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Geographic Data Maps Mashup
By Nick | February 19, 2008
Geographic Data Maps Mashup
Assigned: 2/19/2008 Due: 2/29/2008 6:00pm
The purpose of this assignment is to create a map mashup / visualization with a newsworthy dataset of your choosing. You’ll find or create some dataset which you think would have some news value and then put it on a map. To do this you’ll need to find or create the dataset, geocode it (if it’s not already), and then display it on a map in some way which facilitates better understanding of the data. Try to think like a journalist: how can you present the data on a map so that an end consumer can better understand it or make better use of it? Keep in mind, each marker on a map can encode not only it’s location, but also additional facets of data through size, color, intensity, etc. Also, Google Maps is more sophisticated than just being able to put individual markers on the map. For instance, you can also mark regions on the map as seen in this example (you have to click on the map). Of course, you can use your choice of map APIs (e.g. Google, Yahoo etc.) to do this. There are a number of resources which you may find helpful through Programmable Web including APIs to potential datasets.
Here’s a map project that was done for last year’s class: http://swiki.cc.gatech.edu/cj2007/uploads/5/Assignment1-Maps.12.html. In this example, the students actually went out and gathering data for each of the map locations (e.g. pictures and text), however we’re not requiring that you do that this year. It’s perfectly OK to find a dataset online somewhere, or to create a small dataset by doing some research online. Datasets could be hyperlocal, national, or even international. Here’s another example from the Sunlight Labs which shows the geographic distribution of federal earmarks: http://sunlightlabs.com/earmarks/. If you want to go for extra credit, you can also think about mapping 2 datasets which when seen together on the map might provide some additional insight through the juxtapositions of the data.
Some ideas for data to map:
- Locations of new sky-scrapers / towers being built or being planned around Atlanta
- Locations of where to vote across Atlanta for the 2008 elections
- Incidence reports across GT Campus for the past week / month / year
- Addresses of state representatives in Georgia
- Districts of Senators or Representatives in Congress
- Locations / sizes of largest 50 companies in Atlanta
- The game / travel schedule of a major sports team (this would somehow need to incorporate time into the map too)
- Power plant locations, types, and output for any given state
- Legal border crossing locations across Canadian and Mexican Borders
- Size of trade deficit at different ports of trade
Once you come up with an idea for a dataset, you’ll likely need to do some geocoding to get longitude / latitude data for each point in the dataset. To do this you can use the Google API, or a geocoding API such as Yahoo, Geocoder.us, Zee Maps, etc. You can also look on Programmable Web for other geocoders. Depending on the size of your dataset, you could even go through the geocoding processing manually (i.e. typing in addresses and then noting their Latitude / Longitude), but is only useful for completely static data. Once geocoded, you can use a mapping API to fairly easily get your data to show up on a map.
To hand in on T-Square
- A short description of your dataset and how you found it or created it. Why is it interesting?
- A link to your map
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