In The Know

I’ve heard a lot of about the term “neogeography” which was coined as the “new geography” and just in time for the ever changing world of new technologies. Just in the last two years, there have been incredible emerging technologies in imagery, viewing applications, mapping and Internet technologies to reach a broader audience and mobile applications. Neogeography promotes innovative solutions in a fast pace world.

Places like Digital Globe are providing high-resolution commercial grade imagery for local, state and federal agencies as well as commercial companies like utilities, telecommunications and transportation. But, imagery is only as good as the cartography integrated into the view. Cartography is the basis of map making. Industry jargon sometimes uses geospatial or just spatial data. Cartographers depend heavily on Mathematics to determine and assign a location based on map projections (think of converting spherical earth to flat paper or electronic maps) and there hundreds of projections. Science is also an intricate component to cartography because not only are there are topological maps, but hydro maps to express the geology of a place or region.

The fascination I have with neogeography is that it takes traditional map making (centuries old) into more electronic format and providing access to negeographical features of a region by emerging technologies such as Google Earth and now mobile mapping technologies. Google Earth provides 3 dimensional views of an area and even includes features like photos and more customized information for each user. Additionally, location-based services like GPS and real-time directional feed now available in mobile devices such as Garmin and TomTom, more and more smartphone devices are integrating GPS features into their devices to make it more broader available to consumers. And because of these features, more and more new mobile applications are popping up like Loopt and BrightKite that combines location-aware services with social networking.

So, not only has new geography spawn new technologies, it has created this avenue that has revitalized traditional geography and GIS (geographical information systems). Since this new craze, there has been a sort of renewal in the geography world and hopefully more and more young people will consider majoring in geography which involves Mathematics (a passion of mine), technology, geology and other sciences as an alternative to traditional majors. This field is a great way to learn how technology is used to improve some of the basic necessary jobs such as electrical inspections and local law enforcement support. This Neogeography brings different technologies into the forefront through innovation and creativity. I’m not sure we have seen everything we will see in geography.

Below are links to companies and media that provides great information on this subject.

http://platial.com/

http://neogeography.net/forum/

http://gislounge.com/neogeography/

http://www.digitalglobe.com/

http://earth.google.com/

http://gisuser.com/

http://lbszone.com/

http://brightkite.com/

http://www.loopt.com/

http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/site/us

http://www.tomtom.com/