Lab 3 Neogeography

View My visits to Indonesia in a larger map
I decided to create a neogeographic map of the various places that my family and I visit when we take our trips back to my parents' home country of Indonesia. We try to take trips every couple of years or so. I included things like details of the really long flight, places that we like to eat, typical tourist sites that we have visited, and more.

        Neogeography, or "new geography," has taken the world by storm and is integrated in almost everything anyone does. Neogeography is the concept of people creating and using their own personal maps, combining elements of existing mapping tools. With neogeography, people can share their location information with their friends and families. Examples would include Google Maps, "checking in" on Facebook, geotagging photos on Instagram and Twitter, and more. Mashups, which combine information from multiple sources/websites (like the one I created above), are also another example of neogeography Neogeography, however, does have its various pitfalls, potentials, and consequences.

        The benefits and potentials of neogeography are multiple. The concept of neogeography has opened up a new interest in mapping and location information in today's modern society. It has reiterated the importance and relevance of maps in everyday life. Individuals are now able to easily illustrate and share their own reality and what is important to their personal lives, giving them some more freedom and power. For example, geotagging in Palestine can be taken as a measure of Palestinians finding some way to express their identity and a way of pushing back against the forces that oppress them. Neogeography has also been quite helpful in emergency situations, such as geotagging that occurs during major hurricanes, etc. which can give the government forces information on which areas are in need of the most help.

        However, neogeography does have various pitfalls and consequences that might be of important consideration. Some pitfalls of neogeography include the fact that one must have some technological competence and skill to create and/or use neogeographic maps and tools. It would be difficult for older people, who weren't as familiar with modern technology, to take part in neogeography. Thus, some might say that the concept of neogeography is democratized for certain individuals. Another pitfall is the decrease in validity of certain maps, as neogeeographic maps made by amateurs might be taken as a true reference rather than those created by map professionals and cartographers. Lastly, the concept of "invasion of privacy" could certainly be a consequence of neogeography. For example, detailed information on different locations on Google Earth can be easily accessed by anybody. That could increase terrorist threats as some "secret" government locations aren't so "secret" anymore.

        In conclusion, I do personally think that the benefits and the potential that comes with neogeography outweigh its dangers. I feel that in the future, with the way technology is quickly advancing, that society can find some way to lessen the pitfalls and consequences of neogeography and it can be more of an aid to everybody. Plus, I really did enjoy making my own personal mashup on Google Earth, telling my personal story about my own visits to Indonesia, and having the ability to interactively share it with others.

Lab 2

Lab 2: USGS Topographic Maps

1.) Name of Quadrangle: Beverly Hill Quadrangle

2.) Adjacent Quadrangles: Canoga Park Quadrangle, Van Nuys Quadrangle, Burbank Quadrangle, Topanga Quadrangle, Hollywood Quadrangle, Venice Quadrangle, Inglewood Quadrangle

3.) Date Created:  1995

4.) Datum Used: North American Datum of 1927 and North American Datum of 1983

5.) Map Scale: 1:24 000

6.) (a) 1cm = 240 meters on ground so 5cm = 240cm x 5 = 1200 meters on the ground.
     (b) 1in =0.379 miles on the ground so 5in = 0.379 x 5 = 1.895 miles on the ground.
     (c) 63,360 inches in a mile so 63,360 in/24000= 2.64 inches on the map.
     (d) 3km = 300,000 cm so 300,000cm/24000 = 12.5 cm on the map.

