Cartography is One Year Old

A weblog for members of the Canadian Cartographic Association and other individuals interested in all things cartographic

Cartography is One Year Old

Published Sunday, April 30, 2006 by CCAer | E-mail this post

Friday April 28th marked the one year anniversary of this blog. It started inauspiciously enough and was meant to be another forum for members of the Canadian Cartographic Association to communicate with each other and keep abreast of new ideas and technologies in the field. It was meant to be a collective effort with members contributing items of interest but it didn’t quite turn out that way. For good or ill, this blog has primarily been an individual effort - in fact, all but one of the entries has been written by yours truly. The only other person to contribute is still a mystery to me.

Nevertheless, this solo effort has been, to date, most enjoyable. There are a number of things I have learned as a result of my blogging, some of which I will share now:

Blogging can be time consuming. I generally spend 30 to 90 minutes a day searching the Internet and writing blog entries. Sometimes that time is fruitful, resulting in a few interesting posts. Sometimes it’s not. There never seems to be a guarantee.
Blogging requires perserverance and consistency. About 3 months after this blog’s inception I realized that if it was to go anywhere and be even remotely useful, I would need to post regularly, almost every day. Weekends are generally an exception and holidays have become a big challenge to regular posting (most camping sites do not have Internet access - thankfully).
The geospatial blogging community is fairly small. Often I feel that I am covering territory that is too similar to someone else’s blog - the Map Room, for instance - but so far there still seems to be enough room for all of us. Nevertheless, I persist in blogging with the idea that it is always good to have another perspective on the field.
There is never any way of telling whether a post will be popular or not. To date, my posting on Soviet Topographic Maps has been the most successful in terms of the number of visitors it has brought (18,000 in one day alone). At other times I have passed over items only to find them blogged about elesewhere.
Most people seem to surf from work. At least, most of the blog’s vistors tend to stop by between 8 AM and 6 PM EST weekdays.

For those of you who like to see some statistics, here is a chart of the number of visitors over the past year, broken out on a weekly basis:

I hope the coming year proves to be as interesting and informative as the past year of blogging has been to me. I am always open to new ideas.

On behalf of the Canadian Cartographic Association (who are always looking for new members), thanks!

Paul Heersink
44.2889ºN, 78.3380ºW

10 Responses to “Cartography is One Year Old”

Anonymous on 1:39 PM

Congrats!
Thanks for keeping us informed, esthetically pleased and for dedicated so much time to share this high quality content with is!
T
Anonymous on 1:55 PM

Cool. Keep on running!
Anonymous on 2:10 PM

Hi Paul,

Congratulations. You are doing good work and I try to get by when I can to read your blog. I think you have helped to raise awareness about cartography significantly.

Your comments are interesting. For the most part, blogging is in its infancy and I don't think you are alone in figuring it all out.

Keep up the good work and good luck for another year!

Jeff
Anonymous on 5:52 PM

happy birthday, from the newbie in the field. your blog is wonderful and i'm glad you decided to keep up with it despite the lack of collegial help.
Anonymous on 6:05 PM

It is with great joy i've discovered your blog few months ago.
and almost always when i pop in to visit, i'm being introduced to interesting cartographic issues, and fascinating map concept.
i wish you to keep on the good work and to be a fruitful as you were this year.
Anonymous on 6:11 PM

i've found your site few months ago, and i enjoy my visit each time i pop in.

waiting to your new discoveries in this year to come!
Anonymous on 12:40 PM

why was there such a huge spike during that one week?
Anonymous on 1:01 PM

The spike in the number of visitors was a result of the Soviet Topographic Maps story being picked up on Digg.com.
Anonymous on 1:04 PM

Paul,

Glad to have the pretext to thank you for such a regular supply of interesting and relevant information. History is, understandably, a sideline for you but you still manage to dig out things that enrich my 'Map History' site. I am glad to include a modest link to your blog from my Special Topics page.

I hope the responses you're getting now will provide the encouragement that those doing lonely jobs on the web so much need!

Best wishes

Tony
Anonymous on 3:56 PM

As someone who shares the same concerns you do (and who finds his own insights are quite similar to your own) congratulations to you on sticking it out this far.

You are a valuable resource (as I do the same sort of work that you do on Designorati but in a slightly different sphere), and I would have a hard time finding some of the things that interest me if you weren't there.

Good on you! Happy first year and here's to many more

Sam Klein
Editor, Designorati:Cartography