There is Always Another Version: Maintenance, Deprecation, and the Long-Term Life of Digital Maps

Abstract

This article is about the long-term life of digital maps. The deprecation of Adobe Flash and Esri Story Maps offers harsh lessons for digital cartographers. Namely, that our creations will not, and cannot, last forever. Combining literature review and research agenda, I argue that a long-term view of digital mapping is a lens into social, physical, and environmental processes. I begin with the relationship between digital maps, preservation, and ephemerality, pondering the end of digital mapping projects, in specific contrast to print cartography. I then describe the challenges of sustaining and maintaining digital maps, drawing on the related field of digital humanities, and exploring how societal power structures devalue maintenance for novelty. Next, I introduce two technical frameworks, discussing how they each could support a more holistic long-term view of digital mapping. The first, free and open-source software (FOSS), puts technical control in the hands of map designers, but requires intentional commitment to the social dimensions of mapmaking to be effective. The second, minimal computing, positions need as the primary motivator of all decision-making throughout the mapping process—which is particularly relevant for local-scale projects. I end with a brief agenda for future directions for the research and practice of long-term digital mapping.