7.)  Contour Interval: 20 feet


8.) Geographic Coordinates

      (a) The Public Affairs Building: Lat 34° 4' 15" (34.070833), Long 118° 26' 40" (118.444444)
      (b) The Tip of Santa Monica Pier: Lat 34° 0' 45" (24.0125), Long 118° 30' (118.5)
      (c) The Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir: Lat 34°  7' 15" (34.120833), Long 118° 23' 5"  (118.384722)      

9.) Elevations
    (a) Greystone Mansion: 540 feet, 164.592 meters
    (b) Woodlawn Cemetery: 40 feet, 12.192 meters
    (c) Crestwood Hills Park: 650 feet, 198.12 meters

10.) UTM Zone: Zone 11

11.) UTM Coordinates for lower left corner of map: 3763000m N and 362000m E

12.) Square meters within each cell of UTM gridlines: 1,000,000 meters

13.) Elevation Profile: Points on UCLA campus highlighted in green and yellow colors


   
           
14.) Magnetic Declination of Map: 14° east

15.) Direction of Water Flow between 405 and Stone Canyon Reservoir: North to South


16.) UCLA graphic on Beverly Hill Quadrangle Map:

Lab Week 1

Map #1

 

Source Site URL: http://honolulunotes.com/2011/01/page/5/

Image URL: http://honolulunotes.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/us-of-awesome-sized.jpg 

        Beginning with the title, "The United States of Awesome," I found multiple interesting aspects within this first map. The source of this map is this website entitled honolulunotes.com, which apparently is a type of blog that records facts about Honolulu, Hawaii. I came across this map after looking up "interesting maps" on Google Images, and again, the title is what struck me. This map describes what each state in America is best at. It has a plethora of colors, and the creator of the map made sure that no adjacent states were in the same color to make sure that one could tell the difference between state to state. What I found interesting about this map is that it highlights random facts that I did not know about each American state. Some of them are quite serious, like "Affordable In-State Tuition" in Florida and "Least Violent Crimes" in Maine. Others are hilarious, such as "Most Breastfed Babies" in Oregon and "Most Liberalized Prostitution Levels" in Nevada. I was actually quite surprised to learn that California, my home state, is the "Safest for Workers." In conclusion, I think this map is quite versatile, as it could be used to discover serious information (like where people get the highest income), or it could be used for entertainment to just learn random facts about what each state of America is best at.

Map #2

Source Site URL: http://io9.com/5923723/tweets-of-the-words-beer-and-church-by-us-county

Image URL:  http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17rzhch8rgfg0jpg/original.jpg

        This second map does not have an official title, but it indicates data collected from tweets that include the words "beer" and "church" and separates them by U.S. county. The source is from a website titled i09.com. Because sociology is my declared major here at UCLA, I decided to search "sociology maps" in Google Images and I came across this map. At first sight on the image results, I thought the visual of the map was interesting because I saw the sections and colors get smaller and smaller as you cross the country from west to east. After clicking on the map, I found it quite funny that this map records "beer" and "church" tweets. It takes data on weekend tweets by each county that include those two specific words, to show which of the two one's specific county holds most important. It has a pretty simple key that differentiates and gives meaning to the colors within the map. Other things I found interesting about the map, other than the whole hilarious premise of the map itself, is that it separates data by U.S. counties instead of just by state. It makes the data more specific to readers. I also found it interesting that some parts of the country are not colored in and did not have any data, indicating that twitter use is probably not as popular in those regions. In conclusion, I feel like this map would be more used for entertainment among readers as it is definitely quite amusing.

Map #3

Source Site URL: http://iws.punahou.edu/user/JStevens/project/standard_of_living/

Image URL: http://iws.punahou.edu/user/JStevens/project/poverty%20map.bmp

        For the final map, I chose to look for one that included global data. This map records levels of poverty in today's world and is from a source that seems to be on a specific school's database as part of a student project. To describe this map, it seems to be organized by country and uses a scale of different colors that specify poverty levels of each country. The data is based on GNP per capita and other various poverty indicators. I found this map to be interesting because I feel that it does relate to my sociology major, as it incorporates data from across the globe about different societies and groups of people. I also thought it was interesting that you can see how places like the United States are not even colored in, showing how severe poverty is in other countries and how people in first world countries might take where they live for granted. This map is quite useful in many different ways. From a humbling standpoint, it expresses the enormity of the problem of poverty and asks the question, "what can we do to help?" It also provides a view into the lives of other people in places across the world, not just where one lives.  In conclusion, maps such as these should be more prominent as its data and findings could certainly bring about change that is desperately needed.