A journalist tries to make sense of maps, GIS and their impact

Leslie Rule at MediaShift Idea Lab is putting the pieces of the journalism/activism/mapping/social media world together. Some points from her latest post are worth repeating here:

As the Beyond Broadcast panelist Lee Banville, Editor-in-Chief of the Online NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, noted simply mapping “doesn’t necessarily tell a story, it introduces a story.” Otherwise, he pointed out, a map can become a data dump.

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Graphical [sic] Information System (GIS) is connecting data to maps, but the difference is both in quantity and quality of data, as well as intention. The intent is for analysis, not a superficial look. On the flip side, there is a learning curve with GIS software.
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Taking into account Google’s large layperson user base, Jack Dangemond observed that the partnership does represent the emergence of a new “societal GIS.” The addition of new features in their software facilitates KML output of the GIS data. This output makes it possible to create mashups between deep GIS databases and neogeography databases and tools, between crowdsourced data and professional GIS data, moving beyond just mapping the problem to helping to create solutions.

I’m in agreement on the first point, as many traditional geographers have made the same point of the many of the “just another mashups” out there.

As for the second, I think it’s hard (impossible) to know the intent of software. While I know some of the reasons some products were built or applications developed or implementations completed, that’s about what people do with it. Much of what ESRI and other companies have learned is that they need to educate their users beyond putting dots on the map. That aspect is not inherently in the box.

The third point, building on the Google/ESRI demo at Where 2.0 again forgets the people aspect of GIS. Again, it’s what people (folks in basements, for profit companies, non-profits and everyone else) do with the tools that matters. KML output of GIS data is not new, and Google Earth as a front end for it isn’t either. And, it’s people who will need to figure out the way to manage mixing crowdsourced and professional data. TomTom and Tele Atlas and Google and others are trying to solve some of that challenge right now.