WRITTEN ON September 25th, 2006 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Online Maps, What do we want?
Marvellous Google maps mania remains the place to find great maps mashups. They point to this terrific NSPCC campaign which maps support for action to prevent cruelty to children. It has differernt green baloons for regions, childline type servies, and individuals. You can locate various celebrities and see their message of support. It’s kinda fun, like a map-based Pledebank.
It brings back an uncomfortable memory of being awoken this summer by quiet, insistent, worrying sounds from the holiday cottage next door, which my partner lying awake beside me also found sinister. What to do? The local Quakers were helpful, pointed me towards the social services 24-hour helpline. I tried to speak to the landlord of the cottage. It had to be a complaint to the police, which I didnt quite feel up to, so I did nothing more. But if I’d signed up to this NSPCC map I’d have had a phone number, and the moral support of my good mates Carl Fogarty, Johnny Wilkinson and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
That was perhaps the hardest “active citizen” choice I’ve faced this year. You don’t want to be compicit in the torching of a paediatrician’s home. But if the sound that child was making wasn’t a cry for help, I don’t know what was.
Anyway, join up here and we’ll all know what to do next time, if there is one (heaven forbid).
3 Responses to “NSPCC “Be the full stop” maps mashup”
Why not link it to the Children’s Index and have a map of (poor) children who are actually abused.
Of course they would use it as evidence lol, its very old and its an unidentified flying object!Holiday cottages scotland We close the curtains because it’s easier to make fun of others when they can’t see you doing it.
An awful dilemma: We have holiday cottages with facilities for disabled people. Occasionally, “carers” book and bring their “charges” for a holiday. Very occasionally, there are alarming sounds. Fortunately, the cottages are widely spaced so seldom disturb other guests.
We see something of the complexity of modern family life: Children meeting their estranged parents only on holiday, not always cheerfully, etc.