I stumbled across VisitSwedens implementation of a Google Maps mashup. They recently launched a new service called Interactive map of Sweden, where one may:
”Buzz over the ski resort at Swedish Lapland in the far north, take in Stockholm, the capital city, or why not glide down to Malmö and find our whats happening in the south of the country.”
VisitSwedens’s web site is based on a CMS from Episerver, and according to a description of this customer case (in Swedish) they pull data from the Episerver server, mash it up with Google Maps, and presents the result integrated on VisitSweden.com. As far as I can judge right now there are only 21 ”happenings” in Sweden (on the map). Filling the server with resorts, sights, events, and so forth take a lot of resources. And VisitSweden’s staff have of course other important things to do. Furthermore, experience tells that many actors in the tourism industry are reluctant to cooperation. In this case it would probably take a lot of efforts to have VisitSwedens partners fill the map with spots.
On the VisitSweden Development Blog Tommy Sollén Sillén happily write in July that User content is the must trusted online source. Earlier he noted that Google Maps Mania promoted the Interactive Map as How to use Google Maps as a tourist agency. Still, it seems that VisitSweden is not going all the way, that is letting (potential) visitors populate the Interactive map. Perhaps their Online Community project (still under development) will provide a path in this direction.
Meanwhile, as an example, in July I went on a day cruise boat trip in the Stockholm archipelago together with four fine friends. Would it be valuable if VisitSweden had let me pin an entry about this on their map? Or from a selected few of those wonderful Swedish experiences I have had during my most recent vacation? Even more re-thinking: make a deal with customer generated conted services like Resdagboken. In short, let more mashes make Sweden.