Toward a new generation of community atlases - The cybercartographic atlas of Antarctica

The movement towards the reader as author is increasingly prevalent in the information society as a whole. Increasing development of wireless connectivity and relatively inexpensive tools with which to access the Internet has resulted in the ability to be in an 'always on' state. The geographic in

Live hypernarrative and cybercartography: You are here, now

This article explores some of the potentialities of narration in the context of cybercartography. We have developed a new kind of dynamic or "live" form of hypernarrative, in which the content and structure of stories is determined by live information. This system would ultimately allow the creation of hypermedia narratives capable of mining public databases on the fly in order to customize and integrate narrative material appropriate to the user's particular temporal and geospatial context. Unlike other forms of hypermedia, a live hypertext narrative can actually be different every time it is read. More akin to an improvised performance than to a recorded one, a live hypertext changes depending on where and when it is accessed, and on what is happening in the world and on the Web. Live hypertext thus presents a new development in the history of writing that challenges our inherited notions of the stability, fixity, and even authority of printed text. The role of live data and the spatial and temporal aspects of the data suggest strong connections to cybercartographic environments. Not only are the same data sets relevant to both hypernarrative and cybercartography, but the nature of the hypernarrative shows new possibilities for cartographic environments. In particular, narrative and end-user navigation in a story show new ways of involving users, a key principle of cybercartography

A living atlas for geospatial storytelling: The cybercartographic atlas of indigenous perspectives and knowledge of the Great Lakes Region

This article presents and discusses the cultural and technological contexts of the development of the Cybercartographic Atlas of Indigenous Perspectives and Knowledge of the Great Lakes Region in Ontario. The atlas was developed to enhance the capability to recover the systemic nature of traditional Indigenous knowledge by electronically interrelating different forms of expressive culture (language, oral traditions, items of material and visual culture, historical documentation). To reach this goal, this atlas includes a living geospatial database that serves as an artefact repository and enables communities to contribute geographically relevant knowledge and to develop their own interactive, multimedia online geospatial stories through modules or sections. Two of these modules are discussed here: a treaties module focusing on the survey phase of the Lake Huron treaty process, and a culture module geared toward engaging Aboriginal artists, community members, and high school students in contributing to the development of this community-based atlas. The discussion concludes with a critical look at the potential of cybercartography and the challenges that remain, especially when it comes to further developing the living and the collaborative dimensions of cybercartographic atlases