JDMcDsblog

As a geographer I am interested in the power of maps and particularly in the recent explosion of online maps. In some ways these maps have altered our concept of scale; we are no longer dependent upon single scaled maps, with a fixed representative fraction, but can use zoom facilities to enlarge or shrink areas with the tweak of a slider bar. I have been experimenting with representing spatial data by plotting the location of educational blogs, and extended this to create a distribution map of proposed “must-sees” when we are in New York next week. The map shows clusters of places and hopefully we can plan our transport arrangements more effectively.
I use multimap a lot, because I like the way you can superimpose the OS map on to the aerial photograph, which pupils always seem to find helpful-it’s particularly worthwhile in showing that OS map symbols often exaggerate the size and impact of particular buildings-telpehones look outsize when drawn on a map, while roads, brightly coloured in reds and yellows are less intrusive when looked at from above. It helps show that “white space” on a map is generally farmland-often geometric checkerboard squares of modern arable land.

A new style of map which my friend Jon Oates has drawn to my attention is OpenStreet maps. This is effectively a map style wiki, open source and available to all for editing. The beauty of it, I think lies at the microscale-using GPS you could carry out detailed surveys of, say rivers and minor topographic features (eg associated with deposition), or plot new housing or other developments not included yet on published maps. Archaeologists could add details of site surveys-small changes on relief may indicate remains of buildings, ramparts, barrows and other signs of habitation or funerary practice. Classes could learn much about surveying, the handling of sensitive instruments, the need for accuracy in measuring and recording data and the role of ICT in supporting educational research.

click here for access to Freemap, a blog devoted to OpenStreet mapping.