Final Project

Olympics Lab

Golden Eagle Migratory Routes from Denali National Park Alaska

Data Sources: Geocommons.com, National Park Service: Department of the Interior

Lab 3- Haiti Maps

All Maps Created by: Kelly Easterday Text: Wikipedia

Photosynth

Photosnyth:

Please click on the link to view my synth: Kelly Easterday Photosynth

Essay:

The objective of this lab was to create a “photsynth” on a topic of my choice. Photosynth, in general terms, is a website that is created, hosted and supported by Microsoft. It allows users to create what is called a “photsynth.” This is simply a compilation of photos of one image digitally stitched together to create a 3-D viewing experience. Photosynths can be geotagged and posted to Bing’s mapping service, allowing viewers to determine the location of each synth. Synths can be publicly or privately viewed, depending on the settings of the creator. This website is one of many user-friendly sites that encourages the publication and dissemination of information on the web.

In the article, “Citizens as Sensors”, the author Michael Goodchild discusses the topic of “Volunteered Geographic Information” or VGI. This is the practice of “normal” people uploading their personal views onto a broad network of information. The practice of VGI has both positive and negative effects. Positive in the sense that the wealth of information multiplies at wharp-speeds and is widely available via the click of a mouse. This wealth of information makes it easier and easier to create and access maps and images instantly without technological training. People can self-educate in unprecedented ways by simply doing a google seach and having the entire worlds wealth of knowledge on a subject at their fingertips. Gaps in individual knowledge can almost always be filled instantly from an iphone with 3G coverage. This also seems to have a shrinking effect in the sense that people can travel from Siberia to Singapore in mere seconds, from their living rooms, viewing 3D synths along the way (is this good or bad? I believe that is an individual perspective).

Goodchild also discusses the negative side of VGI. So much information is available that the question of credibility arises. None of this information is regulated or monitored. How can fact be separated from fiction? For example, if I were to create a synth of a pine tree on Mt. Baldy but I labeled the synth Mammoth Mountain it would be geographically referenced to a false location. And who, other than myself, would recognize that this particular pine tree is in Mt. Baldy and not in Mammoth? The creator seemingly has complete power over how the viewer interprets the image and she views it. Cartographers are faced with similar challenges on a daily basis. How do they decide what features to showcase on the map? How accurate is the coordinate system employed? All of these decisions alter the viewer’s perspective of the map.

A final dimension and necessary consideration of VGI is the issue of privacy. For example Google Earth is filled with a multitude of incriminating images of passed out drunks, to attempted robberies. These people are in a public place when the image is captured but they have no warning that they are being monitored. When you walk into a 7-Eleven the store is required to post notifications that you are monitored by surveillance equipment. But, no such warning occurs when satellites capture images. Is this fair? Clearly the widely available use of cartography, GIS, and public databases like Flickr and Photosynth present issues of privacy that remain significant and undefined.

In sum, photosynths are an example of the way in which the fields of cartography and GIS seem to be heading. This creates a world in which a multitude of information is publicly, widely, and instantly available. This is beneficial in the sense that map creation and display is much easier but it also raises the questions of credibility and the issue of privacy. As the worlds of Cartography and GIS continue to shift into the public sphere answers to such issues will surely require addressing.

New York Times Election Map Re-Creation and Discussion

New York Times Original Map

Kelly Easterday's Re-Creation


Discussion

The 2008 election results maps available through the New York Times website seem to be nearly perfect in their execution, design and functionality; but they lack certain characteristics and information that is potentially valuable to a political analyst and concerned voter. First, it might be helpful to present a map of Gallop Poll results during the campaign prior to the stock market crash. This may help display the role that the economy played in voter’s decisions at the polls in November. Second, it is graphically bothersome that Alaska and Hawaii are geographically misplaced. It might be more graphically pleasing if Alaska and Hawaii were to be placed in locations that at least suggest their true geographic positions. Lastly, the maps do not display any data comparing male and female voting behavior.

The 2008 election was significant because it featured an African-American male as a Presidential candidate and a female as a Vice-Presidential candidate. If the maps were to show females voting behavior in comparison with males from the same states it might help display the “Palin Effect” or the effect (positive or negative) of having a female vice presidential candidate. In sum, the maps seem to be quite complete and user friendly, but they lack certain said characteristics that may improve their performance.

Lab 1- US Census Data

Good Map

I consider this map to be a good map for several reasons. Primarily,it has a scale that gives the viewer a clear picture of the size of the state, and another scale that relates California to the United States as well as its placement in the continent of North America. This map also address the highways, mountain ranges, lakes, urban areas, and other physical aspects of the state. Finally, this map includes a legend that shows what all the symbols, lines, and colors on the map represent and make it easy for the viewer to understand the map in its entirety. I beleive this map is a good map because it includes the key features of a scale, title, and legend; it also allows the viewer to become familiar with the state of California through its physical aspects.

Bad Map

I find this map to be an example of a bad map for a few reasons. First, the map has no scale,no scale in context of California's placement in the greater United States or World. An outsider wouldn't be able to decipher where in the world this country existed by simply looking at this map. Second, the map is only an outline of the state's boundary and does not touch upon the broader concepts within the states such as, large cities, freeways, national parks, lakes, and many other factors that would help to enhance the picture of the state. Finally, this map does not include a legend to translate to the viewer what the star and the other small dots on the map represent. All of these factors to me say that this map is a bad map, a minimal title, no scale, legend, or frame of reference for what the purpose of this map would be.