Maps are probably one of the oldest forms of data visualisation. Maps such as the Tabula Peutingeriana plotted the trade routes from Spain to India, with rest stops, hotels, spa's and wifi connections along the way. Maps that show the landmasses, the roads, the suburbs etc etc are all very well and good - however, typically it isn't the road, suburbs or landmasses that we are interested in, it is more likely to be "Fred's House", "the nearest coffee shop" or "Which of my warehouses is closest to that customer?". Maps then, need to be interactive, they need to capture not just what the cartographer thinks was important, but what the individual or group thinks are important. Luckily, the pencil was invented and maps the world over have been marked up with personalised content (although sharing such additional content has been effort intensive).

But maps like the parchment, paper or animal hide that they were written on have a problem. By the time the information is captured on a map and the map is distributed, the map is probably out of date. The chances of the 5th century spa's and eateries depicted on the Tabula Peutingeriana accepting 21st century customers are exceedingly slim (although some of the roads are still there). It would be great if we could look at a map that was kept up to date without our involvement. Virtual Earth and lots of other web applications go a long way in solving that problem.

However, a map is usually at its most useful when you are out on the road. And while there is wifi and smart phones and all that sort of stuff, these maps can still be useful. But in a big place like Australia, inexpensive, ubiquitous network access is far away at best and dangerously naive at worst.

What would be great is some sort of application that could store geographical information (datapoints, warehouses or 5th century spas), exchange information with peers to ensure that everyone is up to date and working online and offline. Oh and it would be great if this groovy hypothetical application was just part of Microsoft Office so that it would be easy to use and manage.

Oh, wait a minute...