Cartography on the Internet Seminar

This seminar was offered during the Spring semester of 1995 in the Department of Geography at the University of Hawaii. The syllabus, course outline, instructions for assignments, discussion topics, student biographies, student assignments, and student final projects are available here. These materials are being made freely available for academic use.

The seminar examines the growth of computer networks and their effect on the creation, design, content, and distribution of maps. General problems associated with map distribution are examined. The relevant file formats of JPEG, Acrobat, QuickTime, and MPEG are introduced as well as Internet map/atlas authoring. Discussion topics concern the influence of the paper medium on the design and content of maps, the role of interactivity in map use, and different uses of animation in cartography.

The textbooks for the course are:
(1) Peterson, Michael P. (1995). Interactive and Animated Cartography. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall; and
(2) Dougherty, Dale and Koman, Richard. (1994). The Mosaic Handbook. Sebatopol, CA.: O'Reilly & Associates.

Comments on the materials can be made by contacting Michael Peterson at geolib@cwis.unomaha.edu

Click here to view the SYLLABUS for the course.

A Quick Tour

Maps have become a common element of the Internet. The maps that are available through this computer network can be categorized as static, interactive, and animated. The following sites represent a sample of some of the maps that are available:

The Students:

Find out more about the students:

Kit Dahl | Eric Yamashita | Julsun Pacheco | Peri Cope

Renee Louis | Nancy McCarley | Craig Clouet

Discussion Topics

The following are discussion topics that were examined during the first half of the semester. The discussion questions are associated with chapters from the Interactive and Animated Cartography text.
  1. Maps and the Changing Medium Chapter 1
  2. The Human Geographic Information System Chapter 2
  3. Maps for the Mind Chapter 3
  4. Multimedia and Hypermedia Chapter 7 (also Chapter 6 in the Mosaic Handbook)
  5. Cartographic Animation Chapter 8
  6. Frontier Chapter 12

Site Evaluations

The second assignment called for students to evaluate INTERNET sites that have a map component. The following criteria for evaluation were used:

Criteria for Site Evaluation

Site evaluations by:

Final Projects

The last assignment called for students design their own site or evaluate the potential of distributing maps over the Internet for a specific application.

Course Evaluation:

Evaluation of Course by Professor:

Professor's Evaluation

My Semester in Hawaii

The Prof talks about life in Hawaii.

Life in Hawaii