Victor High, a Principal GIS Specialist at the King County GIS Center, recounts his journey from watching the moon landing to pioneering GIS technology. His career shift from technical illustration to GIS enabled him to work on beneficial projects and leave a lasting legacy. After 33 years, he passes the torch to Valerie Bright, confident in the future of GIS at King County.
One of the most satisfying things that a well-made map can do is convey a sense of place. And an especially well-map map may convey a sense of a past place that both infuses and transcends a present location. I came across such a map yesterday just a few blocks from our own King County GIS Center location, where Seattle’s Pioneer Square transitions to the International District, specifically the historic Japantown.
The re-use and re-purposing of map elements, especially digital map data, may seem simple and obvious since we are far past the time when the availability and use of digital data and production practices became the norm in cartography. But it hasn’t been all that long since the time when mapmakers were beholden to the technical strictures imposed by mechanical map construction methods.
GIS & You 