WUN Global GIS Academy Seminar – What’s So New in Neogeography?

These are the slides from the Worldwide Universities Network Global GIS Academy Seminar from the 22nd October. The seminar’s title is ‘What’s So New in Neogeography?’ and it is aimed largely at an academic audience with background in GIScience.

The aim of the talk is to critically review Neogeography: explain its origins, discuss the positive lessons from it – mainly in improved usability of geographic technologies, as well as highlighting aspects that I see as problematic.

The presentation starts with some definitions and with the notice that mapping/location is central to Web 2.0, and  thus we shouldn’t be surprised that we’ve noticed a step change in the use of GI over the past 3 years.

By understanding what changed around 2005, it is possible to explain the development of Neogeography. These changes are not just technical but also societal.

The core of the discussion is on the new issues that are important to Neogeography’d success, but also raising some theoretical and practical aspects that must be included in a comprehensive analysis of the changes and what they mean to Geography and geographers.

The presentation is available below from slideshare, and the (very rough and without proofing) notes are available here.