#20545
Geographic Information Systems 
Explains GIS (geographic information systems), which capture and display geographically referenced information) and suggests ways that technical communicators can become more involved with this technology.
Pettit Jones, Colleen. Intercom (2003). Articles>Information Design>Technical Illustration>Geography
#27061
A new book in the popular O'Reilly 'Hacks' series shows you how to find and create your own mashups, overlaying all kinds of interesting information on Google maps.
Sherman, Chris. Search Engine Watch (2006). Articles>Reviews>Web Design>Geography
#29829
In this article, I examine a historical information graphic--Charles Booth's maps of London poverty (1889-1902)--to analyze the cultural basis of ideas of transparency and clarity in information graphics. I argue that Booth's maps derive their rhetorical power from contemporary visual culture as much as from their scientific authority. The visual rhetoric of the maps depended upon an ironic inversion of visual culture to make poverty seem a problem that could be addressed, rather than an insurmountable crisis. This visual rhetoric led directly to significant features of and concepts in western societies, including the poverty line and universal old-age pensions (social security).
Kimball, Miles A. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2006). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric>Geography
#19045
Road to Nowhere - Dublin's Road Signs Get Told Where To Go 
There are two superlative facts about Dublin City’s traffic situation. The first is that a recent study has shown us to have the second worse traffic congestion problem in the world (my condolences to any readers that have to drive through Calcutta on a Monday morning) and the second is that we are, or rather were, the proud possessors of the shortest lived traffic signage system in the world. The signs lasted a mere 24 hours before the Minister for transport ordered these signs be removed. Why were they removed? The answer is usability, or lack of usability to be more precise. Unsuspecting motorists were unable to figure out what the signs were trying to tell them. There were several usability problems with the signs, and many of these have been covered in the media so I won’t cover that ground again. But for any of you that are unfamiliar with the story, the major complaints levelled at them were: they had too much information on them to read at a glance; the format of the information was unfamiliar to everyone (except the people that designed them); tommon place-names were replaced by a system of numbers and colour coding, requiring users to consult maps to establish where they were and where they were heading; the information was difficult to read – too many graphic elements and poor colour contrast; some of the information was only available in the Irish language (contrary to EU standards) and the reason given was that there was not enough space for the English text, so visiting motorists would have to guess that ‘An Lar’ means ‘City Centre’! Having looked at the signs during their brief career on the streets, I would have to agree with the complaints listed above. But at this juncture, rather than raking over old coals, lets examine what Dublin City Council can do to rectify the situation and what steps can be taken to ensure that these mistakes are not repeated in the new design.
Long, Frank. Frontend Infocentre (2001). Articles>Usability>Traveler Information>Geography
#27285
The fact that many decisions need a combination of information sources makes easy integration of geospatial data an important data usability issue. Our vision is to achieve automated just-in-time integration. As a foundation, we present a system architecture with distributed data and services. Existing and evolving standards and technologies fitting into this architecture are presented along with their scope and shortcomings. A major point is the appropriate definition of data and operation semantics. Further research is needed here to make the automatic formation of service chains for data integration possible.
Riedemann, Catharina and Christian Timm. Data Science Journal (2003). Articles>Information Design>XML>Geography
#23840
A Shared Reality: Maps as Metaphor
Maps help us navigate. On the Internet, finding things has become the big challenge. Death by a thousand clicks is the bane of any net user. The reason? We are attempting to shoe-horn the metaphor of maps–tools for navigating complex spaces–into existing metaphors, such as the infinite book that is the World Wide Web.
Malamud, Carl. Mappa Mundi (1999). Design>Information Design>Sitemaps>Geography
#29133
Social Topography in a Wireless Era: The Negotiation of Public and Private Space 
Talking on the phone is usually a private activity, but it becomes a public activity when using a cellphone in certain spaces. Unlike a traditional payphone in public, cellphones do not have privacy booths. Therefore, the ways in which people respond to cellphone calls in public spaces provide markers for social topographical space. In this study I explore how cellphone users negotiate privacy when using cellphones in public space and how those within the proximity of the caller negotiate space in response to these callers. Based on a year-long study involving observation fieldwork and in-depth interviews, I discuss the flexibility with which people constantly negotiate their private and public sense of self when using and responding to cellphones in public spaces.
Humphreys, Lee. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2005). Articles>Collaboration>Wireless Web>Geography
#31102
It is now possible to replicate Google Maps' functionality with open source software and produce high-quality mapping applications tailored to your design goals. Paul Smith shows how.
Smith, Paul. List Apart, A (2008). Design>Web Design>Visual Rhetoric>Geography
#32531
Location-Based Publishing and Services
In this article, we'll look at ways that you can geocode your content, using data formats such as the location nanoformat, GPX and combinations of geocoded microformats in HTML.
Rose, Premasagar. Opera (2008). Articles>Web Design>Metadata>Geography
#32919
Most online mapping applications do not address issues of web accessibility. For a visually impaired web user, these highly visual maps are essentially useless. Is there a way to display text-based data on a map, keeping it accessible, useful and visually attractive? Yes: using an accessible CSS-based map in which the underlying map data is separated from the visual layout.
Duffey, Seth. List Apart, A (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Geography
#33404
One of the critical-mass elements for location-based services to actually be useful is for online content to have a sense of geographic context. We're already seeing it to some extent with services such as Flickr allowing photographs to be tagged with GPS coordinates: camera-phones with built-in GPS can automatically tag each photo with the exact location at which it was taken, and that meta-data can then be used to search for photos of a particular area or place.
Oxer, Jonathan. Internet Vision Technologies (2008). Articles>Web Design>Metadata>Geography
#33459
Finding addresses and location information on company websites has gotten dramatically easier, but users increasingly turn to search engines first for this task.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Geography
#34561
Woodward Paths: Motorizing Space
This essay takes up the call for a rhetoric of distributed space by proposing a folksonomic rhetoric. Folksonomies, systems in which users may name any object, space, idea, or image any name they want, offer technical communicators new possibilities for how they work in network environments. As a way to explore the possibility of a folksonomic rhetoric, this essay examines one specific space, Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, as if it were a folksonomic space.
Rice, Jeff. Technical Communication Quarterly (2009). Articles>Information Design>Taxonomy>Geography
#34994
Toward a Rhetoric of Locale: Localizing Mobile Messaging Technology into Everyday Life
This article explores the social meaning of locale in mobile communication research and introduces an approach of user localization to study technology integration. It investigates how locale forms an essential role in mobile communication in the way that practice, agency, and identities are articulated into a user localization process of incorporating technology into user's everyday life. It argues that the use of mobile communication technology is both a complex and dynamic interaction with its surrounding social, cultural, technological, and economic conditions, and an articulation work of self and locale.
Sun, Huatong. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2009). Articles>Information Design>Wireless Web>Geography
