> > Additionally, this whole discussion is in my mind SO not productive! It > makes geographers as they known before now to paleogeographers(?!?) and > geoweb users or hackers or internet geeks (who are mostly never known > before as geographers and additionally never would call them self > geographers) to neogeographers(?!?). >
But this discussion is EXACTLY the point. It is an attempt to explore the topology of Neo/Paleo and Tool Maker/Tool User. The problem with Neogeography is really nailing down what it is - and the only way to define something (short of true ontological categories) is to use known ideas in the definition. We know that Neogeography is something new. It is an "other" to traditional Geography and Cartography. So we need to define the other in terms of the known. It's our only point of reference. What do we know so far: 1. Neogeography doesn't encompass the breadth of Geography and probably isn't the best terminology. The term Paleogeography isn't much better. 2. Paleogeographers may likely also be active Neogeographers. 3. Paleogeographers are likely to focus on research that transcends the medium - so the results of their research are equally applicable to a printed atlas or a web mashup. 4. Neogeography involves blurring the line between tool maker and tool user - a democratization of Cartography - but in an applied sense. Neogeographers aren't making maps, they are making solutions to problems that take the form of a map. But Neogeography can be viewed as a beautiful thing. It is clearly a recognition of the significance of Geography. This can be likened to Goodchild's argument for a GIScience as opposed to simply GISystems. Why isn't GIS simply a specialty in Computer Science? Because the Geographic is unique, significant, in an ontological sense. The understanding of that ontological relationship is key to Geographic representation. The fact that these people mashing-up maps took on the term Neo-Geographer is, in my mind, a recognition of the complexity of Geography. -Eric -- -=--=---=----=----=---=--=-=--=---=----=---=--=-=- Eric B. Wolf 720-209-6818 USGS Geographer Center of Excellence in GIScience PhD Student CU-Boulder - Geography
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