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GEOG 4043/5043, Fall 2011 FIRST TAKE-HOME EXAM (5 questions, 50 points; 10% of final grade) This exam is due by 5 pm on 30 September 2011. Please print your answers and leave in Li's mailbox in Guggenheim (1st floor). The exam is open-book, meaning you can use paper materials and the web to answer the questions. You may also discuss the questions with other members of our class. However, the answers you submit must be expressed in your own words and represent your own work & writing. If you use a direct quote or paraphrase from a source, be sure to list the source in the answer. 1. (10 points) Answer any one of the following five questions: From: Cartwright, William, Michael Peterson, and Georg Gartner. 2006. New Media: From Discrete, to Distributed, to Mobile, to Ubiquitous. In Geographic Hypermedia: Concepts and Systems, eds. Emmanuel Stefanakis, Michael P. Peterson, Costas Armenakis, and Vasilis Delis, pp. 23-36. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. a) I don't understand the distinction the authors make between "discrete" and "distributed" maps--I see a lot of discrete map sites in the web. Could you explain the difference to me in your own words? b) In what ways does mobile mapping pose additional challenges to cartographers in comparison to distributed mapping via the web? c) Is ubiquitous computing the same as Web 2.0? From: Holmberg, Molly O. and Kenneth E. Foote. 2008. Journalistic Cartography on the Web: A Comparison of Print and Online Maps in Seven Major American Newspapers. In International Perspectives on Maps and the Internet, eds. Michael P. Peterson, 323340 Berlin: Springer. d) How does the difference between online and print environments affect the placement of maps in and near stories? Is this a strength or weakness of online maps? From: Olson, Judy M. 1997. Multimedia in Geography: Good, Bad, Ugly, or Cool? Annals of the Association of American Geographers 87: 571-578. e) Olson quotes Steven Levy (p. 576) that "multimedia's lasting legacy will be the debasement of ...communication...Sooner or later you realize that you communicate more effectively in this medium if you ditch complex thoughts altogether." How would you argue the opposite--that multimedia is more akin to how we think and reason than is the linear flow of conventional text, film and television? Page - 1 2. (10 points) In Table 2.1 of his E-reserve article "POMP and Circumstance: Plain Old Map Products in a Cybercartographic World" Mark Monmonier lists "Conventional Design Strategies Worth Implementing in Cybercartography." Pick one of these strategies and find an online map that uses the strategy effectively in its design. Give the URL and discuss the reason(s) for your choice. For this question, you need to find a native, online map, not a map that has been scanned from a paper map product, book, or atlas. 3. (10 points total) Go to: http://www.colorado.edu/geography/foote/geog4043/assign/test/problems.html You will find a webpage with four mistakes. Download the files in the this folder, fix the problems and then publish the corrected pages in your own publishing area on spot.colorado.edu Paste the URL of your corrected page here: 4. (10 points) Pick one of the web sites listed below. In your judgment, is the map effective or ineffective in the web? Explain your judgment by discussing at least two aspects of the map in terms of any aspect of web design that we have discussed in class-the use of visual hierarchy, text and color selection, use of graphics, file size & download speed, and navigation. You may also refer to the design principles discussed in the articles by Monmonier and by Jenny, Jenny & Räber. Be specific in your comments. If you wish, you can include screen captures or graphics to explain your suggestions. a) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/aug/22/libya-middle-east-tripoliinteractive b) http://www.slate.com/id/2216238/?ad=ins c) http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/09/08/us/sept-11-reckoning/where-wereyou-september-11-map.html?smid=tw-nytimes Page - 2 5. (10 points) Common web file types. Fill in the remaining three boxes in this table. Also, there are two incorrect statements in this table. Please find and correct the mistakes. .doc or .docx; .xls or .xlsx; ppt or pptx .pdf (portable document format) .html .jpg or .jpeg .jpeg 2000 (.jp2 or .jpx) .svg .gif Strengths Easy to share, editable files of any length. Drawbacks Can only be read and edited by users with Microsoft Office (or OpenOffice) Easy to share documents and Users need to use Adobe page layouts. Can be signed Acrobat Reader plugin and secured and can include (free) or Adobe Acrobat forms. Professional to read the files. Files can be edited in Acrobat Professional to some degree, but not as easily as files in Word, Excel or PPT. Are entirely composed of Complex formatting is simple ASCII text and somewhat more difficult to markup tages. Can be read accomplish than simply by any computer with a creating a .docx file. browser. New standards for html code including xhtml (extensible html) allow greater power and flexibility by allowing users to create macros and scripts within pages. This is a "lossy" form of compression--some of the color information is discarded as the file is compressed. Developed as improvement Not yet widely used. The on jpeg format (using improvements will be of different compression greatest use in relatively algorithm) and supports both few situations. lossless and lossy compression, improved compression in some situations, etc. One of the best formats for Not fully supported in all displaying raster photos, browsers. maps, and graphics. A fax format that provides Is limited to a color palette Page - 3 very good compression for charts, diagrams and raster graphics with sharp contrasts between colors. Can support animation. .png .mpeg .swf Developed as an openstandard alternative to GIF for raster graphics. Improved color rendering. In many situations, png will compare favorably with jpeg in continuous-tone color quality, but with a smaller file size. Shockwave Flash files are one of the most popular ways to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Shockwave applications can employ vector and raster graphics, animation of text, drawings, and still image, and supports audio and video. Flash is used extensively for advertising in the web. of 16 colors or less, so not a good format for continuous-tone photographs and artwork. The compression algorithm is proprietary--meaning some rights issues may arise in the future. Doesn't support animation (although the unofficial .apng format does support animation). Shockwave is a proprietary standard--excellent for displaying final product, but not in a file format that can be edited or used by viewers. Adobe seems to be gradually relaxing some of the proprietary restrictions on this format. Page - 4