A revolution is currently underway. More and more the usefulness of digital maps is being made known. Technological advancement has broadened the practicality of digital maps to researchers and their audiences. For example, exciting things are occurring in the field of geospatial mapping. Digital reconstructions of ancient structures such as the Temple at Karnak and the Roman Forum have been created. These digital reconstructions allow people to virtually tour these world famous structures from the comfort of their own home. In addition, Oribis is a great tool to explore the Ancient Roman world. It uses networking maps to depict movement in within the Roman empire and allows users to see how interconnected differing regions of the empire were.
The Digital Harlem project is another example of a revolution in mapping that has occurred. The project showed the limited capabilities of certain geospatial tools in creating multifaceted maps and conveying encompassing depictions of Harlem. However, those behind the project were able to use Geographic Information Systems to create a map that better depicted Harlem.
In addition to the Digital Harlem Project, Photo Grammar is an excellent site which also gives users a better sense of an American city or town. It primarily depicts pictures of cities across the country on a large Map spanning the entire country.
Lastly a great mobile site called the Histories of the National Mall, has been created. This site allows visitors to explore a point map of the Mall which also provides the history of the Mall to the users. Overall, the creation of all of these differing projects and sites have led to better maps which depict data.
References
Presner, Todd and Shepard, David, “Mapping the Geospatial Turn” n.d.
Meeks, Elijah, and Grossner, Karl, “Modeling Networks and Scholarship with Orbis” Journal of Digital Humanities. Vol. 1 No 3. 2012.
Robinson, Stephen “Putting Harlem on the Map”, 2012.
Brenan, Sheila. “Outstanding public history project award Histories of the National Mall”, March 8 2015.
