Student’s app puts him on the map

Junior Luke Korth took “Where are you?” to a whole new level with his Facebook application “Where Are My Friends?”

Korth, from Appleton, Wis., coded the app as part of Professor Leon Tabak’s computer science class on using Geographic Information Systems. Going into the class Korth wanted to do something involving Google Maps. Then he decided to add Facebook into the mix, as well. As part of the class, he spent a couple of weeks coding the app, which shows users a map with markers for every other person using the app.

A blogger for PCWorld.com wrote a short entry about it, praising the ingenuity of the app. “Once you grant access to the app,” he wrote, “it grabs your Facebook ID and picture, and puts it in a database. It also takes your IP address (but does not store it) to determine your location using GIS (Geographic Information Systems). Other Google Maps-based guestbook apps don’t normally automatically detect your location—you usually have to enter it manually.” Not only did the post mention Korth and Cornell College, it also gave a brief summary of the college’s One Course At A Time schedule.