Lab 3

View Vae Victae Member Locations in a larger map

A Description of my map:

This map shows where members of the World of Warcraft guild (a group of friends who play the video game together) "Vae Victae" are located (only those who have volunteered their information). The locations are by state and city, and each member is labeled by their in-game character name. The description includes a picture and brief description of their character.


The Pitfalls, Potential, and Consequences of Neogeography:

The potential of neogeography is clear. Websites like Google Maps make it easy for average computer-users to create maps for many useful purposes, perhaps most notably, navigation. Personally, I used google maps just a few weeks ago to plan out a visit to San Francisco (locate the notable sights, find a restaurant, etc.). Average users can also use maps creatively, like in this project, to make themed maps and display information spatially. More advanced users can make dynamic maps or more advanced mashups, such as a spatial tracking system for airplanes. I believe that more data will be added to Google Maps until it basically becomes a tool to locate anything, and to view satellite images of any place in the world. When that happens, we will have a publicly accessible map of the world, which anyone can reference and combine with other information to create interesting spatial databases, like Flickr’s photo locator.

There are also potential pitfalls and consequences to making spatial data public. Some have voiced fears for public safety due to the information. For example, criminals and terrorists can use satellite images to accurately plan out attacks or robberies. These fears may be over-stated, since it the images do not provide tactically useful information about the interiors of buildings, and the same information could be gathered by the offenders traveling to the area. There are also concerns about privacy, especially as satellite and street-view images become more detailed and high quality. Is it “too much” detail when you can see and recognize people on the street? What if someone is ashamed of visiting a particular place, but they got photographed at that location by Google? What if someone was photographed through a large window in their house? There is significant danger of privacy violation when the images are made public.