Forgetting maps
An interesting fall-out of the GPS world is that some small cities are having too much traffic routed through them because the algorithmic calculation concludes that that is the shortest path. The NY Times has an article about a small town in the UK called Wedmore who has a novel solution to this problem: They want to be taken off the map (or at least out of GPS systems).
Wedmore is an old English town with old English streets, narrow, windy, cobblestone-covered streets that are not suitable for the procession of tractor trailers and trucks that they've been seeing since the GPS systems started recommending them as a shortcut.
This brings up an interesting question about whether reference material should reflect reality or a convenient reality. The answer is applicable to many areas, not just maps. Should Wikipedia not have articles about dangerous things like bomb-making? Should musicians be able to eradicate music that they're ashamed of, hunting down every digital copy and killing it? Should politicians be able to retroactively change the history, modifying what they actually said to what they wish they said? (Actually they can already do this on the Congressional Record).
My vote is that painful or not, data is data. When you start screwing around with it, data becomes too reflective of cultural bias and less about facts. So leave Wedmore on the map and put up more signs or better yet, have towns feed data to the GPS companies.
Posted on December 05, 2007
