Where are you on the world chess board map?
I have been working on a new version of Flightmapping for a while, and let’s just say that some of our maps are going to be a little bit different to the norm. However, I can’t keep everything under wraps forever, and I need to get some feedback from potential users, so here is a quick taster.
Imagine the whole world as a chessboard, with the most important cities represented at the intersection of each square. Our chessboard map does feature cities from A-Z, but in terms of reaching the corners of the earth, we tried to do A,B, C and D, but we found that only A and D worked. So we’re giving you Anchorage in Alaska (a1) and Dunedin in New Zealand (i9), for starters.
Of course, any map like this is going to be contentious — why have we included x, but excluded y or z? All I can say is that the process has been part scientific and part random, but I hope that I can stimulate some good old-fashioned debate before bringing this map to life on Flightmapping.com — something we plan to do early next year.
This map is also something of a teaser — if anyone wants to have a go, I’ll e-mail over the first letter, or the IATA airport code for each city, but as it is my dad’s 75th birthday today, I hope that he’ll be able to complete it without any help. He might still be teaching medical students and running triathlons on sunny Nevis, but he has always been a passionate yachtsman and Geographer as well. As well as having a distinguished medical career, dad is also a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, so I have every faith that he will be able to e-mail his version of the map by the end of the weekend.
Why a chessboard?
Well, I’ve never been a sporting type, but I was captain of the school chess team, and if you’ll excuse my being corny, the notion of “check” hails back to the Czech Republic, and my granny was born in Prague. Chess might be a game of war, but I hope this map is much more of a peaceful exercise. Most of the places on the map are attractive to visit for one reason or another, but there are one or two on their which have historical significance for less than pleasant reasons.
Around the World in 80 Dots
A chessboard has 8 x 8 squares, which gives 64; and 9 x 9 lines, which would give 81 cities. I have decided to leave the centre point blank, as this roughly corresponds to the Holy land, or the great Pyramid at Giza in Cairo, which is the only ancient wonder of the world to have survived to the present day. I think this map should be provocative enough as it is without starting any religious wars! Phileas Fogg might have gone around the world in 80 days, so you are now invited to go around the chessboard in 80 dots.
The reasons for inclusion of each city vary across the world, but 8 factors include:
• Prominent architectural or natural landmarks.
• Tourist attractions.
• Transport hubs, including major international airports, rail hubs, and ports.
• Prominent sporting teams or venues.
• Cultural activities, including concert venues, birthplaces of composers or hotbeds of musical talent, artists etc.
• High standards of living.
• Major financial centres, including corporate headquarters, banks and stock markets.
• Large centres of population.
Based on an original idea and Copyright (C) 2008 James Avery
[...] World Chess Board Map And now for something completely different. Flightmapping invites you to imagine the world as a chess board, and take yourself around it in 80 dots: We’ve got you started with Anchorage (top left) and Dunedin (bottom right). For further clues, drop me an email or comment on the blog: World Chess Board Map __________________ James Avery Founder - Flightmapping.com. http://www.flightmapping.com/ [...]
Pingback by World Chess Board Map - Affiliate Marketing — November 26, 2008 @ 10:03 pm
[...] I’ve never really done Christmas Cards in a big way before, but I promise that Flightmapping’s 2008 cards will be a much cherished item in years to come - they are limited to an edition of just 100, and based on the World Chessboard Map concept mentioned in my earlier post. I still think most people don’t quite understand it yet, but that is because, for once, I have produced something that is just TOO SIMPLE - and everyone is expecting something from me to be complicated (AVril LavignE ringing in ears). [...]
Pingback by » You might be on my Christmas Card List, but I still need a postal address — December 9, 2008 @ 12:28 am
[...] To me, thinking inside the box is a simple case of having an objective, and then defining the boundaries which are relevant for reaching that objective. For example, the Chess Board Map I posted a couple of weeks ago might not make that much sense as a blog post, but it is very easy to explain in front of someone. I said I’d give it to my dad and let him work it out over the weekend. He’s back for the Christmas holiday now, and he worked out the first 20 or so cities in about 10 minutes. He did so, because it made sense to him. Likewise, the map was a lively discussion point with a fellow travel website owner at a Christmas party last week, because again, he thinks visually too. [...]
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[...] Earlier on this evening, I posted out my last batch of Christmas cards, leaving just a few local ones for the morning. Then I get a Swiss Cottage (London) address for a friend from Hong Kong. The idea of the CBM (Chess Board Map) concept is that simple links between places can be drawn on a text file map which can be printed out rapidly on one sheet of A4 paper. The links don’t have to be geographical - the more lateral (INSIDE the box) the connection, the better - as long as it makes sense to the end user. [...]
Pingback by » Mapping Victoria around the world — December 24, 2008 @ 4:33 am