Mapping Civics: New Technologies of Oceans Governance

The use of big data has long been integral to most oceans management regimes and to the development oceans sciences. Thus and not surprisingly, oceans management and oceans sciences efforts have been on the cutting edge of emerging technologies for producing, analyzing, and deploying science big data, including the uses of mapping technologies and the development of data portals. This presentation uses ethnographic data, archival data, and literature review to explore the ways in which these emerging technologies are teaching their users about the ocean and at the same time instilling new ways of approaching oceans, in particular instilling a large marine ecosystems approach to oceans. At the same time, a number of criticisms have arisen regarding the use of two-dimensional maps to understand human relations in oceans where depth, fluidity, and time play central roles in oceans systems. This presentation concludes by reviewing these criticisms and exploring some ways that they might be addressed in the context of portals as learning tools.