Disputed Boundaries & Names
- National Geographic Criticized for Chinese Names of Tibetan Places
- A few months back, Tibettruth, a website advocating Tibetan independence, blasted National Geographic for changing to Chinese names of Tibetan places and accused them of violating their own policy of being apolitical. “Such an action, taken we must imagine with…
- PopSci on Commercial vs. ‘Official’ Cartography
- Popular Science pivots from the recent Nicaragua-Costa Rica border dispute to make a point about how digital maps are essentially commercial — rather than governmental or “official” cartography: “The incident raises some interesting issues concerning the future of mapmaking that,…
- Vietnam Objects to Map World’s Boundaries
- China’s new, official Map World service has annoyed the Vietnamese government (press release) because it shows the disputed Paracel and Spratly Islands as Chinese territory. Remember, kids: one country’s official boundaries are another country’s diplomatic insult. Previously: Map World: Online…
- Nicaragua ‘Opportunistically’ Blamed Google Maps for Border Incursion
- Ogle Earth has done some digging into the history of the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border — disputes over which date back to the 1850s — and comes to the following conclusion: Given all this information, we can conclude that the narrative…
- Nicaraguan Incursion into Costa Rican Territory Blamed on Google Maps Error
- Nicaraguan troops crossed the border into Costa Rica and raised the Nicaraguan flag; the commander apparently cited erroneous maps from Google that showed the territory as belonging to Nicaragua: About.com Geography, Fast Company, Search Engine Land. (The border is shown…
- More on Google and Disputed Geography
- Public Radio International’s The World interviews John Gravois, author of the Washington Monthly article on Google’s attempts to be a neutral arbiter of disputed place names and boundaries. The audio segment is about four and a half minutes long. Via…
- Google Updates Borders
- On a related note, Google has announced improvements to borders for 60 countries. From the examples given, the borders are in some cases much more precise and higher in resolution, and in other cases more closely reflect the geopolitical reality…
- The Washington Monthly on Google and Disputed Maps
- Read The Washington Monthly’s article on the troubles Google has encountered when presenting disputed names and boundaries in Google Earth and Google Maps. The problem, it seems, is that governments and people protesting various boundary and name disputes (Arunachal Pradesh…
- Iran’s Persian Gulf Campaign Takes to the Skies
- Iran’s war to keep people from calling the Persian Gulf by another name — the Arabian Gulf — has opened a new front: map displays on airplanes’ in-flight monitors, with the Iranian government threatening to ban airlines from Iranian airspace…
- Yahoo and Disputed Geodata
- How Yahoo deals with disputed place names and boundaries in its geodata, using Cyprus (and, more specifically, how to deal with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) as an example….
- How Google Deals with Disputed Borders and Place Names
- Google explains “the principles we follow in designing our mapping products, particularly as they apply to disputed regions” — e.g., when two countries disagree about what a body of water is named or where a boundary is disputed. “That can…
- Iran Accuses Google Earth of Provoking Regional Conflict
- I told you Iran was campaigning against the use of the name “Arabian Gulf”; this time they’re accusing Google Earth managers of “knowingly or unknowingly” provoking conflict in the region. Wow. Illegal and insulting? Via Ogle Earth….
- Google and Disputed Place Names
- How does a global mapping provider like Google deal with disputed map names? (Think, for example, of Iran’s campaign in favour of the Persian Gulf instead of the Arabian Gulf, or South Korea’s on behalf of the East Sea instead…
- Custom Globes and Contested Geographies
- You’re no doubt familiar with the controversies about what gets depicted on a map: disputed territories, disputed names (e.g. Persian Gulf vs. Arabian Gulf, Sea of Japan vs. East Sea). Here’s an interesting article from the International Herald Tribune that…
- Review: From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow
- From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim and Inflame by Mark Monmonier University of Chicago Press, 2006. Hardcover, 229 pp. ISBN 0-226-53465-0 When I was living in Edmonton, I heard the story of Chinaman’s Peak. In 1886,…
