Foreword to Ocean Globe

Abstract

The book "Ocean Globe" is about a new kind of exploration, one that draws upon the work of those who still go to sea but can more readily share their discoveries with the “denizens of the desktop.” It is about new ways of visualizing where more than two thirds of this “place and space” exists, but within the new paradigm of server-based GIS, where we not only show maps and visualizations, but more importantly the actual data and methods used to create those maps. It is motivated by the potential for GIS tools and services to go beyond what the current generation of virtual globes can deliver in offering integrated data access; higher resolution and accuracy of data on demand; interoperability among GIS datasets, maps, globes, and methods; and the ability to search through both space and time (e.g., “to find something here that is similar in circumstance to there”). All these tools and services would