WhatWasThere

http://www.whatwasthere.com/

WhatWasThere is an online application created to merge the software of Google Maps, with historical photographs of a given location. Any user can upload and explore different photos of a location, making it beneficial for studying urban sprawl, city development, or simply watching your favorite locations change throughout history. With the added software of Google Maps, the user can simply type in a location that they are familiar with and view different photographs of that location from different periods in time. The purpose of this application is to clearly show the user how locations have changed over time, and give an idea of how time periods or historical events can generate change of particular locations. The user achieves this by adjusting “the fade bar”, which places a historical photograph layered over a contemporary street view map of the same location,  allowing one to fade the historical photograph in and out of the frame. This application is important because its objective is to educate and inform users of the major changes and development of spaces through time by using photographs to illustrate changes. It lets users know how land use has changed by giving information of historical buildings and landscapes. Another objective of this application is to display surroundings from different eras while providing historical information of architecture and the different land uses.

6 months later ...

Its been more than six months since the last update - I'm wondering what developments there have been in Web 2.0 mapping. 

There are a lot of questions to ask:  Are the geospatial applications previously identified still active?  Have there been changes in functionality?  What new applications can be identified?  What evidence is there of  how these applications are being used?  Who is using the geospatial web?  Are some types of applications more useful than others, and for what purposes?

A brief search of recent literature reveals a surge of scholarly articles on the geospatial web, some of which I have included in the updated Reading List page above.

Once again, students in my cartography course will explore online mapping applications and report their findings on this blog later in the fall term.To help get these investigations going again here are a few new map apps on the scene:

     Mapnificent

     Padmapper

     One Bay Area Maps

     Historypin

     WhatWasThere

     Wild Knowledge

     Camineo

The Geospatial Web and Revolution: a Synopsis

The Geospatial Web and Revolution: a Synopsis

by Bob Sharpe, November, 2011

The geospatial web refers to the convergence of geographic information and geotechnologies with the services and data provided by the Internet.  In essence, the geospatial web enables anyone with access to the Internet to collect, search, share, analyze and display location-based information.  

The unique aspect of the geospatial web is its potential to aggregate multiple, disparate data sets on the basis of their geographic coordinates.  These data can be drawn from government agencies, private industry, and most importantly, from the general public.  

Several observers argue that this powerful new human capability is bringing about revolutionary change (e.g. Penn State Public Broadcasting, 2010; Scharl and Tochtermann, 2007).

Why is the geospatial web revolutionary?

The geospatial web might be characterized as revolutionary for several reasons:

• the rapid adoption of this technology has led to innovation and the widespread disruption of many existing practices;
•  the public has a freely available, comprehensive map of the world, rich in information content;
•  individuals can create and contribute their own information, and engage with others  to this public map of the world

The geospatial revolution was a long time in making and the product of developments in geodesy, geography, cartography and geographic information science.  From these sciences were developed the tools and techniques of remote sensing, global positioning and satellite navigation systems, and geographic information systems, which together form the infrastructure of the geospatial web.  The Internet and the proliferation of a range of mobile devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and smartphones have made this infrastructure available to the public. 

Along with the development of this infrastructure was a rapid expansion of geospatial digital content.  This now includes access to vast libraries of geospatial data, much of it of high quality.  Access to remote imagery for the globe, transportation networks, elevation data, and more enabled the development of online mapping services such as MapQuest and Google Earth.  

Significantly, the development of GML and KML, enabled the further ability for users to share their own geospatial data.  Such data can be collected from coordinates determined by a GPS-enabled smartphone, from coordinates assigned by geotagging an image or text file, and from geoparsing or assigning geographic identifiers to words, phrases, and other media references to place.  

It is probably the involvement of the general public in generating and using geographic information, which fuels the geospatial revolution.  This type of information has been rapidly developing across various domains and includes voluntary geographic information, crowd sourced data, user generated maps, social networking. 

What are the benefits of the geospatial web?

The geospatial web has already demonstrated, through several applications, the potential for revolutionary societal benefit in terms of saving lives, creating efficiencies and business opportunities, and enhancing access to various services.  The most prominent recent examples of such applications are those used to assist in emergency response (e.g. mapping, operations, communication) to natural disasters and crises, such as the aftermath of Katrina, the Gulf oil spill, and the Haiti earthquake. 

