Robin Wilton's esoterica

« In the interests of... | Main | An MBA and a ponytai... »

24 Jun · Fri 2005

Bookworm

Usually I just add a one-liner to my "Bookworm" list in the right-hand sidebar with whatever I'm reading at the moment, but yesterday I found a book which is worth a post, given its topic. The book is "Spying with Maps" by Mark Monmonier, published by the University of Chicago Press. Prof. Monmonier applies a great deal of subject-matter expertise to the topic of maps, geographic information systems (GIS) and geospatial technology, and explains how it works, how it has evolved, and how it can be applied in areas as diverse as law enforcement, agriculture, traffic management and of course intelligence. He then adds the social dimension and looks at issues of privacy, consent and instrusion, ending with a postscript on the question of whether locational privacy is (or should now be recognised as) a basic right. It's only 200 pages, interesting and nicely written (though the proof-readers missed a few things) - and even in the first couple of chapters, full of those moments when you look up from the page and mutter "Good Lord! Can they do that?" or "Hmmm... so that's how it works...". I think he gets the balance just right between geeky (well, it is a potentially techie subject...!) and readable. Here's a link to it on amazon.co.uk And on amazon.com The Disclaimer: I have no commercial/financial/other stake in amazon, University of Chicago Press or Prof. Monmonier's royalties. My only purpose in recommending this book is to alert you to a published work which I found interesting.

Posted by racingsnake @ 02:02 PM GMT+00:00 [ Comments [1] ]

Comments:

The publisher--where I work--has a piece by Mark Monmonier called "Eleven Ways You Are Being Watched" that is based on the book. See: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/534278.html

Posted by Dean Blobaum on June 27, 2005 at 06:54 PM GMT+00:00 #

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
« December 2009
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

Today