-: Hey, everyone.
So this week we're gonna be talking about maps.
Now, some of you are here
because you're taking the GIS Program.
You're learning how to create maps,
like, that's literally the entire program,
what it's about, right? (chuckles)
So you know how to create maps.
I'm not gonna teach you anything new about maps.
In fact, I'm not even here to teach you about making maps,
any of you.
But what I'm here to remind you of is
that maps aren't just allowing us to understand the nature
of a geographic place.
Maps serve many, many different purposes.
There are all kinds of different types of maps,
and you know that if you're a GIS student, right?
There are navigational maps,
there are maps for businesses to figure out
where they should place, you know, new chains,
you know, locations for their chain store,
et cetera, et cetera, times a million, right?
But what I do wanna remind you all is
that the techniques you use
to create different types of maps are, kind of, similar.
They overlap quite a bit.
For those of you who are not GIS students, listen,
you don't know how to create a map. It doesn't matter.
You use maps all the time, right?
I would love if we were in a classroom,
I would ask for a show of hands
to tell me how many of you used a map in the last 24 hours.
And these days,
unlike in 1972 when it might have been more rare,
we're all on our maps all day long, right?
We open up Google Maps to get everywhere we're going.
So we use maps, some of us create maps.
Data visualization, thematic mapping,
is a slightly different thing
than creating navigational maps,
but as I'm gonna talk about, there's a ton of overlap.
The most important thing is knowing
what your map is meant to do.
By the way,
just because you have geographic information
does not mean you should create a map.
A map only should exist
if that blend of geography and data
actually is gonna help your audience do
whatever it is they're supposed to do with this information.
So keep that in mind.
And another short week, a very quick lesson today,
but, hopefully, you'll enjoy it,
and I think you'll have a lot of fun
with the homework this week as well.