Lab 3

View Road Trip to the World's Largest Observatory Complex in a larger map

This map shows my road trip to the world's largest observatory complex at the top of Mountain Mauna Kea in Big Island, Hawaii this summer. Big Island is an intriguing place for its diverse geological landscape and ecosystem. On the map, you can see I labeled three areas as "Human being's world", "Devil's World" and "Pure world" not just for fun but there is also meaning in terms of the ecosystem, the natural environment and culture behind these labels. Like in the Human being's world, the environment there is quite suitable for living. Lots of different kinds of green plants grow along the shoreline and the climate there is hospitable. Many farmers also grow plants and graze livestock. Transportation service is well developed in that area. However, when driving into the red area, you can find the landscape is suddenly changed. Bushes and shrubs grow on this area with misty weather. Animals are rarely found. The landscape at the top of the mountain made me think I was not really on Earth but on Mars since when I looked around there were only soil hills. However, every thing seemed so clean, like the sky and the land and it was quite quiet at the summit maybe because of the low concentration of air that cannot convey sound completely in amplitude. Also, we cannot stay at the top for too long because the lack of oxygen made us feel headache. The road to the summit is unpaved so only a 4-wheeled vehicle is allowed to go on to the top. The car was shaking all the time on the road and I had to stay alert to prevent my car from going off the track. It is great to train your driving skill and it is actually fun.

Like the map I created, neogeography is a great tool for people to create individualized and creative maps. It can also provide useful information to introduce other people to a new place based on the experience and comments written by those neogeography users. Sometimes users' individualized information is more interesting to read than a normal tour guide or a map and people tend to believe in other people's real experience rather than in ads or some guide books. Also, when people discover some new changes or emergencies in some places, they can share them online through neogeography in a timely manner. In sum, neogeography is a powerful tool that relies on public knowledge.

However, it does have certain flaws in terms of accuracy and privacy. Take the information on my map for example. Some people might feel the middle area is really not that "devil" during a sunny day visit. Since every one can get access to neogeography, whose information is reliable? Through users' casual drawing on their maps, we also cannot determine if those locations we want to go are really at the places indicated by neogeography users. Information such as routes and locations is not supposed to be more accurate than the information provided by a normal map. Privacy is also another issue. You certainly do not want any stalker to follow you after you share a map about your everyday life to the public. A regulation or a rule should be established to avoid those flaws and improve the quality of neogeography.