Volunteered Geographic Information

Dr. Muki Haklay directed me toward a pamphlet entitled “Computers and the Renaissance of Cartography” by T A Margerison of the Experimental Cartography Unit; it is a wonderful example of mapping, as well as of publication, no doubt something to do with the Royal College of Arts. Perhaps the most incredible aspect of the work is that the featured maps, which would be exceptional nowadays, were created in the late 70s. Don’t take my word for it however, have a look at these two examples from the pamphlet:

This extract is from a map of cobalt for a part of the Shetlands: quantities are recorded by the length of arm (Margerison, 1976 p.12)

This extract is from the 'Atlas of Global Seismology: 1909-1969' which is based on the large digital data bank of seismic records held by the Institute of Geological Sciences. The seismic information for each "square" is plotted directly by computer in bars of different thickness, oriented N.S. E-W and diagonally. A brown tint shows areas in which some activity has been recorded during the total period - e.g. on maps of other time periods (Margerison, 1976 p.11)

Reference:

Margerison, T A (1976) Computers and the Renaissance of Cartography. NERC Experimental Cartography Unit, RCA, London