Generating Flexible National Borders and

Virtual Landscapes

By Mark Caldwell, UWM Sociology and GIS

Overview: Seeing is Believing

Maps in Motion: Production and Medium

Imagined Communities

Spatial Compression

Free and Open: Google, Inc.

Implications of Virtual State Control: China

Maps in Motion: Production

Past 50 years has changed mapping schemes

Internet 2.0 has created virtual geographic production

Web 2.0 environment allows for user-derived content

“Basemaps” are newest geographic medium

Maps in Motion: Medium

Marshall McLuhan’s “medium as the message”

Map projections fix information into a set spatial area

Basemaps are created by private enterprises through coding process

Imagined Communities and Spatial Compression

Created by shared social and cultural beliefs

Rise of the nation-state to define spatial borders

Basemaps renew sensory perception of these borders

User’s demand instant information with no formal training

Google, Inc: “Free and Open Mapping”

Google, Inc. facilitates the production and storage of geographic information for other countries

H.R. 1512 commends Google for advocating uncensored and open internet for all users

United States hub for open source mash-ups

China: State Control Limitations

• In 2010, Chinese State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping created law which prevents production of map-mashups by Chinese Citizens

• Need to ensure that mapping information is accurate and does not display “sensitive information”

• States secret laws mandate 7 to 10 year jail sentence for disclosure of confidential information

Nation-state defines virtual map space through policies and laws

Corporation define virtual map medium through control of coding and programming

Thank you for Visualizing !Mark Caldwell, UWM Sociology and GIS

mac4@uwm.eduwww.gis.sarup.uwm.edu/MAC4