A long time ago, I had the idea of writing about technologies which I use on a regular basis.  To include my honest opinion about the technology and how I use it, whether to the full capability or not.  Time ran away, as moving can do, and I’m just now getting back to the thought.

I then had to think about what to start with.  Technology can, after all, include an extremely wide range of items from our world.  Language could be a technology, as computer languages are considered.  Why not English or Spanish or sign language?  I was struggling a bit.

In the end, I wanted to begin with something that didn’t plug into a wall socket.  No batteries.  No knobs or pins or wheels.  I finally discovered it last week when I was walking around Toronto and realized I left my map at home.  At that moment I realized what a valuable bit of technology it is.

The Map
I really don’t know why it took me so long to figure out I should start with maps.  I have tons of maps.  Use them all the time.  I have books on them, I have them on the walls (or will once I get a house), I’ve even created a few.

Maps are one of the oldest known technologies we have.  It is believed they existed prior to any written language.   They are, in many ways, the language of space as translated to two dimensions.  As much as musical notes, when written on a page, represent sounds.

The map I use the most frequently is from a British company called Mapgroup and is a PopOut Map of Toronto.  They offer maps for cities around the world and we originally used one for traveling in Munich last summer.  Using folding paper, you get four maps including southwest Ontario, the Toronto transit grid, a view of greater Toronto and a local view of the downtown area from the waterfront to slightly north of Bloor.  Overall, it gives you an amazing amount of information I can easily carry in my back pocket or my wife in her purse.

For $7 USD, this might be the most affordable per use item I have purchased with the exception of my keyboard or mouse (certainly not my Macbook Pro, though I love it, that thing is expensive).

Map Info
I could probably go on and on about maps, but I’ll cut it short (for once!) and give you some info about maps.  Take a moment and look at some different designs and understand a bit about one of our oldest technologies.

Links
Wikipedia entry on Maps
Wikipedia entry on Cartography (mapmaking)
Library of Congress: Geography and Maps
The Map Rooom: A Weblog About Maps

Online Map Collections
Odden’s Bookmarks: A massive collection of maps
American Memory
The British Library

Some Books I Recommend
As soon as I get them out of storage, I’ll list these as well.