MAPS | EDITING | RESUME
Maps
All of the maps to the right were created for my Cartography class (GEOG475) in the Spring of 2008. For my final project, I created a meta-map of the special exhibit of maps at the Walters Art Museum, MAPS: FINDING OUR PLACE IN THE WORLD which ran from March 16 - June 8, 2008. As the exhibit was an extension and modification of the The Field Museum's original limited-engagement exhibit of the same name, it did not have a published manifest for the maps in the exhibit. The show did however have an exquisite and thoroughly-researched book that was published in conjunction with the Field Museum exhibit which I highly recommend: Maps: Finding Our Place in the World by John McCarter (Foreword), James R. Akerman (Editor), Robert W. Karrow (Editor) I documented every map and artifact in the show over the course of a few visits, then researched each map online and in texts. From that research, I created a Google Map that showed the origin of every map in the exhibit, and ordered the map index by date. It was a fun foray into the Google Maps API, as well as a fascinating look into the world of maps and mapmakers and technique. Placing the maps over a terrain view highlighted just how exquisite the 1502 da Vinci color topographic map of central Italy is; unless one has a reference nearby it can be difficult to appreciate. (The technique used would later be formalized as hypsometric tinting.) There were a few disappointments — I was not able to find any images of Christopher Packe's 1743 hydrological map of East Kent online, which is quite sad as it is a brilliant work of art. All images that I could find have their source explicitly noted. Link to the final project: http://www.mur.com/~kobi/g475/kindex2.htmlReturn to top of page
Editing
Editing and Document Design (ENGL379c, now 494) was a compelling elective, as I did a lot of documentation in my prior career, and I was interested in a more thorough and academic look at document publishing. What quickly became apparent was that the skills necessary for editing were directly applicable to cartography. Both disciplines require attention to detail, an overall sense of coherence and design, and refinement of features and information so that the final product conveys what it needs to convey as simply and accurately as possible. For the final project, we were to edit or extend a document that we used often. I created two chapters of a quick reference guide to a software product I use in many of my GIS classes: ESRI ArcView. The introductory GIS class (GEOG373) uses an ESRI-published workbook that does a great job of walking students through the many features of the product. However, there were a few problems that made the workbook an awkward reference: there was no index, and some features were introduced in slightly different ways in different exercises, with the result that I could end up flipping through the entire book to find the information I was looking for. The quick reference guide I created is organized to parallel the workbook, with general instructions for commands as they are encountered, a reference to the corresponding page in the workbook, and a detailed index. The quick reference guide would be provided with the workbook in pdf and a small pamphlet form. The original cover art is copyright ESRI; I modified it to create a unified proposal. Quick reference (in pdf) I also occasionally peer review articles for IEEE Communications magazine.Return to top of page
Resume
From 1993-2006 I was heavily involved in Internet network engineering and later systems administration and security. In late 2006, I decided to return to the University of Maryland and resume my undergraduate studies. After taking a GIS course as an elective, I got hooked and changed my major from Mathematics to Geographic Information Systems and Computer Cartography. I had an established interest in the visual display of quantitative information — I took Edward Tufte's course on Presenting Data and Information in 2000, and refer to his books quite often.
Changing academic focus means that there is a bit of a disconnect between what I am studying and what my work experience reflects. On the other hand, I think that the future of information analysis will demand a synthesis of computing, linguistics, and spatial analysis, and I find it exciting to be studying a new field while being able to draw heavily on past experience. one-page resume | two-page resume Image viewer credit: Highslide JS All maps, images, and documents copyright © Kobi Hsu unless otherwise noted.
