Jun

27

Armchair cartography

Filed Under Technology, Wired, Recent stories 

“Cartographers manufacture power,” the eminent geographer J.B. Harley once wrote. So what happens to that power when cartography goes digital? That’s the question I endeavor to tackle in my latest feature for Wired, “The Whole Earth Catalogued.” It’s just out, in the July issue that features the Transformers movie on the cover (or alternately, if you for some reason elected to have your cover “personalized,” it features my story and you on the cover. It’s just like that booth at Six Flags!) In any case, the story is also online here.

Ke Iki Road.jpgAs the online version’s headline implies (or possibly, overstates to the point of self-parody), it’s about how Google Maps and Google Earth are altering the way people relate to geography. Perhaps more interestingly, it’s about how thousands of people have taken the tools made by Google and other companies to become their own mapmakers.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007

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Comments

One Response to “Armchair cartography”

  1. T.I.M. Blog on July 2nd, 2007 6:58 am

    Wired: Google Maps en Google Earth…

    …

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I'm Evan Ratliff, a freelance journalist and writer for Wired, The New Yorker, Outside, The New York Times Magazine, and other publications.

with story tips, suggestions, complaints.