Cartography 2.0: For people who make interactive maps

Cartography 2.0 (http://Cartography2.org) is a free online knowledge base and e-textbook for students and professionals interested in interactive and animated maps. I (Mark) pitched the idea of doing an ‘online textbook’ to my co-authors because I knew that, as teachers, we were all frustrated with the inability of traditional textbooks to keep pace with the constant stream of new Web technologies. Further, we could not find any comprehensive online resources about web-based mapping that provided the same breadth and depth we’ve come to expect from a professionally produced textbook. The kind of knowledge that is needed to make dynamic maps spans many (traditionally separate) fields from computer science to education. While there are great books on all of these fields individually, none offered an answer to the basic question I’ve been asked many times: what’s the important stuff I need to know about making great on-demand/interactive maps?