IEEE Spectrum December, 2007 - Cover4

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING
By Paul McFedries

The New Geographers
devicessuchasGPS-enabledmobile
phonesrunningservicesthatdisplayannotatedmapsoftheuser's
currentlocation,atechnologycombinationknownasmobile augmented
reality[see"IsItLiveorIsItAR?"
IEEE Spectrum,August].Peoplealso
playgeocaching,ascavengerhuntin
whichparticipantsreceivethegeographicalcoordinatesofacacheof
itemsandthenuseGPSandother
suchgeotoolstolocatethem.
Thethree-dimensionalequivalent
ofthedigitalmapisthedigital globe,
whichincorporatesphotosand3-D
modelingtechnologiestoproducean
immersiveenvironmentforexploringnearlyanypartoftheworld.That
virtual globeismostfamouslyfound
inGoogleEarth,butMicrosoft's
VirtualEarthissimilar.Aswith
2-Ddigitalmaps,3-Ddigitalglobescanbetaggedbyusersand
byautomatedmeans,aprocessknownasgeocoding.Photography
playsabigpartinthesevirtualworlds,particularlysatelliteand
aerialimagery,althoughbothGoogleEarthandVirtualEarthare
startingtoincorporategroundimagesaswell,acompetitionsometimescalledthe3‑D data arms race.(Andnotwithoutcontroversy:
thefirstGoogleEarthgroundimagesincludedembarrassingshots
ofpeoplehangingaroundoutsidestripclubs.)Theimagesareaugmentedwithgeospecificsimulationsofactualsites,incontrastto
generic,orgeotypical,environments.
Insomecases,markersarenottothevirtualworldbuttothe
realworlditself-buildings,bridges,andequipment.Companies
attachsensorchipstotheseandcountlessotherobjectstowatch
overthem,butwe'restartingtoseethefirstsignsoftechnologythatblendssensordatawith3-Dmaps,atechniquecalled
reality mining.TheU.S.militaryhopestocapitalizeonsuchdata
togeneratewhatitcallsgeoint(geographicalintelligence).
Ifthere'sakillerappforgeospatialdataitmaybevirtual
tourism,whichletspeople"travel"toanypartoftheworld
withouttheagonyofairlinefood.Virtualtourismisalsocalled
virtual globetrottingandGoogle sightseeing.
Withallthisdigitalmapmakingactivity,youcanseethat
mapsandatlasesprintedon(scoff!)paperaresolastcentury.
Thenewartsofneogeographyandneocartographyarethriving
intheirstead,andtheywillsoonbeannotating,augmenting,
tagging,coding,andparsingyourreality.
n

Mapmakingseemslikeaquaintart
thatoughttohavediedoffatthe
turnofthemillennium,ifnotbefore.
Yes,thingschange-theCzechsand
theSlovakspartcompany;Burma
becomes Myanmar, and Bombay
becomes Mumbai; the Aral Sea
shrinkstoaquarterofthesizeitwas
50yearsago.Majoreventsall,but
meretweaksinthemappingworld.
Iactuallyhavenoideawhether
analog mapsarebombing,butIam
certainthatdigital mapsarebooming,andthey'regeneratingtonsof
newwordsandphrasesasaresult.
Butdigitaltwo-dimensionalrepresentationsoftheworld,alsoknown
asWeb maps,areonlythebeginning.
SuchservicesasGoogleMaps,MapQuest,andYahooMapsare
redefininghowwelookat-andgetaroundin-theworld.They
provideso-calledbase mapsasstartingpointsformoredetailed
map mashups,whichplotthelocationsofuser-generatedcontent,
suchasapartmentrentals,weatherforecasts,trafficdata,and
photos.Youcannowbuydigitalcamerasthatcomewithbuilt-in
GlobalPositioningSystem(GPS)receiversthatnotetheexactlongitudeandlatitudeofeachpicture,datathatarereadablebymapservices.Thisiscalledneogeography,andithasbecomeabsurdlyeasy
thankstosuchannotationservicesasPlatial("ThePeople'sAtlas")
andtheannotationfeaturesbuiltintoGoogleMapsandothers.
Neogeographersannotatemapstocreatetheirownground truth,
thatistosay,theworldastheyseeit-theirautobiogeographies.
Thesegeo enthusiastsmayalsoengageincollaborative annotation,
inwhichanumberofpeopleaddgeotagstoasinglemap.(Ifthey
geotagalocationonaPlatialmap,thelocationissaidtohave
beenplatialized.)Thecombinationofallavailablebasemapsand
geotagged public mapsissometimescalledthenetworked atlas,the
geo ecosystemor,morecommonly,thegeoweb.
It's not just neocartographers who are making newfangled
map worlds;companiesarealsoautomatingtheprocess.Forexample,
thereissoftwareavailablethatcananalyzethetextof,say,abook,
extracttheplacenamesmentionedinthetext,andthenplotthem
onamap,afunctionknownasgeoparsing.AsmapsbecomesearchableaccordingtosuchgeodataasZIPcodesandlatitudeandlongitudecoordinates,userscantailortheirsearchestospecificplaces,
aprocesscalledgeosniffing.Companiesalsoofferinteractiveprogramsthatdisplayaseriesofdigitalmapsannotatedwithlocallore, Paul McFedries is a technical and language writer with more than 40 books
facts,andhistoricaldata,creatinganewgenrecalledmap‑based to his credit. He also runs Word spy, a Web site and mailing list that tracks new
storytelling,orgeostorytelling.We'restartingtoseelocation‑aware words and phrases (http://www.wordspy.com).

96

ieee spectrum | december 2007 | Na

www.spectrum.ieee.org

lou beacH

"The territory no longer precedes the map."

-JeanBaudrillard
http://www.wordspy.com http://www.spectrum.ieee.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum December, 2007
