It is obvious we live in a digital information age, data is transformed into information and is presented immediately in real time and in your face. The internet is the medium of this age, this cultural paradigm, the dispenser of information and interpretation. Only recently has the realization, transformation and diffusion of spatial data into meaningful digital thematic cartographic representation has truly begun to be realized. Big internet players like Google maps and Microsoft Earth just start to scratch the surface of providing a means for everyday users to understand their spatial surroundings. Almost every month or every week there appears to be a new geoapplication, geoplugin, geoenhancement or geotool aimed at giving the average user the power to leverage their spatial world in new and meaningful ways.

But, these are just new tools and toys, gadgets and gizmos. They have their place, they provide a form of spatial communication to the end user, displaying maps, directions or some other cross reference of geo-locational functionality. These tools and internet gizmos have given geography the gift of being hip and cool in some amazingly banal fashion, now geography can mingle with email and whatever social networking site of the day. Unlike no other time in the last 50 years geography is cool, all the cool kids are doing it! GeoTagging, flicker,3d representations of our world, areal photography and oh where is my house in google maps!

But, what exactly does all this mean? How does this digital geoawareness and new found ability and tools to map our world effect the everyday user, the non geographer, the non cartographer? How does GIS truly play a role and what will the public be able to do with a GIS and will they even understand it? At what cost does this digital geoworld come to us and will it suffer qualty at the expense of the digital medium. These are questions I plan to address in upcomming blog posts and I hope to create some form of dialog. There is currently quite a few blogs discussing these tools and additional resources, but I hope instead to open a forum a little as to how all this affects us. Please note, these are my opinions, sorta an oped piece.