A World of “Slippy Maps”: Google Earth, Global Visions, and Topographies of Memory

Abstract

Obviously, no one organization in government, industry or academia could undertake such a project. Like the World Wide Web, it would require the grassroots efforts of hundreds of thousands of individuals, companies, university researchers, and government organizations. It could also become a "collaboratory"-a laboratory without walls-for research scientists seeking to understand the complex interaction between humanity and our environment. Cartographic mega-projects make no exception. The agenda informing Gore's Virtual Globe included: conducting virtual diplomacy; fighting crime; preserving biodiversity; predicting climate change; increasing agricultural productivity. Gore's plans might sound grand and utopian, but if we journey a century back in time we find that the ambitions of late nineteenth-