Imagine a scenario in which photographs, pages, Tweets, status updates, and even, someday, electronic item-level records, can be linked together on a map and interrelated based on their spatial proximity to one another. Institutions, archives and museums could coordinate geographically-related content, forging new connections between content, especially where that content has regional relevance.
Geotagging lends itself to construction of the beginning stages of this scenario. While a universal (ha) implementation seems nearly impossible (won't we have moved onto something more advanced by then?), there are still many educational opportunities to geotagging.
In an archival setting, a repository could establish a geotagging map after tagging some items from its collections. In this way, a user can visualize the spatial history of a theme, person, family, business, etc. Imagine a diary collection from a Depression-era family traveling across the "Dust Bowl" of the United States. While, due to budgetary and staffing limitations, it might be impossible, or, at the very least, impractical, to create records for each diary entry, it might be faster and equally interesting to tag places on a geotagging map. Users could instantly visualize the diary spatially, creating a whole additional dimension to research in a fraction of the time. The same could be true of linked collections (pieces of which are held at different repositories) or "unrelated" collections that share only a geographical point or a temporal one. Collections could be linked in a way that would lead users to them. I am sure we have all seen how a single collection can become isolated; this might be a simple way to increase visibility.
The possibilities are very exciting. However, there are also security concerns--particularly personal ones. I think geotagging seems like a worthwhile point of investigation for repositories, institutions, libraries, etc. I am a little leery of using it for my personal items, or those with my name attached to them. There are stalkers out there, after all. Just something to think about.
On a happier note-- got the Twitter going on the Blog. I'm starting to like Twitter... as long as I promise myself to keep it classy, archivist.
UPDATE: Geotagged this entry.
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