Tuesday Map: World in a box

Screenshot from bbc.co.uk

This week’s map is the centerpiece of The Box, a new multimedia project from the BBC. The producers have painted an ordinary shipping container with the BBC logo, outfitted it with a GPS transmitter, and released it into the wilds of global shipping routes. Along the way, the Beeb will be producing video and text content on trade and globalization, based on the box’s activities.

You can follow the progress with only a few hours delay here. After its launch last Monday, the box picked up a shipment of scotch whisky in Glasgow and is now back in the South of England waiting to be shipped off to East Asia.

Also be sure to watch Declan Curry’s feature on how the standardization of shipping containers made much of what we call globalization possible. It’s truly one of the more underrated technological innovations of recent history.

(Hat tip: Ethan Zuckerman)