Neogeography and Blogs

Hi everyone! I have been asked to guest blog about my use of neogeography so here I go.

I started blogging after I noticed geography has been an overlooking field in blogging. Sure there were excellent cartographic blogs and geopolitical blogs but no geography blogs. I launched Geographic Travels with Catholicgauze! to fill this gap. Catholicgauze is my alter ego and the blog allows me to write anything I want without worrying about the horribly long and painful process of getting a paper published in an academic journal. I blog mostly about human geography but will periodically venture into physical geography. 

Recently I was looking for a way to categorize my blog posts but the normal list system was not panning out well. After doing some blog searches I discovered neogeography and Platial. I realized then a map would be a great way to categorize posts from a geography blog. So I created Catholicgauze’s Atlas and imbedded it onto my blog.

Neogeography and blogging in general have a bright future together. Interactive maps can allow a high school blogger to better describe her trip to Europe. A genealogist blogger can show the spatial distribution of his ancestors. The opportunities are almost endless.

Neogeography has a promising future in its own right. Geography is a constantly expanding field and a willing adopter of technology like remote sensing and geographic information system. These technologies however are expensive and complicated. Online mapping; on the other hand, is free and easy. This appeals to the common man and creates popular interest which will drive innovation. While neogeography will not revolutionize culture; tools like Google Earth, Platial, and others have greatly contributed to global awareness and will continue to do so.

Comments

[deisnor]

I didn't know you were going to blog Catholicgauze what a great idea! Thanks.

I like the picture of geographic technologies becoming more accessible. I'm eager to see how far mapping will go when moms, birders and chefs are creating them. Of course this does not discount the very important professional arena- I liken it to nearly a decade ago when photography was a domain for professionals and now has expanded to include an important and still growing enthusiast base who have transformed photography into a communications medium.