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The article is about an atlas being released by the North American Cartographic Information Society. So I find it ridiculous for someone who says "I don't know

The article is about an atlas being released by the North American Cartographic Information Society. So I find it ridiculous for someone who says "I don't know much about maps, but I have an intuition" to complain that it's somehow not real cartography or something. I mean, everyone is welcome to their opinion, but there's a big difference between saying you don't like a map, vs attacking the professional legitimacy of a map. And a little bit of Internet research on the names in the article shows, for example: - John Nelson has a masters in geoscience and works for Esri. - Tom Patterson holds an MA in geography and is a cartographer for the National Park Service. - Daniel Coe is a GIS cartographer for the Washington Geological Survey. That took me like 5 minutes to find out. Intuition is fine, but please follow it up with some actual work. These people are as real as it gets for cartographers.

jessriedel 8y ago
That doesn't actually engage with the criticism, it just appeals to authority (especially dubious since he's making an aesthetic criticism). I personally have no idea if there is a cartography authority that is worth listening to. Likewise, if you told me that such-and-such comic was adored by some members of the Manga Appreciation Society of North America, I have no idea if that's meaningful. Furthermore, the fact that they are practitioners doesn't actually mean they represent an expert consensus. Suppose I told you that there is a European Cartographic Information Society and they think the North American Cartographic Information Society has completely sold out to clickbaiting, forsaking the intellectual rigor of traditional cartography to create infotainment maps with mass appeal. (These kinds of disputes between authorities occur all the time, even in academic fields, e.g., analytic vs. continental philosophy.) Isn't that scenario completely compatible with the evidence you've given?
- fermienrico 8y ago
  I just checked out their website: http://atlasofdesign.org/three http://atlasofdesign.org/three This is a link to version 3 and they are planning to publish version 4 of the "Atlas for Design". Despite of the credibility of "American Cartographic Information Society", the product they've conceived belongs on a coffee table.

jessriedel 8y ago

That doesn't actually engage with the criticism, it just appeals to authority (especially dubious since he's making an aesthetic criticism). I personally have no idea if there is a cartography authority that is worth listening to. Likewise, if you told me that such-and-such comic was adored by some members of the Manga Appreciation Society of North America, I have no idea if that's meaningful. Furthermore, the fact that they are practitioners doesn't actually mean they represent an expert consensus. Suppose I told you that there is a European Cartographic Information Society and they think the North American Cartographic Information Society has completely sold out to clickbaiting, forsaking the intellectual rigor of traditional cartography to create infotainment maps with mass appeal. (These kinds of disputes between authorities occur all the time, even in academic fields, e.g., analytic vs. continental philosophy.) Isn't that scenario completely compatible with the evidence you've given?

fermienrico 8y ago
I just checked out their website: http://atlasofdesign.org/three http://atlasofdesign.org/three This is a link to version 3 and they are planning to publish version 4 of the "Atlas for Design". Despite of the credibility of "American Cartographic Information Society", the product they've conceived belongs on a coffee table.