ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT: This chapter describes an approach that allows participants to enhance Web collaboration with maps and spatial discussions using Ajax, SVG/VML, JavaScript, and Open Source geospatial components. It provides a new means of encouraging interaction in the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) on the Web, by supplementing the now well known concept of ‘geo-tagging’ popularized by Google in its Google Earth and Google Maps applications with a new concept of ‘map-chatting’. Map-chatting facilitates the creation of user-generated content and knowledge mapping, twinned with live discussion in the form of spatially linked and general text messaging to achieve dialog over issues of spatial relevance to communities of participants. The architecture of the software is discussed and its use in a case study in the South Island of New Zealand is presented. While the promise for the tool is considerable, the case study reveals that not all communities are necessarily ready or able to use the tools that are made feasible through the emergence of the geospatial web.