outcomes, teachers using virtual reality in the classroom and humanitarian workers using maps to protect the vulnerable. A dad wrote to me to say he'd finally been able to show his girls the house in which he grew up and the hospital in which he was born, in Harare. Think about the last time you gave directions to a stranger. When we contribute to connected maps, we're giving directions to millions. And that stranger may be the occasional tourist, a researcher, a first responder, a rescue worker working in unfamiliar terrain.
所以在绘制了津巴布韦、纳米比亚 和北安大略的 3000 英里, 发布了将近 50 万张街景图像, 通过地图接触到了 超过 2600 万人之后, 我发现这不是因为科技。 这不是因为人, 也显然不是因为地形。 每隔一天, 我听到科学家利用地图 理解我们现有的环境 如何影响健康, 教师在教室利用虚拟现实技术, 人道主义工作者 用地图保护弱小的人。 一位父亲给我写信说, 他终于可以给他的女儿们 展示他长大的房子, 和他出生的医院,位于哈拉雷。 想一想上次你给陌生人 指路是什么时候。 我们给互联地图做贡献的时候, 是在给上百万的人指路。 那个陌生人可能是一个游客, 一个学者, 一个第一响应者, 一个在不熟悉环境下 工作的急救人员。
As we begin to think about how to bridge the digital divide, we should go beyond the traditional narrative of data extraction and consumption and think more critically about the role you and I play in the creation of the technologies and tools we use every day. The goal is not to map every inch of the planet, but to spare a moment to think about where those tools are most needed, the consequences of our mission and the role you and I can play in filling those gaps and building a more connected world together.
当我们思考如何弥合数字鸿沟时, 应该超越传统的 数据提取和使用的形式, 多思考我和你能在 创造日常科技和 工具中饰演的角色。 我们的目标不是 丈量地球的每一寸, 而是花点时间思考最需要 这些工具的地方、 我们的使命会带来的结果, 和我与你在填补这些空缺 和一起建设更加互联的世界中 所扮演的角色。
Thank you.
谢谢。