Lab 3

When approaching this week’s lab it was imperative to understand the term Neogeography. According to Tuner,“Neogeography means ‘new geography’ and consists of a set of techniques and tools that fall outside the realm of traditional Geographic Information Systems.”

In essence it means that a person, who is not an expert in the field of geography, can make their own map about whatever they desire and combining it with an existing toolset. The existing toolset that was forced upon us was provided by Google maps. Therefore, all that was left was to find something that I would find useful to map. I had several ideas after first reading the lab description. The first was to map out all the ski resorts around Tahoe, however, this would not have proved to be very useful to me seeing as I am not an avid skier. After thinking about it and contemplating many other ideas I decided that the most interesting and useful map, for me, would be a map of my trip to Boston. I chose this because, for many years, I had been trying to figure out a way to map out my travels and this was the perfect starting location.

After deciding on the topic of the map it was time to get started with creating my mash-up. However, this proved to be more difficult than I had initially thought. One issue I ran into when creating this map was that the line creator was not very user friendly and would often disappear if you did not click the correct buttons. The other issue is that the icons provided by Google maps are not enough to fully illustrate my map. Therefore, many of the locations had to be symbolized by the default icon.

Rather than merely placing markers at the places I visited I decided that it would be more interesting, for both the audience and I, to include some historical background and pictures for many of the sites visited. This was done by clicking on the plain text icon to write text and by clicking the rich text icon to add pictures. Also in two locations, Fenway Park and the Ship Yard, there are videos attached. This was done by pasting the old embedded code into the html tab. I believe that adding these features will serve two purposes. The first is that it will improve the experience for someone who desires to get a tour of Boston, and the second is that these features will be useful for me in the future when I want to go back to look at my travels. This is because instead of having to look up information on these places, one can simply refer to the map which has everything conveniently located.

The map below contains place markers, Lines, and shapes. Embedded within these three items are text, pictures, and videos.



View Boston Tour in a larger map


Before the creation of Web 2.0 there was not much interaction between the site creator and the viewers of the site. This was because before the Web only allowed the users to view the contents of the sites. However, with the creation of Web 2.0, users are able interact with the sites. These advances eventually led to the use of application programing interfaces, API’s, such as my maps on Google.

Use of my maps on Google allows anyone with access to a computer to create a personalized map. There are several pitfalls of neogeography that stem from the previous statement. First anyone can create a map and disperse it on the Web without authenticating it. Meaning that we do not know the accuracy of the maps and that there most certainly is incorrect information posted for the public to see. This is in direct contrast with GIS which are created by professionals and closely monitored by reliable sources. Secondly the maps created are personalized and can cover a variety of topics. This along with the fact that there is no regulation of the information being posted means that there could potentially provide harmful information. In summary, when considering neogeography we must question the accuracy, reliability, authority, and content of the information provided.

One other pitfall neogeography is that in using a premade toolbox such my maps, on Google, the user is very limited by the constraints of the program. I ran into problems when trying to simply upload pictures to the map as well as when I was attempting to find exact symbols for every location. I encountered these issues because order to get pictures to show up on the map an online photo album must first be created. This is inefficient and is something that needs to be built into the program. Also when trying to represent the locations visited with symbols, I found myself very disappointed with the number icons available and had to settle for the default icon many times.

Despite all the pitfalls of neogeography it is actually a very powerful tool that, when used correctly, can help provide people with a limitless supply of useful information. All this information can be used to help make everyday life easier. For instance, there is a new app on the I-Phone that allows you to find parking meters that are open. Also there are websites that allow you to find the cheapest gas in a specific area or the traffic on your route home from work. The same idea can be applied to many other situations. However, neogeography can also be used the way I have used it. This is to provide my viewers with an informative tour of Boston which so happens to coincide with my travels. The bottom line is that the potential of neogeography is limitless and as technology gets better so will it.

The consequences of neogeography are that the general public has an increased geographic awareness. Also because there is input from the general public the cost of continually updating information is decreased substantially. An example of this would be if I were to input the location of a camera at a stoplight into my GPS. The GPS would then send the information directly to a member of the tom-tom GPS team that would then have to verify this and update their map accordingly. The most important consequence is we are all geographers now and we can all contribute to society by creating maps that provide everyone, including the professional goegraphers, with useful information that can make life easier.