Google announced today that their Google Earth file format, KML, was accepted OGL Standard by the Open Geospatial Consortium. We all know how useful Google Earth and Google Maps are (and if you don't you might want to wake up and smell the "non-java" - HAH!! - get it?); so I have to wonder what effect this will have on world-wide wandering? Will having standardized, linkable, tag-able, comment-able maps readily available through any GPS or mobile, map-enabled cellphone increase the amount of folks entering into those "wild places" which they might not otherwise venture into? If so, how will this, in turn, affect those same "wild places"?
Will we see an increase of traffic into wild-places where normally only Wandering Men venture? Will this influx of new (and quite possibly uncaring and inexperienced) souls damage those wonderful places which mean so much to so many of us? We've all seen the aftermath caused by vandals and folks with no love of the wilderness; we all know what results. Will this new technology, so easily obtainable, be bad for the "wild-places" of the world. Or will it, instead, foster a new love and appreciation for those places, making us see that there are precious few of them left?
I'm not sure, but you can rest assured, dear readers, on which side of that fence the Wandering Men will stand.
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