Topic 1: The Science and Practice of Cartographic Interaction

Topic 2: The Word on the Street: Rumor Control in Cold War America

Speaker：Robert E. Roth，Ph.D. and Stephen Young, Ph.D. fromUniversity of Wisconsin Madison

Time：2:00—5:00 p.m. June 8, 2012

Venue：Room 2321 IGSNRR

Brief to the report 1：

The current pace of innovation in interactive and web-based mapping technology is spectacular, and the possibility and pervasiveness of interactivity has transformed the way in which many maps are produced and consumed. Despite this remarkable pace—or perhaps because of it—there have been relatively few efforts to understand how interactive maps should be designed and used. This research directly contributes to this gap, treating the topic of cartographic interaction (i.e., the interface provided to manipulate a map, as well as the user's experience during that manipulation) as a complement to cartographic representation (i.e., the graphics, sounds, haptics, etc., constituting a map that are employed to encode geographic information), the traditional topic of inquiry within the field of Cartography. The reported research takes an empirical, mixed methods approach to understanding the nature of cartographic interaction (i.e., how interactive maps work). Important contributions of the research include a comprehensive framework for conceptualizing a single interaction sequence, an empirically-derived taxonomy of cartographic interaction primitives (i.e., the basic units of interaction) for interpreting larger interaction sessions, and initial guidelines for designing cartographic interfaces given the mapping context.

Brief to the report 2：

This presentation will analyze the emergence of Rumor Control Centers (RCCs) across the US during the late-1960s. The centers were formed in response to the racial violence that flared up in many cities during the “long hot summers” of 1965-67. State officials encouraged citizens to call the centers if they heard rumors about impending unrest so that preemptive action could be taken. This shows how the same spatial-temporal logics that underpinned Cold War civil defense came to shape the government’s response to the rise of the Black Power movement within the US. It also sheds light on contemporary concerns surrounding fear, unrest and the management of communication networks in Iran, Egypt, England and the US.