Atlassing in the Cloud
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1Wolodtschenko, A.; 2Hruby, F.
1DRESDEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Email: alexander.wolodtschenko@mailbox.tu-dresden.de
2CONABIO NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR KNOWLEDGE AND USE OF BIODIVE Email: florian.hruby@conabio.gob.mx
Abstract
In times of analogue cartography, maps and atlases had at least three functions: Firstly the visualization of spatial data, secondly the analysis of these data, and thirdly to store the information depicted. When the first geographic information systems (GIS) appeared in the 1960s, the multifunctionality of traditional maps changed: Geospatial data is now stored in geodatabases, while algorithms of the GIS allow making even complex analysis of this data very fast; hence, the mapĀ“s central function remains in visualizing the output of these analysis processes. With the spread of the internet we can observe that this functional division of labor, which is represented by the different components of our GIS, is now paralleled by a spatial division: The different components of a GIS no longer need to be at the same place, but can be provided as services via internet. Against this background, cloud cartography, on the one hand, can be seen as a simple technological consequence of the functional division of the mapping process initiated by the first GIS. On the other hand, the emerging transition of GIS into the cloud computing era is about to transform traditional techniques and methods of mapmaking: While current Desktop-GIS - also due to limited animation and interactivity tools - still strongly rely on traditional static mapping methods taken from analogue cartography ( e.g. choropleth mapping) to produce mainly static maps either in print or on screen, a cloud based cartography could reformulate the concepts of mapmakers, maps and mapusers fundamentally. The cloud appears in a moment when cartography, disposing of more and more data with higher and higher temporal and spatial resolution, faces the problem of how to make these data accessible to the user. Currently, mainly geobrowsers or geoportals are used to solve this issue. These platforms allow quick search of particular topics, but in crosslinking semantically interrelated topics weaknesses become apparent. By contrast, paper printed atlases have been a traditional way to semantically structure and represent large amounts of geographical data for centuries. Hence, we propose the term Atlassing to show how fundamental concepts of traditional atlas cartography (e.g. the development of spatial, temporal and/or thematic narrative structures) can be transferred into the cloud, and how atlassing products (e.g. responsively designed mini-atlases) can be interpreted and analyzed by means of semiotic meta-variables (text, image, map). Consequently, atlassing can be understood as an interdisciplinary umbrella term to describe the possibilities inherent to cloud based cartography. We will discuss these possibilities from a theoretical-semiotic point of view and by means of practical examples.
Keywords
atlassing; semiotics; cloud cartography