The following is a non-alphabetised glossary I wrote today for GG3090 class, prompted by a suggestion from a student. It is an evolving document open to suggestions (the definition of 'map' might be contentious). I'm planning on adding some of these to the
New Geoweb Wiki:
GG3090 Glossary
Georeferencing: using known
points (such as road intersections) on a geographic information layer (such as
a shapefile in GIS) to provide ‘anchors’ to an image with unknown positioning
Database: an information set,
usually organised as rows and columns (or fields). Explicit databases are those that are
formalised in a written document or computer file
Map: a graphical representation
of a portion of the earth’s surface
Projection: a mathematical
procedure or formula for portraying earth-based (i.e. round) data on a flat
medium such as a piece of paper or a computer screen
Topology: branch of mathematics
concerned with attributes of surfaces that do not change when warped or
distorted. Inclusion, adjacency and
connectivity are examples of three such attributes. Vector layers in GIS require topology
specification
Choropleth (map): a map made up
of non-overlapping contiguous areas across which a value is evenly distributed
as indicated by homogenous colouring of each area
John Snow (map): helped start the
field of epidemiology, and an early example of a map ‘mashup’ (see below), John
Snow’s map demonstrates the power of visualisation through maps in problem
solving. A distribution of cases of
cholera combined with address information led to the identification of
contaminated well water as the course of infection (and not air borne causes as
previously thought)
Maps of, for and in cyberspace: maps of cyberspace depict material
structures of cyberspace itself, usually in the form of numbers and strengths
of connections across virtual or real space.
Maps for cyberspace help us
understand immaterial aspects of cyberspace in terms of information space and
social interaction. Maps in cyberspace are essentially
traditional paper based maps converted into a form (such as a .jpg file) that
is uploaded (see the International Encyclopedia of Human Geography)
Ontology: branch of philosophy
concerned with existence. In computer
science the term refers to a set of object specifications for use in an
application. A computer map of Cree land
contains an ontology of lakes in which parts and certain configurations of
lakes have their own categories
Epistemology: branch of
philosophy concerned with knowledge and its acquisition
Representation: a mediating
factor between an observer and the ‘real’ world. A map is a representation of the territory it
depicts
Mashup: the use of custom
datasets on propriety platforms. A
Google Maps mashup takes user-made data and portrays it on a Google Map
Digital divide: a barrier or
division, usually socioeconomic in origin, between the haves and the have-nots
of digital information access
Geoweb: a set of geographically
distributed services
Materiality/immateriality (of
cyberspace): materiality includes the physical infrastructures that keep
cyberspace ‘going’ such as cables, wires, hardware and bodies. Immateriality refers to software,
information, ideas and social relations that define empowerment or
marginalisation in cyberspace
Semiotics: branch of linguistics
concerned with sign systems
Map/territory: a mutually
constituted set of practices for representing space. Often the territory is assumed to ‘precede’
the map in the sense that the map represents
territory and is therefore an objective portrayal of that territory. A critical view holds that the map defines territory, producing
social relations of human territoriality
Discourse: unspoken rules for
producing statements of fact, fiction, science, culture or almost any
conceivable aspect of human activity involving sign systems (see semiotics
above)
Inscription: a written, recorded,
printed, taped, digitally captured or otherwise ‘frozen’ representation of
knowledge
Coordinates: a pair of numbers
indicating a point (i.e. zero dimensional) location on the surface of the earth
Relational database: a database
(see above) in which tables of information connect to each other through the
use of primary keys, or columns of identical information found in two or more
tables
Relational space: a space defined
more by the relations between objects than by the objects themselves
Void space: a space defined more
by positions (or coordinates) of objects and their attributes than by the relations between objects
Wayfinding: travel towards a
known goal through the use of landmarks, places and their names
Itinerary: a sequential list of
places and distances between them used in wayfinding
Kml: keyhole markup language, the
file type used by Google Maps and Earth
Distributed feature: an aspect of
landscape that is mappable (i.e. has spatial extent)
Digital earth/virtual globe: an
interactive representation of the earth in cyberspace that includes web 2.0
features (see below), as well as aspects of ‘traditional’ maps and atlases
(e.g. place names)
Web 2.0: a worldwide web paradigm
shift in which the user is able to define the look, feel and content of the
resources and structures of cyberspace and the internet
Tracking function (GPS): a global
positioning system feature that samples the position of a moving object (i.e.
person) at a set rate and links these positions into a line
Waypoints: places encountered and
recorded before or during the process of wayfinding
Visualisation: the use of
on-screen graphics, maps or other spatial methods to display tabular data
‘Traditional’ GIS: usually refers
to anything produced by the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI),
the market leader in GIS software over the last few decades
Atomism: a database principle in
which information is broken down into its smallest constituent parts
