WIRED

by Ilse Genovese

Like most people, I‘m wired into the wireless world. The cell phone is my best friend I would not leave home without, and my computer is getting smaller and connectable from anywhere. And then there are all the other sleek, smart gadgets that help us network professionally and socially. Behind this revolution in mobile communication are wireless communication networks, spatial positioning methods (GPS), radio frequency identification (RFID), and mobile computing systems that support mobile input and output devices, such as PDAs. Thanks to this mobile wireless connectivity, people interested in context-specific spatial information can “use and create maps anywhere and at any time” (Morita 2005) even if they are not trained in cartographic methods. Some of the research challenges such ubiquitous cartography faces are discussed by prominent scientists on three continents in the October 2007 issue of Cartography and Geographic Information Science. In this issue of the ACSM Bulletin, we look at one segment of the field, wireless communication. What it is, which applications it supports, and which surveying and mapping instruments are “wired wireless.” The intent is to lay the groundwork for further discussion on wireless mobile surveying data acquisition in 2008.
This October, Space Shuttle Discovery once again travelled to the Space Station, its successful lift-off and progress in space documented via long-range wireless communication. This technological achievement would not be possible without huge amounts of money poured into science and math by the U.S. Government fifty years ago. “What Sputnik Launched,” an article published by The Washington Post this October, reminds us of the connection between data gathering by orbiting satellites guided by mobile GPS and their use via the Internet and the World Wide Web.
While October 4, 2007, marked half a century of an exciting space and communication age, May 14, 2007 marked four hundred years of building a nation that would one day become a powerhouse of technological invention. Jamestown 2007 showed the Queen Elizabeth II, Vice President Cheney, and other dignitaries where it all began ...the excavation of that part of Jamestown Fort not claimed by the river channel. Somebody once said, “Everything that can will communicate.” History communicates; history discovered by archaeologists based on ancient maps communicates visually as well as emotionally.
2007 can claim another distinction—as a year of continued heightened debate about the Earth’s environment. The ACSM Bulletin cites some facts, not emotions, because keeping the atmosphere clean and protecting the environment are the seminal issues of our times, right beside communication and exploration of new worlds—and hence matters of science.