BuddySpace Instant Messenger with Maps

BuddySpace is an instant messenger with four novel twists: (1) it allows optional maps for geographical & office-plan visualizations in addition to standard 'buddy lists'; (2) it is built on open source Jabber, which makes it interoperable with ICQ, MSN, Yahoo and others; (3) it is implemented in Java, so it is cross-platform; (4) it is built by a UK research lab, so it is 100% free with full sources readiily available. But BuddySpace is about more than just 'messaging', as we explain below.

One of the key factors that led to the widespread popularity of Instant Messaging applications from 1997 onwards (including ICQ, AOL, Yahoo!, MSN, Odigo, and Jabber messengers) was the concept of pushed presence: the automatic notification of the appearance of friends and colleagues online. However, Instant Messaging (IM) is just one of many possible presence-related and presence-dependent applications.

Learn More and Download BuddySpace.

I Hope this proves to be useful for you. If you are new to GIS, check out the Learn2Map GIS Tutorial and Atlas. We have more free GIS software available and there is plenty of free data and shapefiles that will work with these programs. More to come!