Digital mapping capabilities have increased exponentially with the availability of off-the-shelf GPS, free and open software mapping tools, navigation devices, digital cameras, and broadband Internet. Yet, people have only begun to tap the real potential of mapping for humanitarian response, environmental action, multimodal transit, social interaction, and much more. This book provides a moving picture of mapping today and the role it plays in informing and shaping perspectives.
Through contributions from innovators, software developers, and advocates, you'll learn about current and emerging digital mapping techniques, domain specific applications, and pioneering examples that point to the future. Whether you're technologist already involved or just entering the field, a policymaker or business manager looking to take advantage of new mapping techniques, or someone interested in the possibilities of this fascinating area of technology, Beautiful Mapping is the best resource on the topic.
Andrew Turner is a neogeographer helping build the geospatial web. He is the CTO at GeoCommons, and also co-founded Mapufacture, which is building a system that makes it easy for people to build and share collaborative maps and customize their slice of the GeoWeb. He also develops a number of other open-source tools such as GeoPress, Mapstraction, and also wrote the book Introduction to Neogeography and Where2.0: State of the Geospatial Web for O'Reilly.
Brady Forrest is Chair for O'Reilly's Where 2.0 and Emerging Technology conferences. Additionally, he co-Chairs Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, Berlin and NYC. Brady writes for O'Reilly Radar tracking changes in technology. He previously worked at Microsoft on Live Search (he came to Microsoft when it acquired MongoMusic). Brady lives in Seattle, where he builds cars for Burning Man and runs Ignite.
