Cartography, GIS and the World Wide Web

For this, my initial cartography and GIS report, I have selected a theme external to, but with implications for, both ± the World Wide Web (WWW, or simply `the web'). According to its primary architect, the WWW `was developed to be a pool of human knowledge, which would allow collaborators in remote sites to share their ideas and all aspects of a common project' (Berners-Lee et al., 1994: 76). Conceived in 1989 as an extension of the Internet, five years later the web was responsible for only 3% of Internet traffic. Between spring 1994 and spring 1995, however, the web jumped to first place in web traffic and continues to retain that position. As both a technology and a cultural phenomenon, this new vehicle for information exchange has implications for all facets of science and society, and has attracted attention in many disciplines (see, for example, Batty and Barr, 1994; Berners-Lee et al., 1994; Nielsen, 1995; Pitkow and Kehoe, 1995; Computing Research Association, 1996; Doheny-Farina, 1996; Gunkel and Gunkel, 1997). Web-based cartography and GIS is at an early stage of development. Even so, the nature of maps and of spatial information access is undergoing profound change. Taylor (1997: 2) contends that `the half life of knowledge in the field is probably down to a matter of months'. Web sites featuring mapping and GIS are added daily ± and the sites are being used (some generating hundreds of maps per day). I could fill the space intended for this essay with a list of web addresses (URLs) to sites `serving' maps and spatial data (for two such lists, see Chang, 1997; MacLennan, 1997). The web allows information `objects' of many forms (maps, images, sounds, text, etc.) to be linked to any number of other information objects. A global database of information is evolving in which every information object is related to all other objects. As a consequence, the web has the potential to facilitate change in cartography and GIS through at least three fundamental mechanisms: 1) by dramatically increasing the applications of mapping and GIS ± through greater access to tools and data; 2) through integration of mapping, GIS and nonspatial information technologies (and associated spatial and nonspatial data) to create new forms of representation and new ways to address problems important to society; and 3) by creating new virtual `worlds' to be mapped, analyzed and manipulated (and, like the physical world, exploited).