--- Begin Forwarded Message ---
Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002 10:30:16 +0000 (GMT)
From: martin dodge <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: This Is a Real Quest for Maps, article in Wired News
Sender: martin dodge <[log in to unmask]>




Hi, I thought this article might be of interest to the list.
cheers
martin

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This Is a Real Quest for Maps

by Kendra Mayfield

http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,50785,00.html




When David Rumsey decided to take his private collection of 19th and
20th century maps public, even the world's largest library couldn't handle the load.

So, rather than donate his vast collection of 150,000 maps to the
Library of Congress, Rumsey decided to put it online.

"With institutions (like the Library of Congress), the access you can
get is not nearly as much as the Internet might provide," said Rumsey, president of Cartography Associates. "I realized I could reach a much larger audience with the Internet."

The result is an extraordinary online compilation of more than 6,500
high-resolution digital images from one of the largest private collections in the United States.

In 1997, Rumsey partnered with Luna Imaging to digitize his collection
and allow users to search, zoom, pan and print these age-old maps.

But merely posting images online wasn't enough; Rumsey wanted to give
users an unparalleled experience in the physical world of cartography.

So last year, Rumsey introduced a GIS (Geographical Information
System) browser, using visualization software developed by Telemorphic.

With the GIS browser, users can overlay multiple maps from different
time periods with current geospatial data, like roads, lakes, parks, aerial photos and satellite imagery. They can also create, save and print their own custom maps to trace changes in a geographic area's history, population or culture.

"(GIS) changes the way that people experience old maps by letting them
compare (these maps) to modern data," Rumsey said. "This will bring both historical information into the world of GIS and it will also bring the art of old maps into the world of GIS."

Rumsey is the first collector to make GIS freely available to people
through the Internet. That effort is part of his plan to "keep access open and free" to his entire collection.

Rumsey uses a digital camera to scan three-dimensional items such as
atlases, globes and books. Images are scanned at a high resolution of at least 300 pixels per inch, with some extremely detailed maps scanned at 600 pixels per inch "to give a sense of the texture of paper."

Scanned images undergo a technique called rectification or "rubber
sheeting," whereby an image from an old map is warped to fit another image with more accurate, modern geospatial data. It takes approximately three hours to rubber sheet each individual map.

Cartographers, GIS professionals, historians and map enthusiasts can
use this data to pinpoint a particular address, find out how towns were populated, how railroads evolved or how European explorers discovered the American West.

The GIS browser allows users to compare 11 different historic maps
from Rumsey's collection with aerial photos to see how the San Francisco Bay area changed from 1851 to 1926. Geographers can trace changes in the San Francisco coastline over the past century to determine what parts of the city are subject to liquefaction and earthquake damage.

This week, Rumsey will introduce 18 historic maps of Boston. He will
later include other major U.S. cities, states, countries and continents. He hopes to have 500 historical maps in GIS by the end of the year.

GIS has been slow to move to the Internet because it has typically
been limited to users who can afford the high cost of data, software and hardware packages on the desktop, such as NASA scientists and Department of Defense analysts.

Rumsey's digital project has also dramatically altered his collection
goals.

He is currently doing a collaborative project with the Library of
Congress to fuse the two map collections online. MapLibraries.com, which currently holds about 250 images, will eventually include more than 10,000 images.

Rumsey's ultimate goal is to digitize 50,000 maps in the next five
years. His maps will eventually include interactive 3-D visualization tools.

"He is really paving the way to deliver more geospatial content,
information and tools for anybody with a Web browser and an Internet connection to see how geospatial content and history relate to each other," said Todd Helt, president and co-founder of Telemorphic.

Related Wired Links:

Military Wary of Map's Release
Dec. 12, 2001

Charting Virtual Worlds
Sep. 29, 2001

Mapping Out a Brand New World
Feb. 29, 2000

The Cyberspace Cartographers
Aug. 26, 1999

Copyright (C) 1994-2002 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved.



_________________________________________________________________________

martin dodge

cyber geography research
centre for advanced spatial analysis, university college london
gower street, london, wc1e 6bt, united kingdom

email: [log in to unmask]        tel: +44 (0)207 679 1782

http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk       http://www.cybergeography.org

                http://www.atlasofcyberspace.com
_________________________________________________________________________

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