Every time you’re going for a drive to an unfamiliar place chances are you’re going to open up the maps app on your smartphone to avoid the struggle of getting lost. Jim Detwiler’s Intro to Web Mapping provides a brief history and understanding of these web maps. He looks at the advantages, which include that web maps are cheap, easy to constantly update, readily accessible, and interactive. A con he pointed out that at times they are not as reliable as the good old-fashioned paper maps. Most notably if you are stuck in an area that is distanced from an internet connection or phone service, or the possibility of the map server being down. I was doing a bit of research on GPS, which stands for Global Positioning System, and learned that it was created the US Defense Department was originally meant to be kept a secret from the public. It was developed back in the 60s but was not deemed fully operational until 1995.
It got me thinking of all the apps we use today that use mapping systems. Tinder, the popular matching making app, uses GPS to connect users within a specific radius. Apps to find food such as Yelp and Urbanspoon connect users not with other people, but retail stores and restaurants. Even Instagram offers a ‘geotag’ options that allows users to show their followers where the photo was taken.
I remember when I was just a little kid, we would whip out our trusty Thomas Guide when going for a road trip. I was content just flipping through the pages to find our location and destination and never thought there would be a faster or easier way created in my lifetime. That transitioned to printing out MapQuest instructions from my PC to take with me on foreign drives for soccer games. Then finally today I sit with my iPhone in my lap as my good friend Siri reads off directions through my car’s speakers. It’s amazing to see the progression of mapping in our devices how in just a few years it went from everyone using fold out paper maps to a little handheld device that can riddle off directions.
For my last GE requirement I was looking at taking Geography 7, which is titled Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS), so this week’s articles gave a welcomed introduction to the subject. I know for our project we are looking at using web mapping when looking at the locations of past Olympic Games, which I hope we execute well.