Tonight I attended the first of the Monday night season of Lectures at the Royal Geographic Society. The lecture was Mapping the globe: from the Greeks to Google Earth, by Professor Jerry Brotton (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s77pc).
The lecture was on 'World' mapping as opposed to 'Local' mapping. Starting with Ptolmey through to Google Earth.
Until 1972 and a photo taken from Apollo 17 'World' mapping had been an imaginative act. Till that point it was purley something that was available to the minds eye, that was purley driven by cultural, social and ideological issues rather than a true projection.
He had some strong and interesting views on where Google Earth is taking the process of cartography. Aside from comparing Google to the 1st stage in Marxism, his concerns are that the 'World' map is really collections of localized data, leading into specialised information, restaurants, etc etc rather than the World map it alludes to be. Another concern he raised were that the main drivers of Google Earth are technical experts as opposed to geographers, he posed the question are these the people we want to be driving our future mapping? As the Professor stated Google take Toblers 1st law of Geography(Everything is related to everything, nearer things are more related than others) by personalizing spatial data, his view is that this is driving map mapmaking to a tipping point. With little or no peer review or 'control' of the data there are versions of the truth that are pushed towards us, using the maps as an ideological, political, commercial tool.
It was a fascinating lecture and his views on Google were fairly negative and entertaining, Ed Parsons who was present was surprisingly quiet. Where we are going with 'World' mapping is a interesting subject, who forsore Google Earth? Who could have imagined how ubiqitous it has become. I think what it has done technologically has been innovative and driven the market in 'World' mapping for the last few years, creating a new market place which has brought 'World' mapping to the masses, which can't be a bad thing. As a tool for geographers, I understand his reservations but time will tell which way 'World' mapping will go and what the next Ptolmey and Google Earth moments will be......
The lecture was on 'World' mapping as opposed to 'Local' mapping. Starting with Ptolmey through to Google Earth.
Until 1972 and a photo taken from Apollo 17 'World' mapping had been an imaginative act. Till that point it was purley something that was available to the minds eye, that was purley driven by cultural, social and ideological issues rather than a true projection.
He had some strong and interesting views on where Google Earth is taking the process of cartography. Aside from comparing Google to the 1st stage in Marxism, his concerns are that the 'World' map is really collections of localized data, leading into specialised information, restaurants, etc etc rather than the World map it alludes to be. Another concern he raised were that the main drivers of Google Earth are technical experts as opposed to geographers, he posed the question are these the people we want to be driving our future mapping? As the Professor stated Google take Toblers 1st law of Geography(Everything is related to everything, nearer things are more related than others) by personalizing spatial data, his view is that this is driving map mapmaking to a tipping point. With little or no peer review or 'control' of the data there are versions of the truth that are pushed towards us, using the maps as an ideological, political, commercial tool.
It was a fascinating lecture and his views on Google were fairly negative and entertaining, Ed Parsons who was present was surprisingly quiet. Where we are going with 'World' mapping is a interesting subject, who forsore Google Earth? Who could have imagined how ubiqitous it has become. I think what it has done technologically has been innovative and driven the market in 'World' mapping for the last few years, creating a new market place which has brought 'World' mapping to the masses, which can't be a bad thing. As a tool for geographers, I understand his reservations but time will tell which way 'World' mapping will go and what the next Ptolmey and Google Earth moments will be......
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