Working paper – ICA Viz Comm, Beijing 2001

William Cartwright

Department of Geospatial Science

RMIT University

GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 3001

E-mail: william.cartwright@rmit.edu.au.

Abstract

New Media and Multimedia now provides a unique conglomerate media form for representing geospatial information in innovative ways. The many cartographic products being developed and published using New Media illustrate the enthusiasm with which the geospatial science community has embraced it as a tool for representing geography. It is argued that this 'new' method of access to and representation of geospatial information is different to aforeused methods and therefore, whilst New Media applications can be considered to be at a fairly immature stage of development (compared to paper maps), there is a need to identify the positive elements of the media used and to isolate the negative ones, so as to develop strategies to overcome any deficiencies. This paper addresses some of the issues related to the use of New Media and geographical information.

Multimedia and Cartography

Multimedia has involved the integration of the three most powerful industries of the 20th Century - computing, video and communications, reflected in the convergence of what had been discrete components of the entertainment industry. That is, large corporations which, in the past dealt exclusively with film, computing or communications, were forming consortia or were enveloping other media concerns to produce conglomerates that had the ability to publish electronically, to produce and distribute video and films, to author computer packages and games and to provide digital communication facilities worldwide.

The multi-purpose maps of yesterday, essentially descriptive, static and deterministic, are now completely challenged by new map products that are extremely volatile, single purpose and probabilistic. The traditional function of maps as a spatial storage device is on the decline, whereas their communication function and analytical power are increasingly emphasised. Today’s maps portray a temporary view of the world (Müller, 1989). Now the world of mapping can be said to be involved in simulation and the creation of Virtual Worlds and Virtual environments. More realistic presentations are being output, with more user control and generally innovation has spawned many exciting products. They are quick to produce, they provide powerful expressions of geographical stories and they do (in most cases) allow users to experience geography in innovative ways. Almost anything is possible, and graphics and geographical exploration media once thought impossible to produce and deliver is consumed daily. But there are compromises in usage to consider and usage results (that is the resultant ‘view’ of the world received from using such artifacts) that require assessment.

Issues with Cartography’s use of New Media

Some of the issue that need to be addressed:

Firstly, non-elite or naive users. Once maps were the realm of experienced users who knew the type of map needed for their particular use, where to get it and how to use it. For map publishers, this made ‘life’ easy: produce the maps, force the users to become competent in using your products, and then just continue on. Now popular devices like CD-ROM Atlases like Encarta, and the myriad of Web-accessible on-line map collections and atlases provide ‘maps for all’ and this has meant that even naïve or inexperienced users need to be catered-for.

Users now abound with different skills. This group of new users, not aware of or attuned to the heritage of maps and mapping (and perhaps not caring about their ignorance) are buying/using maps and map-related services. There is a need to consider this group along with the ‘older’ generation of mapping product consumers. The ‘Nintendo Generation’ is typical a generation of users, described by Ormeling (1993) as a new group of young map users. This new band of user approach map use with a different set of skills than their parents. The way in which they use information devices like computers (including computers that provide geographical information) needs to be appreciated and different ways of access to information that supports information use in different ways, but still complements established techniques and use, need to be developed, evaluated and tested. Consider the way in which children now have access to inexpensive digital devices and their power of computing and display. These users have different skills that can be applied to using maps differently. This has imposed new demands for media use, but it has also offered cartography new opportunities to informate.

A major challenge is the avoidance of ‘MacDonalds Mapping’. MacDonalds mapping can be viewed as disposable mapping, where quality sacrificed for the ease / speed of delivery. Some Web-delivered/composed maps fall into this genre of New Media mapping. However, it could be argued that this phenomenon is not unlike the early computer-produced maps like SYMAP (Department of geography, University of Toronto). Early Web maps and early computer-generated maps provide simple, inelegant designs, but sometimes the ‘haste of the new’ demands that the principles of good design and communication are temporarily discarded. Usually, once the furore of any new medium dies down the real products associated with that medium are refined. Unfortunately, this standard of product can be accepted as ‘typical’ of New Media (Web-delivered) mapping if cartographic design is neglected.

Working with ‘franchise’ mapping needs to be investigated. For example, in many Web-delivered products (including newspapers) there is an increasing practice of placing other producers’ products within a secondary Web-provider’s ‘envelope’. This disallows the original producer getting proper credit for their work and, in many instances infringes upon the copyright-holder’s rights in the product. Publishing internationally increases the complexity of the problem, as things like copyright are sometimes blurred when publications cross frontiers electronically. Something that is published by one organisation or individual in the morning may be on another Web publishers inventory that afternoon. Copyright / ownership rights with New Media have blurred the boundaries of legislations for print, audio and film. There is a need for new legislation that covers ownership in this electronically mediated world. This is being addressed in many countries, but ownership of products internationally is still a grey legal area.

