Remember when the Wizard of Oz told Dorothy to just ignore the man behind the curtain? Well cartographers are wizards (or a sort) and they select, prioritize, and edit based upon their background, knowledge, world view, politics and values. And, like the Wizard of Oz, cartographers usually want you to pay attention to image they’ve presented to you, rather than to look at the cartographer’s background and biases and look at what’s going on behind the scenes. On this page you can click on the contributor and get a glimpse of who they are, and how they came to make the decisions they made. Over fourteen people* contributed to the design, development, and refinement of this map. The major contributors were:

Paul Breding - Biography and Methodology
Cartographer - Main Map image

Paul Breding has a BA in Geography from the University of Colorado, and an MS in Geography from the University of South Carolina. His graduate work was primarily focused on the role of cartograms in K-12 Geography curriculums. Since then, he has worked as a Cartographer for educational publisher Nystrom, Encyclopaedia Britannica, and currently works for the Chicago Tribune.

Denis Wood
Social Scientist & Author - Map Explanation
Audio Interview with Denis Wood (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)

Denis Wood provided editorial guidance on all phases of this project. His insights, analysis and suggestions were critical to the integration of information (both data and images) from the three other cartographers. Perhaps the best way to understand his contributions is to read the letter he wrote to editor Bob Abramms in August 2004. You will note on the finished map that not all of Denis' advice was accepted.

Fred Pearce
Historical & Projected Population Research

Fred Pearce is a freelance writer on environment, development and demographic issues from London, England. He is environment consultant of New Scientist magazine and reckons he has reported from 54 countries over the past 15 years. His recent US outlets include the Boston Globe and Foreign Policy. His latest book, "Keepers of the Spring: Reclaiming our water in the Age of Globalization" was published by Island Press in November 2004.
See a Commentary on statistics for the historical and projected population maps here. Read article here

Bill Yoder
GIS Cartographer
Thumbnail Images (#2-6)

Bill Yoder received a Bachelor of Science in environmental resources and a Master of Science in applied biological sciences. He is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at Arizona State University in Environmental Design and Planning program, working on development of site potential models using advanced technologies (GIS, remote sensing, and spatial statistics).

Bob Abramms
Project Director

Bob’s professional biography
Bob’s politics
Audio interview about maps
Web clip of Bob’s video
Bob’s background

Mona Naimark
Graphics Design
Consultant

Mona Naimark is a visual artist who paints silks and watercolors. She lives in the USA and in Guatemala. When she is in the USA, she has been an important contributor to ODT projects, in terms of design, production, and marketing. She used her talents in graphic design to provide editorial guidance to this project.

Brendan Mruk - (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)
Graphics Design
CopyCat Graphics
www.trappedinsuburbia.com
Brendan Mruk works at CopyCat Graphics in Amherst MA. He painstakingly worked to refine the final image until it was ready to go to press.

Clicking on the links above takes you behind the scenes. It will provide an eye-opening view of how each of the contributors struggled with the issues and dilemmas that came up, as each person conducted the research and constructed the resulting images. As a publisher of innovative world images, ODT has a commitment to make the developmental process transparent…to let customers “see” through the map to the ethical and values decisions BEHIND the map. Map creation is not a sterile, hands-off, “objective” process. The process by which the decisions are made can be as fascinating as the final image that is published. Each contributor shares his/her thoughts and process as they worked towards the goal of the completed map.

PLEASE NOTE: WEB PAGES are not a sterile, hands-off, “objective” process either. The web designer who assembled these pages is Gabor Lukacs.
Gabor’s background, knowledge, world view, politics and values also have an impact on the way he executes Bob Abramms’ instructions on how to compose these web pages.

Most of the above individuals never met face-to-face over the course of this project. All the work between Bob, Fred, Paul and Denis was done by email and phone. However significant face-to-face communication was required throughout the final pre-press stage of the project between Bob, Brendan, Mona and Gabor.