View Sierra Summit Ski Resort in a larger map
Enjoy! Make sure you zoom in and out to catch all the details!!
Creating a map online was originally only reserved for the GIS community. Now, neogeography has exposed mapping applications to all people. I think this is a great opportunity for all users and viewers, creating a lot of potential for its use. A map on the web can become our own mental map and through the use of our own images and videos, making it become even more interesting and personal. For this lab, we used Google Maps to create our own map. My map is a map of a ski resort called Sierra Summit, located in the Sierra National Forest just about 65 miles northeast of Fresno, CA. I also made a point from my cabin, drawing a road on how to get to this ski resort, which could be helpful for renters whom wish to go skiing on their vacation. My map would also be a helpful guide for potential skiers and snowboarders going to this resort. I wanted to give the viewer an overall idea of this resort. I indicated the chair lifts and buildings, such as the ski rental area, the ski school, places to eat, ski patrol houses, and places to use the restroom. I also located a few runs and indicated their level of difficulty. I not only want to convey the useful locations, but I also wanted to subtly give my own opinions of the resort, as a local skier of Sierra Summit. Through some of my images, I was able to input personal attachment to this place. A lot of my commentary also conveys my knowledge of this place. Some of the pictures are real pictures of the runs, which allow the viewers to not only see a map with lines and points, but a real vision of what the place looks like. They can see the actual buildings, the beautiful sheet of snow on the runs, and the community of people. Through the input of videos, I was able to add a personal note by finding videos of people who ski/board at this exact resort; a mother video taping her child on the bunny hill, an excellent skier skiing the Face through pillows of thick powder, and a boarder showing his moves down chair 4. All of these add a little more character and vision of my map.
By creating my own map in this lab, I have realized that there are consequences and pitfalls of neogeography. As I created the points and lines for the chair lifts, I know that these are not their exact locations. I had to use my own personal knowledge and eye to figure out the approximate locations of these chairs and the paths they take. This shows that neogeography can be incorrect on exact location and potentially deceitful. It may be false in the exact longitude and latitude coordinates of points, but these are simple mistakes for the average person. However, the people making these maps are not all completely reliable. We can’t be sure that their information is correct. I could have put a chair lift where a restroom was really located; a viewer who has never been to this ski resort would never know.