One of the problems of visiting some Web sites is that the information, whilst delivered almost immediately, is sometimes very dated. This is, unfortunately, a problem with many Web publishers, who are initially caught-up in the euphoria of on-line publishing and then do not appreciate the overheads of maintaining a site. There is also a need for maintenance of integrity, ensuring that the publisher’s details are placed in a prime image location and that metadata associated with the information is as easily accessible as the images and text. This would provide information regarding ownership, currency and if the information was supplied by national / recognised mapping providers (rather than by a local community group). Metadata is required to indicate data source and quality. XML (Extensible Markup Language) appears to provide an answer, but the mapping community needs to be proactive in providing leadership. Something like the work of the Dublin Core (Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, 2000) would enable collaborative work to ensure that a concerted and uniform approach is made to storing and providing metadata about New Media mapping artifacts.

Advertising on the Web has become one of the realities of recent developments. Dealing with corporate interests in the media has always been difficult, and this is also the case with this new communication media. Corporate interests may interfere with the portrayal / communication of information and methods needs to be established to ensure that mis-information via Web-delivered maps does not take place. With ‘conventional’ maps the publishing authority was always displayed and the integrity of products assured by the authority collecting data and providing the actual maps. This is not immediately apparent with on-line mapping, and the establishment of a means for providing that information needs to be addressed.

Publishing on the Web compromises some design criteria when the map output is compared to conventional maps. Map design and the Web, whilst demanding that the maps are produced, stored and communicated to accepted media standards, must be sympathetic to ‘good’ map design principles. Designs must consider imagery and image compression; the use of authoring systems for constructing navigation and image query strategies for ‘search’, ‘locate’, and ‘display’ routines; and how this latest form of electronic publishing should work with other, older media forms, like print, DeskTop Publishing products, computer graphics and television map displays. Cartographers have some control over the appearance of the maps finally that are displayed on a client screen by using Adobe Acrobat .(PDF) post-processing or dHTML (dynamic Hypertext Mark-up language). Tools do exist and they need to be applied to minimise the compromises required for on-line mapping.

International publishing can now be easily done using the Internet. Cartographers no longer need to be located in the country where maps are requested, which offers real international project opportunities. International collaborative publishing is possible and international distributed databases can be assembled into a seamless resource for studying global issues. Problems regarding which languages to work with and cultural and religious considerations need to be overcome to assure success.

Developing geographical information products for the Web is not only the realm of cartographers. There are other views of what cartography or mapping is and how it can be applied to other forms of information. Sites like Cybertown (http://www.cybertown.com/) use the map metaphor to illustrate and make available non-geographical information. The methods used by industries outside cartography should be researched, so as to ascertain whether any different approaches (geographical depictions) might be suited for designing and delivering better mapping products via the Internet.

In the early days of the Internet access to this information resource was generally only available to universities and research establishments. The general public, or non-elite users, now uses the Internet, and more particularly the World Wide Web, to retrieve information and to communicate. Access strategies need to be developed to enable geographical information to be readily accessible (and usable) via the Web for this group of consumers. If geographical information resources were to be 'aimed' at the 'non-elite' user, then an ideal 'place' for installation and testing to take place might be in Museums, especially the new genre of museums that aspire to provide access to collections via non-traditional means and devices. For example, Virtual Reality (VR) has been used at the new Getty Museum in Los Angeles (Hamit, 1998). (The museum was an early user of technology to provide access to its resources using computer systems to capture, store and retrieve its photographic collection (Hamit, 1996). It was seen as a way in which VR could be used as a scholarly tool, enabling interpretations of objects in 'virtual spaces' to support a greater appreciation of the physical collections. In 1998 the Getty Museum installed an exhibition entitled 'Beyond Beauty: Antiquities as Evidence', a VR recreation of Trajan's Forum in ancient Rome (op cit.). It could be argued that in the 'rush' to make information available electronically and on-line the 'general' or 'novice' user has been overlooked. The focus on the provision of information to elite users, technologically-empowered power users or 'economically viable' end-consumers may result in information-deprived sectors of the community.

The needs of the disabled and visually handicapped for Web access and interface design are being addressed by the World Wide Web Consortium’s accessibility initiative (W3C, 2000) that includes ‘translations’ from graphics into audio for the blind. Strategies and research and development is also required for the movement handicapped, those users who can only able to make gross movements and thus have special human-machine interaction needs.

At the recent G8 Summit in Okinawa, Japan in July 2000, a press statement noted that this group saw that there were four ‘Ds’ to tackle and conquer: Debt; Disease; and the Digital-Divide. Equity must be assured in New Media mapping products. New product design must assure access regardless of age, income, social status, remoteness, cultural realities, religion (especially where some Web-delivered materials must accord to regional or national religious dictates), language and Literacy (including computer literacy). Many governments are courting technology and communication, and communication system-enhanced technology, as harbingers of a new information-provision era, one that requires little, or no, human input or interaction. In an age of 'The New Economy’ governments have embraced such information-provision collages as means for providing an information-rich resource requiring resource-poor inputs (from the public coffers). This has been evident in information provision by the Government of Victoria, Australia, that has a policy of on-line information provision. Taking this as an example of how public information-access has changed provides an illustration of how the provision of geospatial information needs to consider not just the 'elite' users of New Media and on-line information provision. The Victorian Government is committed to provide all State information on-line. A Minister for Multimedia portfolio was even established to facilitate this policy in 1997 and the ‘Electronic Services Delivery Project’ was established to achieve this aim (van Niekerk, 1997). This policy was originally aimed at high-tech users of information technology, but the 1999 policy, and associated allocation of funds, has seen a re-allocation of a large proportion of an extra A$19 million made to enable community groups to get on-line. Information-provision to the general public (who could be described as non-elite users of geographical information (even in paper map formats) is now government policy in some constituencies.

