Lab #3: Neogeography

View Trip to the top of Mount Whitney in a larger map

For this lab I practiced neogeography using google maps to tell the story of my hiking trip to the top of Mount Whitney (the highest point in the continental United States). Neogeography helps amateur geographers use existing resources to create and share their own personal maps. Mash-ups like the one I made above provide extra content in the form of embedded links, photos, and videos to create a richer experience for the viewers. Neogeography really makes it easy to provide many different types of information and media to viewers in an informative map form.

Some of the pitfalls of neogeography include the possibility of misrepresentation of the environment and geographical information. Neogeography is mostly used by amateur geographers due to its volunteer and unpaid work environment. This is obvious in my map of the Whitney Portal trail. Google Maps reports the main trail as only six or so miles, when the actual walking distance of the trail should be close to 11 miles. I cited this discrepancy as a result of the inaccurate trail mapping on my part. It would take far too long to accurately map the trail using the tools Google Maps provides.

As a consequence of these inaccuracies , the mash-ups made using Google Maps are limited by the toolset and will not be precise in describing locations. However the main purpose for my mash-up was to describe (in an entertaining fashion) my experience hiking Mount Whitney. I believe Google Maps was able to do this well and provided enough tools to create a rich experience for the viewer. Since hiking is a very spatial activity, neogeography works well to help others visualize the distance and elevation gain of my great adventure.