Neogeography

Neogeography ( " new geography " ) commonly refers to the use of geographical techniques and tools for personal or community purposes by groups of users, who are not experts. The scope is often less formal or analytical.

History

The term Neogeography been used since 1922. In the early 1950s, the United States, he stood for the social aspects of production and work. The French philosopher François Dagognet mentioned it in the title of published in 1973 by his book Une de l' espace epistemology concret: Neo- geography. The word was initially used in the study of online communities in the 1990s by Kenneth Dowling, the librarian of the city of San Francisco. Previous terms in the ( English-speaking ) trade press were "the geospatial web " and "the geoaware Web " (both 2005); " Where 2.0 " (2005); "A dissident cartographic aesthetic " and "mapping and counter -mapping " (2006). The term was associated with the concept of Web 2.0, as well as the increasing availability of maps and spatial techniques that found themselves in the form of slippy maps such as Google Maps, Google Earth, and also with the lower cost of mobile devices for rapid detection, as as GPS receivers. This was followed by an increasing integration of this technology in applications that previously had no spatial reference.

The first contemporary definition was made by Randall Szott 2006. He argued for a broad base, cover, and Artist, behavioral scientists, and many more. The technology -heavy aspects of the subject were adopted much more closely later by Andrew Turner, Introduction to Neogeography (O'Reilly, 2006). The current understanding of the term, often based on the use in locative media, made possible by the expansion of location-based services, the possibilities of personal expression and value to society.

Geographic information systems have tools and techniques for specialized applications developed, requiring precision and accuracy. In contrast, Neogeography is trying to bring forth very easily accessible applications. These two approaches, however, may overlap, they represent one and the same problem for different user groups as: experts and amateurs.

Discussion on the definition

Currently there are major debates about the scope and application of the Neogeography within the Web mapping, geography and GIS field. Some of these discussions designate Neogeography only as easier access to geographical tools, while others are more out to the fields of application.

Neogeography is not only based on a technology and should not be understood synonymously with web mapping, although this is partly to be found in the literature.

A variety of scholars of cartography and geography ( as Mike Goodchild ) casts a certain aversion to the term " Neogeography ". They argue that geography is a solid scientific discipline; contrast, are mashups and tags in Google Earth no scientific work, but rather volunteered at geographic information.

Similarly, there are a large number of designers and students, who are active in this new form of mapping and location-based art. It thus includes more than just web mapping.

Components

It is possible to find significant factors that make it possible that even with simple instruments can be spatial data capture by little specialized people.

Global Positioning System

Through the Global Positioning System (GPS), it has become very easy since the mid- nineties, inexpensive and to determine their own position in a few steps. This is due to the additional cost, but often an additional improvement in the accuracy by means of reference signals dispensed ( differential GPS ), as is conventional but in professional measurement.

Standardization

Collaborative survey of spatial data also requires uniform platforms, so that the data can be merged. Decisive for the entire geo- industry here was defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium standards, such as client-server protocols (eg WMS) and file formats (eg GML, GeoJSON, ...) that a common understanding on the structure and attribution enable the information (metadata). Just for a focus on web and user- specific content, so also the Free GIS software is often used.

User-generated spatial data

Neogeography has also been linked to an increase in user-generated geographical content in context, with strong links to the volunteered at geographic information. This can be actively collected data, such as OpenStreetMap, or passively collected data collections, such as Flickr tagged photos.