Computation + Maps
Raymond Cha
10.15.2008

WHAT DO MAPS DO?
» Approximate.
» Convey time and space.
» Narrate.
» Examples.

Maps are an approximation
» On Exactitude in Science . . . In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained
such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a
City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those
Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds
struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which
coincided point for point with it. The following Generations, who were not so
fond of the Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that
vast Map was Useless, and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they
delivered it up to the Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the
West, still today, there are Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals
and Beggars; in all the Land there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of
Geography.
» Suarez Miranda,Viajes de varones prudentes, Libro IV,Cap. XLV, Lerida,
1658
» From Jorge Luis Borges, Collected Fictions, Translated by Andrew Hurley
© Penguin1999

Maps are an approximation
» Abraham Ortelius, Antwerp, 1570

Maps are getting better
» Google Maps + Google Earth.

WHAT DO MAPS DO?
» Approximate.
» Convey time and space.
» Narrate.
» Examples.

Maps give a sense of place
» while the internet eliminates time and
space…

Maps give a sense of place
» Location-Based Services, GPS, A-GPS add a
layer of place onto the internet.

WHAT DO MAPS DO?
» Approximate.
» Convey time and space.
» Narrate.
» Examples.

Maps tell stories in new ways
» John Snow
mapped an
Cholera outbreak
in 1854.
» His technique
revolutionized
epidemiology.

But some don’t tell very much
» Map of the Internet
» What is
communicated?

Some change the way we see
» NASA map of the earth at night in 2002.
» What does light become a proxy for?

WHAT DO MAPS DO?
» Approximate.
» Convey time and space.
» Narrate.
» Examples.

Google Maps
» Create maps
using Google’s
mapping engine.
» Collaborate, post
on the web,
design icons.

Trippermap + GMiF
» Combine flickr +
google maps.
» Geotagging
images connect
photos to a
location.
» Google Maps in
Flickr.

GIS
» Geographic Information Systems --
query-based systems using geographic
information.
http://www.youcity.com

2D Barcode + QR Code
» 2D-bar (Quick Response Code) which
can be decoded with camera phones.
» Readers: Jaxo, Kaywa
» Semapedia

Loopt
» Track your friends
with location-
based social
networking.
» Ambient
awareness.

Socialight
» Tag the city with
“stickie” notes.
» Augmented
reality.

Dodgeball.com
» SMS-based mobile social networking.
» Meet friends and friends of friends.

Reality Mining
» low entropy individual

Reality Mining
» high entropy individual

Maps can describe people
» Reality Mining -
mapping
application
» Where we go
defines who we
are…
» Where are you at
3.00 pm everyday?

Blogs
» Blogs provide a useful medium for
creating narrative of maps over
time.
» http://digitalurban.blogspot.com
» http://webdev.yuan.cc/gmif/
» http://geobloggers.com/

Links
» http://www.youcity.com
» http://www.trippermap.com
» http://reader.kaywa.com
» http://www.jaxo-
systems.com/solutions/snapabar/?lang=en_US
» http://en.semapedia.org
» http://www.google.com
» http://www.loopt.com
» http://www.socialight.com
» http://www.dodgeball.com