Michael Peterson

You will notice from the book and atlas projects that are described on these pages that my major area of interest is the use of technology in mapping. My first computer map was produced in 1976 by using graph paper to encode over 1,200 x,y coordinates and entering these numbers into a teletype machine connected to a remote computer. I purchased my first personal computer in 1985. It was a Macintosh with 512 KB of memory and a single 400 KB floppy drive. I added a 20 MB hard-drive the following year and spent the next several years demonstrating how interaction could be integrated with the presentation and analysis of maps.

I began writing my first book in the early 1990s, largely inspired by the possibilities of interactive computers. The book Interactive and Animated Cartography appeared in 1995. I have been writing and editing books and atlases ever since.

I can't explain why I like to present geographic information in the form of words, pictures and maps. There is an element of discovery involved. The animations of air traffic, for example, depict landscapes of flights that have never been seen before. Early explorers discovered new areas of the world. With the help of technology, modern cartographers find new aspects of the world to map.

Photography has always interested me as well because so much can be conveyed in a single picture. Although, as you can see from my Photography page, it is the combination of pictures with words that I find particularly intriguing. A good caption can bring life to a picture and give it meaning.

International collaboration in research is also important to me. I chair a commission of the International Cartographic Association entitled Maps and the Internet and work closely with colleagues around the world. Academia in the US, suffering from monolingualism, has become far too parochial.

I also enjoy presenting workshops because it represents a more direct way of information exchange. The immediate feedback, as in a classroom, is refreshing compared to the slow response from a book. I guess that's one of the reasons that I like teaching so much - I can see how students react.