Encinitas.
Thanks to going to do research with Mark, I’ve got a whole new idea brewing. It’s nothing someone hasn’t thought of before, but based on a quick web search it’s something that’s not well implemented — if at all.
The initial seed is historical address information. What was at what address, listed back through time. Mark is concerned with pollution sources; other people might be interested in many other views.
Sources of this information? Currently his info comes from old paper reverse address directories — Polk’s and Frye & Smith, for example — and old telephone directories. He also uses a number of commercial sources; and maps, and business permits.
What if all these things could be gathered and automatically combined? The obvious candidate would be Google. Google once said “we want to organize all the world’s information” and this would be a good start.
One thing I’ve wondered is why Google Earth doesn’t provide better information on the dates of its photos — maybe there’s a way to find out that I’m not aware of.
One small way to start would be to go through the information and catalog all the dry cleaners in the historical books available for California. Top of my head estimate: about one man-year of cataloging, with a max of about six researchers working for about two months. Building permits and business licenses would be a lot more effective, but would require working with local governments.
For the directories, there would have to be a whole public division for processing copyrights and if necessary buying the digital rights.