I have been thinking about maps, landscapes, and storytelling on the web. Mostly, as I noted at THATCamp Columbus maps don’t seem to be moving our storytelling forward. I love maps, and even think they might become the basis for Web 3.0, but how do they help us understand the past, how do they do more than illustrate a story. J. D. Salinger’s death has prompted the New York Times to share a map of Holden Caufield’s New York. Visually, it tells a story, and reconnects me to the book. Of course, the prerequisite for understanding the map and for it really to have meaning is having read The Catcher in the Rye (and remembering it.)
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NY Times has recently really been using maps well as storytelling devices. You mentioned another one the other day, Memories of Sugar Hill ( http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/01/22/nyregion/sugarhill.html?emc=eta1 ), that I thought really used the map effectively to explore and define the place in discussion. The map was integrated in a manner that was tasteful, and in which it was neither the center of attention nor a useless but flashy widget. Apparently all the digital mapping hacks in the humanities are finding work at the Times these days. Or perhaps they just have a good web team overall. Either way someone is up to something over there.