Contents

2. Electronic Atlases in the Commercial World
     2.1. Current situation
     2.2. The Microsoft Encarta World Atlas
     2.3. Improving the Quality of Content: The Map Bash Project

3. Tools for Developing an Atlas Information System
     3.1. Visegrad, 1993!
     3.2. The Network is the Computer
     3.3. New Commercial Tools
     3.4. A Case Study from Utrecht

4. Conclusions
References

1. Introduction

The last 30 years may be characterised as the information revolution, where we see the advent of the digital computer, comparable to the invention of the steam engine in the 18th century. Man has now gained the ability to single-handedly process huge amounts of data and transform it into information. This capability also created the opportunity to generate information, that was not viable or feasible in the age manual information processing, like predicting the weather on the long-term. It is of course of no use if we may calculate a one week prediction after two weeks of calculations. The computer managed to speed up this process and enabled us to actually do something we always wanted. In cartography we may see a similar phenomenon in the science of map projections. Formerly a cartographer could make himself immortal by designing a new map projection. Months of calculations would eventually yield the new map of the world. The computer changed all this and with it the way we are thinking about map projections as fixed premises of geography(Mekenkamp, 1989). Processing speed allows us to change the map projection in real time, or 'morph' one projection into the other. It also allowed the cartographer to educate the map user better in relation to the shape of the earth and the properties of its visual representation on a flat surface. Information technology even allowed us to mimic the turning globe as closely as possible on a flat surface, by using interactive computer animation. Electronic geography products, like Microsoft's Virtual Globe (a.k.a. World Atlas) (Microsoft, 1998), have brought this concept to the general public, and are very successful in doing so.

Fig. 1 The US National Cleringhouse Concept (FGDC)

Anyone who is knowledgeable about cartography knows that, the last ten years, this trade has become highly dependent of information technology. GIS, which is for a large part based on cartographic concepts and principles, has become a multimillion dollar industry and pushed geographic thinking and awareness more to the centre of attention. One will find geographical technology in places nowadays where it was unknown ten years ago. The commercial world has discovered GIS as a valuable tool for spatial reasoning and planning. All this activity leads to an ever growing ocean of spatial data, that awaits processing or reprocessing. This situation lead to the development of the concept of data mining and data warehouses(Fig. 1). It boosted the development of standards for information interchange. The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) in the United States co-ordinates the development of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). The NSDI encompasses policies, standards, and procedures for organisations to co-operatively produce and share geographic data. The metadata standards, like the one of the FGDC, and interchange formats are the enabling technology for this widespread acceptance of geographic information technology. A an other interesting example is the Open GIS Consortium [http://www.opengis.org/], a group of vendors in GIS technology together with users have set up specifications to let GIS-products interoperate more efficiently with each other. This lead to the emergence of new products that cross over the boundaries of the vendor's realms and that make the use of spatial data much more transparent and less technology driven. An example of such a product is INTERGRAPH's GeoMedia, a program that is able to integrate data sets of various well known GIS vendors.

The situation described above is the premise for the modern atlas cartographer. In 1993, during the seminar on Electronic Atlases in Visegrad, Hungary a new definition of the atlas as a means to communicate geographical information was presented:

An atlas is a systematic and coherent collection of geographical data in analogue or digital form, representing a particular area and/or one or more geographical themes, together with tools for information retrieval, analysis and presentation. (Koop, 1993)

This workable definition tries to bridge the gap between the paper atlas and the atlas in an electronic format. It suggests a continuum between both types and that one does not preclude the other. In fact this definition focuses on content more than on technology. The geographical data take a central place in the picture. The fact that these data are well organised, pre-processed and put into well manageable chunks of information make an atlas stand out from a GIS or, if you like, a spatial data warehouse. Although the traditional paper atlas will keep its market share in the consumer and educational environment, the scientific users will gradually accept the atlas information system as the way to go. The reason for this is the fact that all data will be made available in digital form and access to these data through information technology is the most efficient and cost effective way. Nevertheless there will always be cross breeds, where the advantages of the data driven information system is combined with the arm chair qualities of the paper atlas. In the consumer market there are numerous product, that bare the qualification atlas and that are being published in digital form on a medium like CD ROM or DVD.

The remainder of this paper will deal with a project carried out at Utrecht University, concerning the improvement of map content in a consumer atlas. Furthermore some attention will be paid to the current state of the art in development tools that may push the electronic atlas, or the atlas information system, further ahead.

Continue to: 2. Electronic Atlases in the Commercial World

Laatste keer bijgewerkt op 18 april 2000 door Peter van der Krogt.