The article describes the process of aggregation of media-based data about the coronavirus pandemic in the Olomouc region, the Czech Republic. Originally non-spatially located news from different sources and various platforms (government, social media, news portals) were automatically aggregated into a centralized database. The application “COVID-map” is an interactive web map solution which visualizes records from the database in a spatial way. The COVID-map has been developed within the Ad hoc online hackathon as an academic project at the Department of Geoinformatics, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic. Alongside spatially localized data, the map application collects statistical data from official sources e.g., from the governmental crisis management office. The impact of the application was immediate. Within a few days after the launch, tens of thousands users per day visited the COVID-map. It has been published by regional and national media. The COVID-map solution could be considered as a suitable implementation of the correctly used cartographical method for the example of the coronavirus pandemic.

The article presents an interdisciplinary link between the geospatial and the cultural sector. This is a unique study of Central Europe in visualizing and interpreting the spatial location of elements in cultural and creative industries. The main purpose was to create suitable visualizations and to process the spatial aspects of cultural and creative industries in a cartographical environment. A team of professionals from several fields (geoinformatics, economics, culture, social sciences, cartography) was assembled to map the creative industries in Olomouc Region, Czech Republic. A total of 1,211 subjects were identified which created the conditions for the employment of more than 5,000 people. Their turnover exceeds EUR 190,000,000 annually. This study was based on an initially examined dataset. Seven spatial analyses were applied. Thirty analogue maps and one interactive map application were created. The point character map was the most used one. The price map, as a background layer, was considered very useful for further map reading. The essential phenomena were topics of population density and transport. Based on the generated map outputs, we found that subjects had a tendency to concentrate in the city center or in areas with higher prices and service levels.

Currently, virtual reality (VR) is a trend both in general and in specific fields such as interactive maps. The article aims to test the possibilities of deployment of low-cost virtual reality environment for the 3D spatial panoramic application. It discusses and compares modern trends in hardware (panoramic cameras and glasses) and software in the field of virtual reality. Many panoramic map applications (e.g., the well-known "Google Street View") allow us to navigate through applications using VR headsets or on an ordinary 2D monitor. The main aim of the article is to design, develop, and deploy VR map application with different levels of user interaction. It presents two pilot studies with different user's interactivity and technical solutions: "simple" 2D-based map with 360 • panoramic photos and "true" 3D application for VR glasses. The article focuses on the possibilities of creating low-cost map applications. Therefore, the working process "from camera toward to virtual map application" is described as followed-up case studies.