What are the relations between digital cartography and hand-drawn maps?
The science is dividing the field of knowledge into disposable knowledge and reusable knowledge. Google maps are falling into the first category, while axonometric maps belong to the second, because they're suitable for being reused. An 11-year-old hand-drawn map still looks beautiful, whereas 11 years from now Google maps will be dated. Google and others are failing to present the beautifulness of our planet to us when doing their digital atlases.

Are you familiar with Baidu? The Chinese can't show satellite images of their cities so they model these detailed axonometric cityscapes.
Baidu shows very beautiful representations, similar to hand-drawn maps. They're like the depiction of a promise, telling you that it's a beautiful country to live in, whether it's true or not.

Reparieren leicht gemacht (1972), Verlag Das Beste, Stuttgart, 23 x 26 cm, 568 pp
Do you think the actual possibility of processing big datasets will affect other fields of visual design beyond data representation?
The digital has had a great impact not only on the production of information, but also on how to get to the sources. But this speed comes at a cost that shouldn't be underestimated, and that cost is precision. In the early days, information designers controlled the entire process and physically possessed the information. Nowadays, if you're doing a data visualisation using bytes that aren't on your hard drive, or that you don't even own, then you're dependent on other people. That's the digital drawback. The moment authoritarian countries decide to cut the wires, all the knowledge will be gone.

"Conclusion: The story is correct. The Jimmy-appeal is a lot more effective than the text-based ads. But the visualization is not showing why and how.
So why do I rant so heavily about a harmless piece of visualization then? Why don't I mind my own business and let David McCandless mind his?
Well, I just gave a presentation for the Danish Union of Journalists, telling them that the current boom in infographics - beautiful infographics too - has one major flaw: They're apparently not rooted in a passion for telling the true story - the research too often isn't good enough."