Recent advances in 3-D map presentation over the web has resulted in a surge of interest from stakeholders and professionals seeking to employ the 3-D products that the Polish Geological Institute is offering as a state geological survey. This surge results in both opportunities and challenges. Very specific opportunities arise when more and more of our own colleagues and also professionals in a wider community are willing to make their products 3-Dfriendly in order to, in turn, take advantage of the possibilities that the third dimension offers for their own work. The challenges (that can also be turned into opportunities) arise from increased pressure to make our 3-D maps more suitable to sometimes conflicting needs and communicate them properly in a way that encourages reuse and accounts for both their strengths and limitations—uncertainties in particular. Below, we propose to have a closer look at these factors, with particular emphasis on how they play out in our everyday mapping practice at the Geological Survey of Poland.
