Chapter 4: Users of maps on the Web

Baumann, J., 1999, Geotechnology spices up France's premier yacht race. Geofeature: GIS/Web-based Mapping. GEOEurope, 8, (4), pp. 38-39.
Crampton, J., 1995, Cartography resources on the World Wide Web. Cartographic Perspectives, (22), pp. 3-11.
Crampton, J., 1998, The convergence of spatial technologies. Cartographic Perspectives, (30), pp. 3-5.
CyberAtlas, 1999a, The Big Picture, demographics: Worldwide Internet users to pass 500 million next century. http://cyberatlas.Internet.com/big_picture/ demographics/article/0,1323,5911_200001,00.html (accessed 30.11.1999).
CyberAtlas, 1999b, The Big Picture, geographics: The World's online populations. http://cyberatlas.Internet.com/big_picture/geographics/article/0,1323,5911_151 151,00.html (accessed 24.11.1999).
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URL 4.1 Matrix Information Directory Services: http://www.mids.org/
URL 4.2 IDC Project Atlas: http://www.idc.com/
URL 4.3 Forrester research - Press Resourses: http://www.forrester.com/ER/Press/Release/0,1769,659,00.html
URL 4.4 Computer Industry Almanac, Inc. Internet users by region: http://www.c-i-a.com/
URL 4.5 Cyberjaya project in Malaysia: http://www.cyberjaya-msc.com/
URL 4.6 African Internet connectivity: http://www3.sn.apc.org/africa/
URL 4.7 Media Metrix Top 50: http://www.jmm.com/xp/jmm/press/
mediaMetrixTop50.xml
URL 4.8 MapQuest: http://www.mapquest.com/
URL 4.9 The Weather Channel http://www.weather.com/
URL 4.10 The Internet Economy Indicators: http://www.InternetIndicators.com/
URL 4.11 Advertising on the Web: http://www.delorme.com/
URL 4.12 GeoGratis, another element of Canada's GeoConnections: http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca/
URL 4.13 ArcData Online geodata source: http://www.esri.com/data/online/index.html URL 4.14 Travel Book Shop: http://www.travelbookshop.ch/
URL 4.15 Subscribing to Michelin's travel information services: http://www.michelin-travel.com/home.cgi
URL 4.16 Secure Electronic Transaction: http://www.setco.org/
URL 4.17 I-pay: http://www.i-pay.com/uk/merchant/
URL 4.18 Example of watermarking: http://media.maps.com/magellan/Images/NETHER-W1.gif

Kehoe, C., Pitkow, J., Sutton, K., Aggarwal, G. and Rogers, J.D., 1999, Results of GVU's Tenth World Wide Web User Survey. Graphics Visualization and Usability Center. http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/survey-1998- 10/tenthreport.html (accessed 12.10.1999).
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Stähler, P., 1999, Potentiale des vernetzten Medienmanagements. In Proceedings Symposium Web.mapping.99, Karlsruhe 18.11.1999, (Karlsruhe: Fachhochschule), pp. X.1-X.14.
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UNDP, 1999, Globalization with a human face. Human Development Report 1999. http://www.undp.org/hdro/report.html (accessed 24.11.1999).

This chapter is written from the perspective of the web map user as a person. It starts with a description of the profile of the users ("Who are they?"). It appears that the use of the Internet is democratising rapidly now and, therefore, the user profile is becoming more and more diversified. At the same time, the number of users of the Internet and people with access to the WWW is growing exponentially, although the number of Internet users expresssed as a percentage of the total population of the world is still rather small. Finally, the first section also deals with the uneven global diffusion of the use of the Internet.
The second section presents some quantitative data on the use of maps on the Web. Although it is difficult to find precise data, it is sure that, in quantitative terms, the Web now has become the major medium for the dissemination of maps to their users, with MapQuest being the number one web map site in the world.
Economic aspects of web cartography are discussed from the perspective of the user under the headings: for free or for fee?; privacy and security; and copyrights. In this section methods of paying for web maps and geodata are presented as well.
The last paragraph of this chapter summarises some of the problems and limitations web map users are confronted with in practice. Problems mentioned are, for instance, the quality of the design of web maps, different output conditions and websites that are not kept up-to-date regularly. Besides, there are quite some limitations to the accessibility.
They are listed under the headings: finding web maps and geodata; language; accessibility for everyone?; web maps and geodata for fee; Internet access; and speed of data transfer.

Last updated April 11, 2002