Comments on: Do You Really Know Where You Are? http://blog.epa.gov/bigbluethread/2012/08/do-you-really-know-where-you-are/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=do-you-really-know-where-you-are A blog for Spatial Science and the Environment in America's Heartland Thu, 23 May 2013 17:40:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: cmclau02 http://blog.epa.gov/bigbluethread/2012/08/do-you-really-know-where-you-are/#comment-7 cmclau02 Tue, 21 Aug 2012 12:27:34 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/bigbluethread/?p=281#comment-7 It is a process and an interesting one since most government data that I’ve seen is not natively created in the Web Mercator projection. At some point, processing speed may be sufficient enough so that the consuming software projects “on the fly” (ESRI’s ArcGIS does this) and the end user doesn’t notice anything. With the emphasis on mobile technology right now, speed is a critical design element. Projection comes into play quite often when reviewing different aerial photography since major vendors do it slightly differently and there isn’t always perfect agreement between them. I don’t get to do much of it, but there is certainly still reason for ground truthing!

]]> By: Tomo Krajina http://blog.epa.gov/bigbluethread/2012/08/do-you-really-know-where-you-are/#comment-6 Tomo Krajina Tue, 21 Aug 2012 04:05:32 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/bigbluethread/?p=281#comment-6 I must confess that I’m guilty, too :) I’m not a GIS specialist but a web developer with few sites (for example TrackProfiler) using some mapping features. I do remember about Mercator from elementary school. But Google maps was too easy to set up and I didn’t investigate the alternatives at the moment. I would like to have something else other than Mercator, but for the problem is that web tools at the moment aren’t ready :( I can create non Mercator maps as a static images, but I’d like my users to have zoom, drag-and-drop, editable maps, etc.

Maybe with more modern browsers (still to come) one day…

]]> By: cmclau02 http://blog.epa.gov/bigbluethread/2012/08/do-you-really-know-where-you-are/#comment-5 cmclau02 Mon, 20 Aug 2012 13:48:43 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/bigbluethread/?p=281#comment-5 It is interesting that we all follow behind the platform providers instead of demanding we use the best projection — of course the “best” projection really depends on your project needs. I think you’re right about why the popular vendors are using the Web Mercator projection — speed….which is why most developers make their web maps in Web Mercator since it makes our maps faster. If users must wait for something to load they’ll probably move onto something else. There is a great clip from West Wing about the social implications of using the Mercator map — its hilarious. The point is really that just because map making is easier (and GIS in general) doesn’t excuse users from knowing about the projection they’re using and what some pitfalls might be.

]]> By: Tomo Krajina http://blog.epa.gov/bigbluethread/2012/08/do-you-really-know-where-you-are/#comment-4 Tomo Krajina Mon, 20 Aug 2012 04:36:24 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/bigbluethread/?p=281#comment-4 I think another reason why Mercator hasn’t changed that much with the digital era is the web. Specifically google maps — it is easier (for google) to store and compute the map with images as rectangle files. With better browser support for vector imaging and better Javascript image manipulation capabilities — this should change. I hope :)

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