“The Next Generation Of Maps,”
NPR – WBUR – On Point, (21 June 2012).
Time was, a good map was rolled out in captain’s quarters on a rolling sea or a king’s table far from the front. Splotched with gravy. Embellished with mermaids. A grand, rough approximation of the world as we knew it. Flash forward to the smartphone in your pocket, the apps all over, the future rushing at us, and we’ve got maps gone wild.
Cartography on digital steroids. Maps loaded with terabytes of data. 3D maps. Maps you can zoom over, zoom into. Walk through. Now Google and Apple are squaring off over the next great map frontier.
[For a brief online discussion of the integration of the new mapping technology with the study of history and culture see:
Transition Studies 