View Vegetarian Restaurants in East Hollywood in a larger map


Potential, Pitfalls, and Consequences of Neogeography 


Neogeography is the new frontier: mapmaking just got personal. Neogeography has huge potentials, which are clearly evident from the burst of location-based, mobile-app "tagging" and map making from every day people. Common individuals are being exposed to and utilizing tools that were once reserved to highly trained and educated individuals. Now, anyone, even a child, can log into Google, make a map of their choosing and post it for the world to see. One benefit is the informal education of the public on maps and the knowledge that comes along with it. Neogeography also serves as a social service, providing essentially everyone and anyone who has access to the internet with thousands upon thousands of maps of anything you can imagine, from hiking trails, to popular tourist spots to.. Vegetarian Restaurants in East Hollywood! Neogeography is made by individual, everyday people, but it can help and guide thousands of users on the internet. Neogeography is also a very powerful mapping tool on a local scale. People can make maps of their neighborhoods and towns, which can be used to warn people about dangerous areas, areas without lamp posts, etc. 


While this is a great product of Web 2.0, there are also a lot of pitfalls and consequences. Lack of privacy, inaccurate data, and misleading maps are all issues. With GoogleEarth, everything is public. "Gated" and "private" neighborhoods are a thing of the past: anyone can download Google Earth and view someone's neigborhood, street, or even backyard with a few clicks. Another large pitfall is the lack of precision and accuracy. Because people with no professional training in GIS or cartography are using these programs, a lot of information can be false, not fully researched, or even intentionally misleading.