Week 3 Lab

Zheng He to the Western Ocean

Zheng He was a 14th century eunuch, mariner, explorer, diplomat, and admiral of one of the largest and most impressive naval fleets ever assembled. This Muslim Chinese navigator is an obscure figure outside Asia. Nevertheless, he is renowned as one of the greatest mariners in Chinese history and whose deeds on the high seas still resonate today.

In this map, I wish to make a simple chart of some of the places he visited during his seven voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Africa along with tidbit information to accompany each place.


View Zheng He to the Western Ocean in a larger map

Also, write a commentary (two paragraph minimum) about the pitfalls, potential and consequences of neogeography.

Before, refined map-making, or also known as cartography, was a professional undertaking, a branch of the refined scientific discipline that is geography. But the rapid development of new geographical technologies and the advent of Web 2.0 has given lay people the user-friendly tools and ability to create more sophisticated and more interactive maps than ever before. The blurring of the distinction between specialists and amateurs in the realm of geography has led to the term "neogeography," which literally means new geography. According to Turner, neogeography allows people to use and create "their own maps, on their own terms and by combining elements of an existing tool set."

The pitfall of neogeography is in its name, which might mislead people into thinking that neogeography is a modern replacement of the age old study of geography. Neogeography is merely merely a user-friendly offshoot of geography, kind of like how popular science is a relatively fun and accessible form of denser scientific knowledge. The application of neogeography is neither formal nor analytical like geography nor does it encompass the culmination of geographic knowledge--the closest would probably be GIS. And unlike the complicated but flexibly tools used for GIS like ArcGIS and its typically more professionally generated content, neogeography depends on easy to use but constraining tools like Google Maps and its user-generated content is usually more suspect. In other words, GIS is a serious discipline that aims for precision and accuracy just like geography; neogeography, however, is informal.

Nevertheless, despite its misleading name, neogeography encompasses an exciting new "democratic" method of applying accessible mapping tools and other Web 2.0 services to making life more convenient. For one, neogeography will make learning easier, more interactive, and more fun. For example, instead of churning a boring block after block of text, also known as a history report, with Microsoft Word on the travels of someone as dynamic and interesting as Zheng He, people could just as easily create a crude but interactive account of Zheng He's voyages using Google Map. And all the while, the learning coming out of the process will be more personal because people are creating something more engaging and visually appealing. But of course, learning is not strictly academia. Real estate websites can provide simple map tools that add to the experience of finding the perfect home. Store websites can provide both visual and textual directions to their stores. The number of convicted pedophiles can be track with a tracking map to make sure your kids would be safe in a certain neighborhood. Essentially, the opportunities for neogeography are boundless and its consequences can beneficial to improving the quality of lives.