what is neogeography?
 anselm@hook.org
 (415) 215 4856
 http://hook.org
 http://meedan.net

march 7th 2008

what does google say?
 Andrew Turner (Mapufacture) has some
thoughts:
 http://www.slideshare.net/ajturner/gisday2007-
neogeography-and-gis
 ”geographical techniques and tools used for
personal activities or for utilization by a non-
expert group of users; not formal or analytical”

can buzzwords capture it?
 openstreetmaps, openlayers, kml, georss,
microformats, ”community versus committee”,
exploration, explanation, digitization,
democratization, web 2.0, open data, creative
commons, citizen mapping, renaissance, social,
grassroots, gis, gps, ”wiki as a universal
solvent”, socialight, platial, plazes, flickr, google
mymaps, world66, fireeagle, mapufacture,
osgeo, geocodr???

is openstreetmaps it?
 free labour
 free source code
 open standards
 open data
 new standards,
schemas and
protocols
 sparked by ordance
survey
 ”wiki like”

is it merely an opposition?
 to the role of being just a consumer?
 to boundary makers that cut apart ecosystems,
economies and communities?
 to industrial cartography?
 to manufacturing perception?
 to licensing issues?

the industry struggles
 still evolving language
such as ”volunteered
geographic
information”
 industry extends to
meet new needs
(tiling, wfs-t...)
 amateurs do adopt
standards eventually

it may be a language?
 a kind of l33t speak
 a way to socialize
 ownership over terms
 with freedom to steal
 & freedom to rewrite
 just people talking
 like social practice art

mapping the unmapped
 volatile and transient
 censured; grafitti
 subjective; histories
 illegal; criticism
 copyrighted; britain
 ephemeral; first love

a response to obstacles?
 scaling to allow many participants
 signalling other people in real time
 noise and spam
 rights and trust

the scaling problem
 how do you let a million people contribute in
real time to a map?
 velocity, quality, cost-savings -> pick 2
 ”good enough” is the enemy of best
 see wikipedia, linux, craigslist, delicious...
 we see distributed, non-centralized,
aggregation centric strategies

the signalling problem
 the voice we had when we lived in small towns
 being able to stick a fistful of dollars in the air
 emerging real-time brokerages; fireeagle etc
 towards craigslist 2.0
 just in time negotiation; finding that hotel room
 landing at the airport in that strange new place

the noise problem
 my god it's full of spam
 (hint; knowing where starbucks is - this is spam)
 existing social networks can help filter
 previously seen interests can help filter
 apprehending the world from somebody elses
point of view

the rights problem
 unabdicate ownership
over representation
 reclaim responsibility
to map ourselves
 shows how important
creative commons
licensing will become
 ”salmon nation” is a
good example

the trust problem
 when it affects your
life – do you trust it?
 who made the maps?
do you trust them?
 Secrets and
reciprocal
disclosure...

towards future maps
 we may all begin to map every day all the time
 maps become a language between peers
 maps become more like video games
 maps help placemaking not just placemarking
 maps help us see how to reach a 'middle way'
between forest preserve and urban jungle
 professionals utilize ”eyeballs on the ground”
more.

my hope and interest
 maps become a way for all of us to collect
ground truth about our ecosystems; to
participate and to care more
 maps may even become predictive modelling
tools to help make argument
 maps become an equalizer between parties of
vastly different scales when talking about land
use policy
 we may understand and respect each others
and our planets needs better

Wherecamp 2008!
 Google Campus

May 17th 2008
 Free!
 All weekend – camp over if you wish
 Geek out, hack, socialize in an extended setting

a few fun links
 http://del.icio.us/tag/geo
 http://ecotrust.org
 http://urbanscout.org
 http://urbanedibles.org/
 http://cityrepair.org
 http://www.slashfood.com/tag/LocalFood/
 http://deliciouscorpse.com

reaching me
 anselm@hook.org
 (415) 215 4856
 http://hook.org/whereisanselm?
 http://meedan.net
 http://makerlab.org
 This presentation will appear on hook.org