Mapmaker, mapmaker, make me a map :-)

Yes, the title is a take-off on the wonderful song and dance number from "The Fiddler on the Roof". But, this blog entry itself has nothing to do with that musical. It is, instead, about how easy it has become to create maps--so much so that bad maps with bad data and analysis probably are driving out good maps with good data and analysis. At least that is one worry. I think that even if that were the case, well, there is nothing we can do!
Here is an excerpt from an article in the Globe and Mail:

Much of the story of map-making over the past five years centres on the rise of amateurs such as Mr. Ajmani. Using powerful online mapping tools, they are redefining the millenniums-old field of cartography, earning both critics and admirers in the process.
Their products are not maps in the traditional sense, but mash-ups, which combine traditional charts - hosted by mammoth tech companies such as Google and Microsoft - with some unusual spatial data: UFO sightings, public toilet locations or the whereabouts of England's worst potholes, to name a few.
"We call it the democratization of spatial data," said Sally Hermansen, senior instructor in the University of British Columbia's department of geography. "They are redefining how we think about the world, how we organize the world." ....
Several years ago, such map-making powers were limited to relatively few
cartographers and geographers with years of training.
"Map-making used to be a real top-down process," said Jeremy Crampton, associate professor in the department of geosciences at Georgia State University. "Now, anybody in their spare time can contemplate making a simple map."

More power to the people, eh!