Hypermedia Maps and the Internet Michael P. Peterson Chair, Maps and the Internet Commission of the International Cartographic Association Geography, Univ. of NebraskaNebraska-Omaha [email protected]

Introduction „ „

Internet has changed mapping and map use Many problems need to be solved to make the Internet a more effective form of map delivery „

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Development of new map forms, like hypermedia maps Improving map use „

Making maps available to people

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Hypermedia Maps „

Success based on „

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Envisioning new combinations of maps and media Finding workable methods of delivery to the map user

Marketing, funding, maintenance

Purpose „

Examine the current status of Internetdelivered hypermedia maps „ „

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availability through search engines difficulty in finding based on a variety of search terms

Examine possible solutions to make hypermedia maps more available „

searching and marketing

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Internet „

Development of hypermedia based on Internet

Year

Internet Users in Billions

2007

1.46

2005

1

Growth of Internet usage

2004

0.935

Source: Computer Industry Almanac (2001, 2005)

2001

0.533

2000

0.327

1996

0.061

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Quick transition from CDCD-ROM to Internet

Internet Use vs Internet Map Use

Growth in the Use of the Internet in the number of new users per year. e 0.45

Growth in Internet Map Use in Number of Maps Distributed per Day e 0.80

Figure 6. A comparison between the growth of the Internet and the growth of Internet map use. Both growth rates are exponential. Internet map use is growing at a faster rate, approximated by an exponent of e 0.80, where e is the base of the natural logarithms.

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Experiments in Finding Online Maps „

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Search engines are a window to the Internet information landscape It is the way people come to know the resources available through the Internet If a resource is not available through a search engine, it essentially does not exist.

2001 Experiment „

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Over 100 first year college students in groups of 25 Pentium III, 500Mhz computers, 256 MB Instructed to find three maps: „ „ „

Map of Africa by country Map of Africa by country in PDF format A street map that shows where they live

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Results „

Map of Africa by country „

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Map of Africa by country in PDF format „

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found in 16 – 45 seconds > 28 seconds; most >40 seconds

A street map that shows where they live „ „

About 1/3 had never made such a map Interactive mapping sites not easy to find with search engines.

Africa Map

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2005 Finding Maps Update „ „

Pentium 4, 2.4 Ghz, 512 MB Map of Africa by country „

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Map of Africa by country in PDF format „

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10 - 30 seconds 40 – 75 seconds

A street map that shows where they live „ „

Everyone had used one of these sites. Map completed in under 45 seconds.

Finding Hypermedia Maps „ „

Self-test & group test Defined search strings: „ „ „ „ „ „

Maps Hypermedia Africa Maps Multimedia Africa Maps Pictures Africa Maps Sound Africa Maps Movies Africa Maps Flash Africa

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Results Google Search Text

Sites with Maps in top 20

Sites with Pictures of Africa in top 20

Sites other Media of Africa in top 20

Maps Hypermedia Africa

I

I

Maps Multimedia Africa

IIII IIII

III

II

Maps Pictures Africa

II

II

I

Maps Sound Africa

II

IIII

I (bird songs)

Maps Movies Africa

IIII

Flash Africa

IIII

Hypermedia Maps

II

III

III

II

Hypermedia Map Search „

Pictures & maps were the most common „

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Searching for maps & sound produced maps & pictures

The only hypermedia maps were found with “Flash Africa” Most people would not know the meaning of Flash, or associate it with interactive maps.

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Journeys through the Information Landscape „

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the landscape of information that we traverse when we venture into a hypermedia environment information landscape that most people experience is the one presented by search engines Some estimate that search engines have only indexed a third of all web pages.

How Search Engines Work „

web robot or a spider 1) 2)

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words are entered into a special index other links are found for later traversing

prioritize index „ „ „ „ „

Number of times pages are linked “importance” of page making the link Smaller pages given a preference Meta tag text money

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Five Major Problems 1.

Cost of crawling: Crawling the web is very expensive and timetimeconsuming, requiring a major investment in computer and human capital.

2.

Crawlers are dumb: Crawlers are simple programs that have little ability to determine the quality or appropriateness of a web page, page, or whether it is a page that changes frequently and should be rere-crawled on a timely basis.

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Poor user skills: Most searchers rarely take advantage of the advanced limiting and control functions that all search engines offer.

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Quick and dirty results: “Internet Time” requires a fast if not always thorough, response. A slower, more deliberate, search engine engine would not gain user acceptance although it might lead to better results.

5.

Bias towards text: Search engines are highly optimized to index text. For nonnon-text pages, such as images, audio, or streaming media files, the search engine can do little more than record filename and location details.

Media Search Engines „

Image search (Google, Yahoo) „

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Video search (Yahoo) „

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GIF, JPEG, PNG AVI, MPEG, Quicktime, Windows Media, Real

Collection-based: Corbis

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Map Search Engine „ „

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Distinguishing maps from pictures Determining map content in other file types Authors self-define map content Categories: static, interactive, animated, hypermedia

Marketing „

Existing hypermedia maps from National Geographic „

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Promoting print publications

Envisioning a hypermedia map house „

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Analogous to map houses of the 1500s in the port cities of Europe Incorporate the latest in mapping and multimedia technology Develop loyal following

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Workable model of Internet Marketing „

Subscription service „

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Apples iTunes „ „ „ „

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Music, Google’s Keyhole 99 cent model Copying becomes more of a hassle than it’s worth Milestone in electronic commerce Selling maps by components may not work

Implicit in the idea of intellectual property rights „

authors need to “be compensated with money lest their creative incentive whither”

Conclusion „

Hypermedia maps are hard to find „

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People aren’t exposed to, thus don’t see the advantage of combining maps with other forms of media

Hypermedia is not a good word for search engines „ „ „

Understood in a limited academic world Not an effective google term What is the future of academic terms?

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Challenge we face „

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Not in finding new ways to incorporate media with maps But, finding a way to market, distribute, hypermedia maps „

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and displace firmly entrenched static maps

Otherwise, hypermedia maps will remain an academic curiosity

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