The discovery of Machu Picchu

This Sunday, July 24, Peru is celerating the 100th anniversary of the Discovery of Machu Picchu, the Inca city declared one of the new seven wonders of the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The site was beautifully modeled in 3D by Peter Olsen.

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To go along with the awesome 3D model, there are a variety of other sites that show off the area in amazing 3D. While this site is in Romanian, you can work your way through it using the arrows at the bottom of the screen and clicking on various parts of the complex.

More impressive is the Quest3D model of the site, though you need to install a special program to make it work which will probably turn quite a few people off.

Ultimately, Peter’s Google Earth model is still the best way to see how amazing Machu Picchu really is. You can fly to it using this KML file, or watch the video below for a quick look at what Peter constructed.

Google Earth: The Harrisburg Capitol Complex

 

As I’ve mentioned on here on GEB a few times, I love high-quality 3D models. I think they add a lot to the Google Earth experience, and I enjoy highlighting users that create awesome models.

In the past we’ve shown you work from people like Andy Dell and companies such as Estate3D and CyberCity3D. Today I want to show you some of the work from Steve Cline of Urban 3D Modeling.

 

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He lives in Harrisburg, PA and built out much of the downtown area in 3D. In his words:

“As a resident of Harrisburg I wanted to show off the beautiful architecture and history of our state capitol complex. All the state government buildings are clustered into a dense complex that is bisected by State Street. The principle entrance from the east is the State Street Bridge which passes through two towering pylons as you enter directly into the Capitol Building and surrounding complex. Most of the complex buildings are a mix of neoclassical design and some art deco influence from the later additions. Of the 15 buildings in this collection my personal favorites are the Keystone Building, Judicial Center, and Forum Building. The only building not done by me was the previously done Capitol Building.”

You can find all of the models in Google earth, and he’s also put them together in a collection in the 3D Warehouse. For a quick look at all he’s done, you can use this KMZ tour to fly around and see it all.

For more on Urban 3D Modeling, you can check out their website, follow them on Twitter or connect with them on Facebook.

OpenSocial Container and Application Developers

Do you work on the implementation of a container or develop applications within existing OpenSocial containers? If so, we’d love to interview you in a new blog post series that will allow developers to showcase the new and innovative things that they are doing with OpenSocial.

We’re especially interested in hearing from the community about:

  • The challenges you’ve experienced while working with the specification and how you overcame them.
  • Are there any technologies or specifications that you’ve integrated with an OpenSocial container or application that you believe married well with the OpenSocial specification?
  • How is OpenSocial being used within enterprise solutions?
  • How is OpenSocial being used on mobile devices?
  • Are there any technical implementations that you thought worked especially well? Code implementations to showcase these integrations are always welcome.
  • Do you have any helpful tips, techniques or snippets that have been useful to you in the past?

Using these “OpenSocial in the wild” posts, we’re hoping to hear more voices from the community and give creators the spotlight. These are the people that are on the front lines, implementing, and hearing from them what works, what failed, and what customers took to as far as features will allow us all to better understand how this technology is being used.

If you would like to be heard, please e-mail me at nakedtechnologist at gmail dot com and tell me, in brief, what you’re doing with OpenSocial. I’ll ask you a series of questions from that initial overview and then feature you in our new “OpenSocial in the wild” blog posts.