Lab #3

View Los Angeles Dodgers Starter's Hometowns in a larger map

This map shows the hometown's of the Los Angeles Dodgers starting lineup.

Neogeography has a lot of potential. The maps that have been created by an average person can often be useful by perhaps showing more insight than cartographer who is just mapping for a location. It can include pictures, videos, reviews, descriptions, and other points of interest useful for the everyday person to find something in particular they are looking for.

However, looking at it from the other side, Neogeography has it's pitfalls. The fact that these maps are made by everyday people, who are inexperienced in map making, can have some negative consequences as well. The locations and information are more opinion-based than fact-based, and some of the information can be wrong because it is not monitored or checked for legitimacy. The same personal touch that can be useful, can be misleading at times. For instance, in my map I could have put the wrong hometown for any one of those people (I didn't!) but you would think it was true unless you checked for the information yourself.

The consequences of Neogeography are that in today's world you can find almost any location by the click of a phone/computer/GPS. Sites like Mapquest, Google Maps, and more informative sites using mashups like Yelp and Urban Spoon provide more information than people could have ever imagined 20 years ago. This new type of geography has provided the knowledge of GIS and the experience of the average person into a more helpful type of map making.