Lab 3: Neogeography

"The Office"


View The Office in a larger map

Note: The points on this map are located in reference to the hometown (city of birth) of the actors on "The Office," not the characters whom they portray.


Commentary:

The rising wave of neogeography coincides with the increasing technological movement of user-generated data sources like Facebook, Wikipedia, and Flickr, and is even more closely correlated, if not synonymous, with the term "Volunteered Geographic Information." Neogeography is a way for amateur people to create geographic content without having, or needing, professional experience in the GIS or cartography fields. This informal field can be easily navigated by non-experts, who can use pre-existing mapping information and tools to compile and disseminate geographic data for personal interests.



With a broad range of activities covered under the umbrella of neogeography, everything from city walking tours to detailed urban exploration to "place based photo blogging," users can be as expressive in their endeavors as they want, while helping to build up an immense portfolio of cartographic topics that others can find or use themselves. People are not limited to generating content within purely spatial parameters. They employ a more assertive method of geospatial referencing, not limited to searching through data provided by government agencies, and the majority of which is openly accessible to the public. It, in essence, opens a door through which every person has the opportunity to interact with their environment and social forums in new ways.



Due to the lack of professional cartographers, and/or a lack in geographic knowledge, one must be wary when committing a lot of trust to a neographic map. Content may not be accurate because the creator does not possess the appropriate skill in coordinating locations, 0r because of a personal bias for or against the topic in which their content is focused. And because many of the maps are artistically or entertainment based, the maps rely more heavily on visual components and media than on significant facts. It is most often a raw, unedited project, lacking the peer review critique or fact checking emphasis for 100% truth. There is no spatial analysis as is common in mathematically constructed maps of landforms and countries.



While the neogeography movement is progressive in involving average people in investigative mapmaking, it also has only come so far as to serve as a visually propelled medium too intently focused on flashy videos and images rather than scientific facts. It's beneficial to the person or group whom the map is created by or for, but for much of the public it serves no purpose, save a possible search engine result. And even further, the maps some people make may be "detrimental" to others if the topic of that diagram pinpoints people associated with a group in which they wish to remain anonymous, such as registered sex offenders who are thrown into public awareness on www.meganslaw.ca.gov. The initial idea is good; involving amateurs in a typically in depth field by allowing the manipulation of professionally created maps and mapping techniques. But to improve the legitimacy and factuality of the maps, neogeographers need access to better technology or a peer review source that can revise these often skewed maps to prevent inaccuracy from diminshing their utility.