Friday, October 22, 2010

Lab 3 - Neogeography

Lord of the Rings Journey through Middle Earth (aka New Zealand, where everything was shot).


View Lord of the Rings Filming Journey in a larger map

Neogeography is a very cool thing. It allows for very specialized and personal maps to be created for whatever purporse, and then be spread amongst friends, classes, or the entire internet if you choose to post it on a blog or website. Therefore someone could create a map detailing the best restaurants to go to in Paris, or, using an example that i did several years ago, a map of all the places i was planning to go to in Mexico with my friend. That same friend could then add her own details to the map, and we would both instantly be able to see the changes, and absorb that information. This is the second very cool thing about neogeography, is its innate interactivity. Whereas maps used to just mean the passenger in the car looking at a big unfolded paper, now maps can be created, changed and used by just about anyone. Therefore a huge amount of very detailed, specific information can be spread.

However, by that same token, there are some negative aspects of neogeography. Because anyone can create a map about anything, and are not always creating it for academic purposes, the accuracy of the information can and should be questioned. Just because I've created a map about something doesn't mean that map is a good map. It's the same reason why other interactive tools, such as Wikipedia, aren't always taken seriously by the Powers that Be. The information can be bad, and often is.  

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