Week 3

The map below depicts my recommendations for tourists visiting Cuzco, Peru.
View Cuzco, Peru Tourist Map in a larger map

The development of neogeography has changed the way that we share information in a dramatic manner.  Like any change, it has its advantages and potential, pitfalls, and consequences.   One advantage is that neogeography connects the world and allows the common person to edit maps, send recommendations, and share information in an efficient and precise manner to others.  By increasing the opportunity for this kind of communication, it now does not matter what country you are in, and there are few barriers to publicly posting information about different sites globally that can be accessed by others around the world.

A downfall of neogeography is that maps are inherently political, and that the proliferation of a handful of base maps by the general public will spread and reinforce someone else’ view of the world.  Questions about intentionality and political views communicated through these maps become more important.  Oftentimes, maps can be used for political purposes often without the realization of the common user and the user spreads these views unintentionally.  One such example of this is the land dispute between Palestine and Israel, and the location of the borders of these two states.  As a result of what is depicted on the base map, those using the map learn about the positions of the two states with a bias towards Israel or Palestine, depending on the source.  In addition, it recently came out on BBC that normal people are being asked to help Google with building a map of North Korea, which brings up questions about accuracy of these maps that will be produced.  The implications of neogeography are that more and more people are using maps in order to communicate information about cities, states, and countries.  The internet is utilized to send locations and maps across the globe and it becomes more important in the lives of people.  Overall, maps communicate information visually, and it is necessary to be careful to understand what information is being put out there.