Global Positioning System Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 8
Maps and Whereness
8.1
Why Maps are Important
Of all the areas discussed in this topic, this chapter is the one where the
technology and practice are developing most quickly. It cannot be overstated how
important the advance of new World Wide Web (WWW) technology is to maps
and Whereness. Currently, the somewhat imprecise term “Web 2.0” [1] has been
coined to describe the movement that is taking the original Web concept of one-
way browsing content into a collaboration model where there is a sharing process
with users posting content and organizations allowing their content to be
automatically manipulated by users and third parties.
At the start of the topic, in Section 1.4.1, the historic importance of maps in
navigation was highlighted. The synergy between positioning and mapping has
been increasing and will continue in the future as traditional maps take on new
digital forms and they then help inform other electronic and information systems.
This chapter will therefore describe both mapping worlds: the traditional
digital world, which uses specialist GIS software used by trained experts and the
new Web 2.0 methodology sometimes described as the Geoweb, which is
increasingly touching the lives of everyone via intuitive Web interfaces, such as
Google Maps. It will also be describing how digital maps of all descriptions are
changing from being a two-dimensional representation of the Earth's surface into
something more helpful by adding height and becoming more of a 3D pictorial
format. Maps are starting to include the fourth dimension of time, so that former
unchanging (or static) maps now include dynamic or changing information that is
often provided in real time, for example, by positioning or sensing systems
described earlier in this topic.
Traffic England
[2] is a good example (see Section
8.8).
The way positioning systems can help build maps will be described and in
particular the new approach of open collaborative mapping, where private people
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