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Show HN: I mapped 30k+ paintings around the world

70 points| pzaich | 12 years ago |artnear.me | reply

24 comments

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[+] Doctor_Fegg|12 years ago|reply
That's great. Fun idea and good execution - well done.

Quick note (sorry to be the grouch): you're using OpenStreetMap map data, so you need to give OSM an on-screen credit. Not much to ask for the best source of map data in the world. :) Details: http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright

[+] pzaich|12 years ago|reply
Rails, leaflet.js. I parsed the museum locations from http://www.the-athenaeum.org/. Hoping to add more paintings in the future.
[+] fidotron|12 years ago|reply
That's a great data source. I'd previously tried this with freebase data, but it's nothing like comprehensive enough when it comes down to individual artworks.

Still, nicely done.

[+] a_olt|12 years ago|reply
What about the paintings data? Where do you obtain it from?

EDIT: I see the-athenaeum provides that information as well. Do you have a plan to keep up to date with the changes in locations?

[+] toyg|12 years ago|reply
I wish there was an option to see all artists or all paintings near me. As it is, I have to know in advance what I'm looking for. Nice work anyway.
[+] kyro|12 years ago|reply
I couldn't help but think of The Monuments Men movie that's coming out in February. If you wanted this to get some more publicity, I'm sure you could rebrand/position this in some way to ride that film's wave. Maybe something like "Be a Monument Man, and find art around the world!"
[+] KMBredt|12 years ago|reply
I'm no fan of the idea.

The parsed source is outdated and probably will be forever because it's crowd-sourced and can't keep up with changing exhibitions and lendings of paintings, which is a common thing.

The use case where I check my phone to find a painting or an artist near me also seems far fetched. A better scenario would be to have a map with museums near me and up-to-date information what they currently exhibit. You would need better sources for that.

On the technical side it's quite slow at the moment but the blown up thumbnails (where the Athenaeum also had thumbnails for fair use reasons but in a better quality) were not nice. I would keep them in their original ratio.

I assume that this was probably more an excercise to test-drive some new tech.

[+] jayshahtx|12 years ago|reply
Ouch, can't no respect? Wish people like you would learn a little decency and tact. No need to shit on someone's work
[+] alcari|12 years ago|reply
> I'm no fan of the idea.

It sounds like you're actually not a fan of this implementation, not of the idea of a map of paintings. Would you still be opposed to it if the data was always accurate, the previews were larger, and the site was more responsive?

[+] pzaich|12 years ago|reply
Valid points. There's a lot of hard work that would need to be done to make a really accurate data set. Sorry for the performance issues. The sites a little overwhelmed wih traffic right now.
[+] dlr720|12 years ago|reply
Nice! Didn't know about leaflet.js, and happy I now do! Very fast results BTW.
[+] mertd|12 years ago|reply
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC appears to be a few blocks off.
[+] mshankla|12 years ago|reply
Very Cool! I'm going to fiddle with leaflet this weekend
[+] jesusx|12 years ago|reply
Nice job, put a like and tweet button!
[+] jacob019|12 years ago|reply
just what I need to plan my next heist :-D