I must admit I'm curious about what Eugen and Cory (among various others on this list) will say in response. Udhay http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727670.900-virtual-prisons-how-emaps... Virtual prisons: how e-maps are curtailing our freedom * 06 July 2010 by Mark Monmonier ELECTRONIC maps are arguably the quintessential innovation of 20th-century cartography. Although a few academic cartographers accord the map mystical powers, it is merely a tool, useful for good, evil or both, which citizens can resist or constrain - up to a point. The question is not whether e-maps will restrict where we go and what we do, but to what extent. What I call "restrictive cartography" is not in itself new. Property maps are at least as old as Roman times, and boundary maps no younger than kingdoms and nation states. What is new, however, is the substantial increase in both the number and diversity of restrictive maps. A comparison of mapping in 1900 and 2000 underscores my point. Since 1900, we have used maps to exclude industry from residential neighbourhoods, ban new construction on floodplains, help delineate "historic" districts that constrain a homeowner's choice of paint colour or replacement windows, put limits on where and with what weapons we can hunt game, restrict travel by foreign diplomats and journalists, prevent sex offenders from living near schools and playgrounds, and keep aircraft a nautical mile away from a vice-president's weekend retreat. The public tolerates these cartographic restrictions because many, if not most, are not only benign but essential. Environmental protection, for instance, relies on mapping as a regulatory instrument to safeguard water resources and wildlife habitat. Maps delineating rights of way for gas lines and other underground facilities guard against accidental breaches by a digger arm, at least by conscientious contractors. "Call before you dig" is a mantra of restrictive cartography. Property maps show rights of way that might thwart a buyer's plan to enlarge a home or re-configure an access road, and maps of quarantine areas aimed at farmers stem the spread of fruit-fly infestations. Government officials publish restrictive maps because they assume the boundaries will be heeded. In 2010, however, restrictive cartography is on the verge of more invasive applications as electronic technology replaces graphic lines requiring conscious interpretation with invisible fences, erected by proactive, self-enforcing geographical restrictions. The most impressive examples, and the most frightening, reflect the integration of geographical information systems (GIS), the Global Positioning System (GPS), and wireless telecommunications. A tracking device can instantly report its location to a GIS that determines whether the person, car or ship under surveillance has entered a prohibited area. Depending on circumstances and severity, a future system might be able to debit an offender's bank account, transmit a vocal warning or electronic pinch, notify the police or military, disable an engine, or even release a soporific drug into the violator's bloodstream. Electronic tagging and tracking on an unprecedented level is virtually certain - and could happen very soon. Motorists who appreciate the convenience of paying road tolls and parking fees automatically are unlikely to resist mandatory RFID tags - what's the use if electronic scanners can collect the same information from licence plates or bar-coded registration stickers? Electronic tracking makes it easy to limit access to congested areas and keep heavy trucks off residential streets, while adding a transponder that reports location enables automatic enforcement of traffic regulations. Smart algorithms are likely to be built into the software controlling the transponders, which could detect erratic driving characteristic of drunkenness or aggression, perhaps. Minimal resistance to cameras mounted above traffic lights attests to creeping acquiescence. An unprecedented level of electronic tagging and tracking is virtually certain Because the public is willing to trade control over their lives for convenience, the cellphone already doubles as a tracking device, and raises the possibility of "spatial micromanagement": of employees by employers, of children by parents, of elderly parents by grown children, and of suspected subversives by the authorities. Meanwhile, strategies for encouraging cooperation include GPS wristwatches, security badges, ankle bracelets and even subdermal chips. Threats to privacy and personal freedom are well known and obvious. In the spring 2003 issue of the IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, geographers Jerome Dobson and Peter Fisher warned of "geoslavery" by obsessive husbands or boyfriends, poised to punish perceived transgressions. The fact that geospatial tracking might be equally efficient for enforcing restraining orders on those who abuse their partners underscores an inherent ambiguity that impels acceptance, especially in the name of public safety or national defence. If the tracking of sex offenders, stalkers and people with Alzheimer's is acceptable, why not the tracking of thieves and drunk drivers? Once in place, a national geospatial surveillance administration can accommodate an ever-wider variety of electronic boundary lines, and offer disgruntled taxpayers an alternative to costly incarceration. For many crimes, an electronic map makes more sense than a prison, which may well only reinforce antisocial behaviour and allow criminals to exchange tricks of the trade. Efficient, but hardly fail-safe. Electronic cartography is vulnerable to incompetent technicians, malevolent hackers, cyber-terrorists and lobbyists for "special interests". Like traditional maps, e-cartography invites manipulation by government or corporations, often in the guise of national defence or free-market capitalism. While maps on the internet can advertise prohibitions and justify new delineations, this apparent openness is easily compromised. Particularly portentous is the way online mapping blurs details presumed useful to saboteurs but which are in fact easily viewable, after a little research, elsewhere on the internet. Boundaries developed for one purpose are too easily adopted for another, as when postal codes (designed merely to speed up mail delivery) are used to set rates for car insurance. More troubling are the incongruities that might arise from mixing maps compiled from different sources. For example, it's risky to transfer boundaries from a detailed property survey onto a generalised highway map on which curves have been smoothed out or symbols shifted to avoid clutter. And consider the electronic maritime navigation system that combines satellite positioning with a visual display derived from conventional, less geographically precise maps: quite likely the maps scanned into the system were made by hydrographers who had a less accurate sense of where they were than the 21st-century mariner's GPS. Although a skipper might snicker when a screen shows the ship on the beach when it's clearly offshore, only a fool would surrender all control to an electronic navigator. But it would be a mistake to portray this new brand of restrictive mapping as Orwellian: it is a natural part of social, political and cartographic evolution. In the end, then, we must hope that fear of litigation or other pragmatic issues may prove more influential than concerns over privacy in limiting the growth of restrictive cartography in an electronic age. We shall see. Profile Mark Monmonier is distinguished professor of geography at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, New York. This essay is based on his new book No Dig, No Fly, No Go: How maps restrict and control, which builds on his How to Lie with Maps, both published by University of Chicago Press -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com)) ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE