Released on: March 11, 2008, 12:05 pm

Press Release Author: Platial

Industry: Computers

Press Release Summary: Platial announces the winners of its 2007 Map Awards Contest

Press Release Body: Portland, OR -March 12, 2008- Platial today announced the
results of an intensive social map awards competition. Platial, which acquired
Frappr in October, is the leader in social mapping with more than 26MM unique users
per month and 150MM user-generated location-based information points including
photos, videos, reviews, stories, and people.

Platial's CEO Di-Ann Eisnor says, "When you get to spend a week (or several) focused
just on the content to be found on Platial, you realize how much depth is there.
Last year, Baostar won our Mapper of The Year award because he inspired us to see
mapmaking in a new way. He took neogeography and created a new way to share the
world around him. He illustrated a new genre called Mapumentary and it defined
Platial in 2006. While mapumentarists continue to inspire us, this year we realized
Platial was defined by something different, more collaborative, more active, more
urgent---Movement Mapping.\"

This year, most of the 26 winners have offered a very generous resource to their
community or the world at large. They are movement makers, using online and social
tools to do important work and spread critical messages, making it easier for people
to make life-changing decisions. There are guides to buying local food, guides to
avoiding waste, guides to downshifting, local citizen journalism, and global justice
issues.

Map of the year, Gentilly, was created by a group of Berkeley students who, through
citizen journalism, are overseeing reconstruction efforts in New Orleans post
Katrina. Mapper of the year was very difficult. There are so many people creating
important geographic works and who have taken a very deep investment in their
projects. Palo Alto History has won that award. Palo Alto History, whose roots in
mapping come from a desire to educate, has created the best Local History resource
we\'ve seen.

\"Platial is a better service to every single visitor with these folks mapping here.
They are using community mapping in ways that have never before been possible. We\'re
thrilled to be a part of all these new movements that are literally reshaping our
new world, a single world united through action instead of boundary. That\'s why we
started Platial. Being part of these movements and a resource for community action
is what we hoped we could do. We see maps as an important and pervasive tool. Thank
you to all the movement makers who are using social maps and using Platial. Some of
our favorites are Frappr\'s downshifting, Platial\'s Glean the planet, and New England
Grown but on our official awards page (www.platial.com/mapawards/2007) you\'ll find
there are a lot more winners out there,\" concluded Di-Ann Eisnor.


About Platial
Platial (www.platial.com) is a free online mapping resource where people around the
world every day share and discover all kinds of places. Anyone can map just about
anything including their towns, lives, travels, feeds, files, photos, video, and
stories in one simple interface.

Platial has been featured in Wired, NYTimes, All Things Considered, National
Geographic Online and numerous blogs. The company is financed by KeyNote Ventures,
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Omidyar Network, Ram Shriram, Georges Harik, Jack
Dangermon, and Ron Conway among others.

About Frappr!
Frappr! is the Web\'s best social mapper. We help turn your ordinary Web pages into
interactive, fun, and engaging destinations. Frappr! was launched in 2005 by Kun,
James and Brian, three friends from UC Berkeley and USC who wanted to keep track of
their friends\' whereabouts after college. More than 4 million Frappr! Maps have
been created so far.

Frappr! Maps give Web site owners and visitors an easy and unique way to visualize
and interact with each other. Visitors can add their name, photo and message
directly on a Web page embedded with Frappr! Maps, and the Web site owner gets
real-time stats on where visitors are coming from and how often they visit. Frappr!
Maps is free and can be embedded on any Web page, blog, or online community that
supports flash embeds, including MySpace, Friendster, Xanga, and Hi5.

Web Site: http://platial.com/mapawards/2007

Contact Details: Contact: Scott Kraft
Phone: 415-238-8304
Email: news@gadfly.com