Lab 3

View 2012 Summer Vacation: Dubai and South Africa in a larger map

This map is an example of what is called "neogeography", which is when a non-expert uses geographical techniques to display information in a non-formal or analytical way. There are some benefits to neogeography, such as the availability of the information. Since the creators of such information tend to be non-experts or non-professionals, the information can usually be accessed by most anybody. Also, the topics of the information being presented also differs from professional data and the topics tend to be less mundane. With neogeography, maps can be made to present anything, whether it is some one's vacation, or the list of nightclubs that one went to over the span of a month. These sort of topics are not ones that professionals take up and research, and therefore are usually presented in a less scholarly and informal way.

While neogeography may present more creative ideas to the normal scholarly geography, there are some pitfalls that present itself in this subject. With amateurs creating geographic projects, the data could be skewed and prove to be inaccurate. Also, professional data is always done with the main objective of presenting the data and not being artistic. Amateur work can try to be artistic first, then be hard to read and provide no tangible information. However, neogeography has a lot of potential. Neogeography allows out-of-the-box thinking and allows all people a chance to read all sorts of information as opposed to just scholarly work.