Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften

Abstract:
The Internet has evolved into a powerful tool for cartography, highly useful both from the mapmaker’s and the user’s point of view. With the recent emergence of cloud computing, these benefits are taken even a step further. Using the example of atlases, this article discusses theoretical and practical opportunities of cloud-based cartography. Two broad topics are dealt with. The first, addressed in sections 1 and 2, concerns how cartography gradually evolved into the cloud, and how cloud computing can provide solutions for the challenges faced by geospatial sciences. The second topic, covered in chapters 3, 4 and 5, addresses issues of atlas cartography: starting with a critical review on current literature, we will argue that the fundamental characteristic of digital atlases is not so much the use of digital maps, but rather the combination of these maps. Based on this assumption we will show, how digital atlases facilitate the synthesis of different maps, and how atlas production can benefit from a cloud-based approach. We shall close the paper with a look at how the cloud can transform future school atlases from products to processes (termed ‘atlassing’), executed in a stand-alone mode, or as part of learning management systems.