Discussion

Considering that Cartography has been described in terms of science, art and technology, it is perhaps necessary to re-visit the description in the light of new technologies like multimedia. Is cartography any different when delivered using New Media devices? Does cartography need to be re-defined because of the revolution that has taken place with both the way in which information is communicated and the type of information that can be transferred, almost instantaneously, globally?

Cartography is the fusing of both science and art. However, in the light of the tremendous impact that information technology has had on the graphic arts in particular and thus on the possibilities for producing fairly professional products by non-cartographers, the area of responsibility for cartographers perhaps needs to be re-defined as well.

Consider that new technologies enables non-cartographers to produce maps, which can nevertheless be viewed as naive mapping products in the eyes of cartographers, as usable products (albeit inefficient and probably scientifically inaccurate and artistically inelegant), almost at the touch of a button. These can be developed and produced without a cartographer’s input whatsoever, as long as the producer has access to data, which data providers are more than willing to make available to anyone who has the ability to pay.

Does cartography therefore need to be re-defined in terms of cartographer and also in terms of naïve producer/consumer as well? Consider that cartographers can control most elements of the provision of products until the final consumption of the product, perhaps a division needs to be made between the actual ‘behind the scenes’ elements of contemporary cartography and the ‘public face’ of cartography - ‘consumer cartography’.

An argument could be put that cartographers become involved in the elements of cartography that they have both mastered (either academically or technically, or both) and that they also enjoy doing. Personal satisfaction in producing an elegant and aesthetically-pleasing design or mastering some scientific problem - both resulting in an as-near perfect a solution that is possible - can be a major part of what provides cartographers with motivational input that encourages further refinement of skills and better mastering of particular scientific problem-solving strategies that are unique to cartography. From the producer/consumer perspective, the need to produce a map that would serve a purpose, as well as mastering a technological skill, provides the motivation to complete a product that works (for them), but they could be uninterested in producing maps for anyone but themselves).

In the current situation, where multimedia maps are a focus, do cartographers view what they do differently, and do consumers of cartographic products influence the art/science/technology balance? Seeing that multimedia cartography could be seen to have as much to do with making a movie as producing a scientific document (although the scientific integrity of all cartographic products is as important now as ever (perhaps more important because of the ‘casual’ appearance given by the immediate facade of multimedia mapping, before the ‘shell of innocent art’ is broken by further exploration)) the art components need to be considered as equal partners to the scientific counterparts. Technology may only be something that ‘gets in the way’ of properly exploiting New Media and naïve users of this powerful amalgam of media types demonstrate this by their inability to appreciate and design the best application of the many media types available (and possible) in their rush to ‘get their hands dirty’ by cutting computer code.

Conclusion

Understanding how technology works is important, but the partnership between art and science, and their contributions to the discipline, are more important. In my opinion art provides the ‘public face’ of multimedia cartography (and the cartographer’s passion when designing particular products perhaps the soul) and science complements this by ensuring that what is presented is scientifically correct, and perhaps what could be called ‘scientifically elegant’ as well. Technology perhaps needs to be relegated into a secondary role, that of ensuring that the designed product can be produced and delivered.

References

Department of Geography, University of Toronto, SYMAP Example,

http://www.geog.utoronto.ca/schulte/ggr272/symap.html, Web page accessed February 8, 2000.

Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, 2000, http://purl.oclc.org/dc/, Web page accessed August 21.

Hamit, F., 1998, "A Virtual Trajan's Forum at the New Getty Museum", Advanced Imaging, April, pp. 26, 28 and 33.

Hamit, F., 1996, “Image database retrieval and sharing: The Getty Art History Information Program”, Advanced Imaging, March, pp. 42 - 43, 76.

Ormeling, F., 1993, “Ariadne’s thread - structure in Multimedia atlases.”, Proceedings of the 16th International Cartographic Association Conference, Köln, Germany, 3 - 6 May, International Cartographic Association, pp 1093-1100.

van Niekerk, M., 1997, “Language to go”, The Age, February 2, pp. D1 and D6.

On-line language populations

Source: Global Reach, 2001. http://glreach.com/globstats/index.php3

Additional References

Global Reach, 2001, Global Internet Statistice (by Language), http://glreach.com/globstats/index.php3, Web page accessed May 29.