Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
a single institution. The solution is the provision of short courses, and
these are becoming increasingly prevalent.
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The core technology of GIS, involving vector and raster data models
and the operations that can be performed on them, has been stable since
the 1980s. The major advances in this area have been in user interfaces
and in the development of more sophisticated techniques to manipulate
data in this form. Around this, however, the technology has developed
rapidly and will continue to do so. Mapping technologies such as Google
Earth and Google Maps have become mainstream parts of the Internet,
along with more specialist HGIS Internet mapping applications such as
Social Explorer and Hypercities.
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The full implications of these, and
indeed many other types of Internet technologies, have yet to be real-
ized in the humanities and indeed the broader academy. Their major
implication is that it is now possible to “publish” GIS and other data and
research online in an interactive form. This poses two questions. First,
a traditional academic publication involves the author presenting an
argument to a reader along with evidence to support that argument. If
we can publish large and complex georeferenced databases using these
types of technologies, which frequently have taken large amounts of
academic effort to create, then to what extent can these be considered
academic publications? W hile they are based on large amounts of schol-
arly work, they often require readers to develop their own argument from
the evidence, and even if an argument is provided by the author, to what
extent is this required, given that readers are expected to explore the
evidence themselves in more detail than in a conventional publication?
The second question is related to peer review. It is easy to publish these
resources, but how can a measure of quality be provided for readers and
credit given to the author/creator? As yet we are a long way from having
effective peer review systems for these types of products. This causes a
range of problems - not least associated with promotion and tenure - that
are inhibiting the development and dissemination of potentially valuable
resources. Solutions will involve a major cultural shift across the entire
academy and are thus unlikely to happen quickly.
W hile the academy wrestles with these issues, the technology con-
tinues to evolve at a rapid rate. The most recent development is the move
into location-based services (LBS) and augmented reality (AR), where
