Thursday, March 13, 2008

The New Cartographers

The New Cartographers What does it mean to map everything all the time?
By Jessica Clark
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3524/the_new_cartographers/

“We no longer go to maps to find out where we are. Instead, we tell maps where we are and they form around us on the fly.”

Remember the days when you would buy a Thomas Guide and leave it in your car so you could find your way to a meeting or appointment. In today’s Web2.0 world maps may help us get somewhere, but more often than not they show us where we have been and what we have been doing. They give us perspective, advice, ideas; they show us relationships; help us find jobs and people; they document and decipher; they aggregate and disaggregate. I think they do everything but clean the kitchen sink.

From maps about health trends (Who is Sick?) to 360º city views around the world (360º) to Linkfluence’s Map of the Political Blogosphere and more Jessica Clark tells us how the old ways of mapping is a thing of the past.

Another technology in the world high tech world of mapping and destination seeking is the global positioning systems (GPS). If you want to get somewhere maps are passé, you can much more easily find your destination with a GPS unit from your car, boat, or even on your bicycle. If you look closely at the jogger passing you by at the stop light you may even see a GPS unit on their wrist or in their hand.

I was thoroughly amazed at the number of different ideas that were mapped. Want more about maps? Try the Mapsmania Blog by Mike Pegg http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/ Started in April of 2005, Mike has hundreds and hundreds of maps and ideas to use.

You can even find a LIBRARY near you!
http://www.libraries411.com/ by name or sip code.

2 comments:

librarymum said...

Wow, thanks for all of the links to the geo sites. I also checked out your new blog for your school librarians and did quite well with the Traveler IQ Challenge. I guess I would hope that most librarians and teachers would do well.

The Google map mania has some cute stuff for St. Patrick's Day. Have a good one.

Anonymous said...

Hello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting, congratulations :-). I will add in my blogroll =). If possible gives a last there on my blog, it is about the Webcam, I hope you enjoy. The address is http://webcam-brasil.blogspot.com. A hug.