Conclusion - Participatory Mapping: New Data, New Cartography - page 146

Having maps that are easy to access also has its
disadvantages. Indeed, they are part of the Web application
development field and have little in common with traditional
mapping. Thus, the lack of skills in geo-visualization of these
“cartographers 2.0” can produce errors. Moreover, although
GIS has been criticized for its rigid architectures, Web maps
are also subject to technical constraints. The vast majority of
mapping applications discussed in this study are based on
the Google Maps API, which is currently the most popular to
create mashups , but is subject to limitations in terms of data
visualization or access to mapping projections. Moreover, it
can be argued that maps do not necessarily reflect the
current forms of spatial practices. Michel Lussault describes
maps as pure fictional products brought by the modernity of
an “apprehensible Euclidian space” [LUS 12]. It is exactly
this interpretation of space, as something absolute and
positional, which human geographers attempt to overcome,
in order to account for the spatial dimension in society as a
way of managing distance. Experiments to find new forms of
cartography that are more inclusive of the notions of
distance and scale in spatial representations (including
anamorphic maps or cartograms [LEV 03, p.132] 1 ) could
include more depth of analysis than mashup maps 2 . All these
elements guard us from becoming too enthusiastic about
the “democratization of maps” on the Web. Indeed, although
online maps go along with the public's reflexivity in
controversial issues, new divides in terms of skills and
digital access may arise.
The study of online maps focuses at least as much on the
data and the various stages of map production as on the
1 For example in the Elsa Chauvinier and Jacques Lévy's 2009 article on
minarets in Switzerland: www.espacestemps.net/document7961.html.
2 However, as Boris Beaude notes, the radiation map designers following
the Fukushima accident have to face a typically Euclidian problem,
namely that of localizing radiation, for which the positionality of maps
remains relevant. Personal communication, August 24, 2012.