A wide range of other types of applications are increasingly popular.  Students in a undergraduate cartography class selected and reviewed over 30 geospatial applications, the summaries of which are posted on the Map Rap Blog (http://scrubbrush-maprap.blogspot.com/).  These applications have been grouped below into categories based on the main function of the application.

•  Find directions, plan routes and map trips, map activities, geotag photos (EveryTrail, TripWiser, MapMyFitness, CapSpotter, Cycling the Alps, EveryTrail, TravelPod, MapMe, WalkJogRun, Picasa Web Albms, TripGeo, MapMyRide)
• Provide a wide range of location-based services to consumers (e.g.  identifying and locating services and friends in proximity to the user)  Facebook Places, Trapster, Foursquare, Gowalla, Poynt, Yellow Pages, SitorSquat)
• Use online tools for manipulating geospatial data (GPS Visualiser)
•  Map and monitor the activities or locations of wildlife (PolarBearTracker), roadkill (California Road kill Observation System), currency (Where’sWilly?), sex offenders (Family WatchDog), and solar energy installations (San Francisco Solar Map).

Note that these applications and their categorization are just a start.

Another benefit of the demand for these geospatial applications is that it reflects increased interest in, and value for, geographic information, geographic literacy and spatial thinking.  It raises new questions for geography educators that relate to:

• the capacity of people to use these services,
• the effect of these services on spatial cognition,
• the means to educate people about these services,
• the longterm effect of these services on geographic literacy

What are some concerns with the geospatial web?

Although geospatial applications clearly are of some benefit, a critical perspective reveals a number of concerns and issues worth further investigation.  Here is an initial list of concerns:

•  The concern mentioned most often is that of personal privacy.  Information uploaded to the Internet is publicly and permanently available and can result in a loss individual privacy and autonomy.  It is interesting to note that most students do not see this as a major problem.
• Although geotechnologies are increasingly pervasive, their uptake has been uneven and characterized by complex geographic and socioeconoimic disparities (i.e. the digital divide).  Social justice issues emerge around inequities in access to these technologies.
• For many individuals, the technologies have become incorporated into everyday life, and have thus influenced their scheduling, workflows and behaviours.  (Again, social justice issues arise around inequities in access and usage).  The implications of the usage of these technologies for some groups are not well researched or understood.
• An increased societal dependence on technologies (including virtual globes)  that are both fallible and controlled by corporate interest.
• An effect on cognitive skills such as a loss of map reading, spatial reasoning and geographic knowledge.  Related to this is the limited perspective to which the public is now conditioned.  Geobrowsers, virtual globes and online mapping services provide a bird’s eye view or street level view.  These are constrained perspectives which are not always the most effective way of seeing the big picture, as would be revealed by casting one’s eye over an entire large-format map.
• Applications vary widely in their user base and geographic coverage.  There seems to be a clear bias for sites originating in large cities, especially in the USA. 
•  There are problems with data on many sites, ranging from too much data – (i.e. how to display and retrieve it), to issues of data accuracy and currency.
• Restrictions on access, for example, personal accounts for some sites can be accessed only by citizens of USA.  
 

Selected References

Elwood, Sarah  2010 Geographic information science:  emerging research on the societal implications of the geospatial web.  Progress in Human Geography 34 (3) pp. 349-357.

Penn State Public Broadcasting 2010

http://geospatialrevolution.psu.edu/project/board.html

Scharl, Arno and Klaus Tochtermann (eds.)  2007  The Geopspatial Web:  Social Software and the Web 2.0 are Shaping the Network Society Advanced Information and Knowledge Processing Series 2007, London: Springer, ISBN 1-84628-826-6

Sui, Daniel Z.  (ed.)  2008  Geospatial Technologies and Homeland Security: Research Frontiers and Future Challenges.  The GeoJournal Library, Volume 94, London: Springer, ISBN 978-1-420-8339-6

Turner, Andrew and Brady Forrest 2008  Where 2.0:  The State of the Geospatial Web,  An O’Reilly Radar Report  (see downloadable excerpt)