Google Map

View Local Natives on Tour 2009 in a larger map

GIS systems used to be reserved for only military purposes; it was not distributed to the public. Today this technology has become more available to the general public. There are GPS systems to put in your car as well as in your phone, a recent phenomenon. Stemming off of this, there is neogeography - a way for amateurs to create their own maps and share information with others without GIS knowledge. Applications such as Google Maps allows the user to create their own map any way they want displaying any information they choose. For example, a user may map a vacation by placing photos they took while there on the map location of the place the photo was taken. All of this information is created voluntarily by the user.

Some concerns arise from this new technology in the are of privacy. With Google Earth, one may view any location as well as the people at that location. Some people expressed concern when people were caught doing things they did not want people to know about. This growing craze of updating the entire world of your whereabouts at every moment does indeed give reason for concern. Some people go even further than worrying about individual privacy and worry about terrorist organizations using this information to plan an attack. In addition to this, this volunteered information tends to lack documentation ( such as in terms of when it was created) reducing the legitimacy and trustable of sites that use this information. Because of this, there are no standards or rules to follow, so there is no way to know if the mapped information you are viewing is accurate. Neogeography is created by amateurs for amateurs, so naturally there are bound to be pitfalls and consequences.