Playing with maps Explore, discover, learn, categorize, model, analyse, explain, present geographic and non-geographic data

Maps are especially known for their capability to provide insight in geographic patterns and trends. Maps do this well because they only present a selection of the complex reality and visualize it in an abstract way. But today they have many more roles to play. They should also be seen as flexible interface to geospatial data, since they offer interaction with the data behind the visual representation and additionally maps are instruments that encourage exploration. As such they are used to stimulate (visual) thinking about geospatial patterns, relationships, and trends. The context where maps like this operate is the world of geovisualization which can be described as a loosely bounded domain that addresses the visual exploration, analysis, synthesis and presentation of geospatial data by integrating approaches from disciplines including cartography with those from scientific visualization, image analysis, information visualization, exploratory data analysis, visual analytics, and GIScience. Contact with all those disciplines has enriched the world of maps but have also stimulated others to use the map (metaphor) to visualize non-geographic data. The discussion illustrated the new and exiting role maps can play to visualize geographic and non-geographic data in combination with other visual means