Maps As a Metaphor in a Geographical Hypermedia System

Abstract This paper describes how a geographical hypermedia model, called GeoAnchor, which integrates the hypermedia paradigm with geographical requirements, uses maps as a browsing device. With GeoAnchor, a map is built dynamically as a cartographic view of the hyperbase: each displayed geometry is an anchor to either a geographic node or to a related node. Hence, the map on the screen acts both as an index to the nodes and as a view to the hyperbase. We show that sucha map can be used as a metaphor for the representation of all the hyperbase elements. This metaphor relies on two main mechanisms: location inheritance for non-spatial nodes and a weighting scheme that provides for multi-scale management.