Monday, September 12, 2011

Bowei Wang, Development Maps (or, How To Seduce The Town Board)

Maps can be powerful tools when used to your advantage, which in this article shown by the author how it can be used to mislead and persuaded someone. A developer can easily deceive the public on the potential impact of a project by “polishing” the data to amplify its positives while diminishing the negatives. Vice versa this powerful tool can also be used for good as mentioned in the article to persuade and help rectify any mistakes made by the local government on your overly high tax assessment. No single “view of reality” defines a map knowing its data can be manipulated altering the maps meaning, hiding another side you can't see.

1 comment:

jbuuck2 said...

I think that this happens everyday in our field and I think that the driving factor is money. It's always about who is going to win the bid "competition" and leave out elements just to receive a profit.