Map Tools for Devs This is a great time to be a geodeveloper. There’s more spatial data, geo-processing tools, geo enabled storage and mapping tools than ever. Let’s start with storage – not too long ago geo developers had two choices, file formats or proprietary object-relational databases. Today there are production ready open source object-relational databases such as PostgreSQL/PostGIS and MySQL; even mobile devices have lightweight databases with spatial capabilities such as SQLite. In addition to traditional object-relational databases, NoSQL databases such as Cassandra, CouchDB, and MongoDB have a spatial capabilities. Big Table clones such as Hbase can also store spatial data and there is ongoing work for developing a spatial index which facilitates spatial queries and operations. Manipulating spatial data and performing analysis used to be dominated by specialized proprietary Geographic Information Systems (GIS) desktop software. Mapping Ecosystem
| Meipi Team Let’s Crowdsource a Database of Websites about Data Journalism! While doing research for a PhD on data journalism in Brazilian newsrooms, I have recently stumbled upon the need to analyse what reporters and researchers abroad are talking about the subject. But I was soon after confronted with the absence of a comprehensive database or other resource listing websites and weblogs on visualization, investigative techniques, CAR, and all other newsrooms practices labelled as data journalism. So, using a humble Google Docs spreadsheet, I started one. Data journalism is big in Brazil right now, and there is a fair number of reporters sharing techniques and discussing the recently sanctioned Freedom of Information law. One of them is CAR pioneer José Roberto de Toledo, who writes Vox Pública and is the head of the data team at O Estado de São Paulo. Since the untimely death of blogrolls, unfortunately, it has become increasingly difficult to let the Web do the research job.
Datavisualization Map of Life and CartoDB « The Map of Life It’s been an exciting month for Map of Life! We had a great time at TDWG 2011 in sunny New Orleans, where John Wieczorek and I presented Map of Life‘s big dream: to use existing maps to make better maps of where species actually are. John and Aaron Steele also presented some radical ideas about hooking CouchDB and CouchApp together to build simple, powerful applications. Their switch in strategy made us wonder if perhaps we could pull that off with Map of Life, too. It was in this frame of mind that we attended Javier de la Torre‘s demonstration of CartoDB, a Google Fusion Table-like application to store and render mapping data. Over the last two months, we’ve been working on moving our map tiling infrastructure to leverage CartoDB while continuing to use Google App Engine for indexing and searching. A set of scripts which upload data into a CartoDB database, and;A frontend which queries and accesses that database to create a map to show our users. Like this: Like Loading...
Data Visualization [infographie] Ukraine : la démocratie en dictature ! L’Ukraine, un bien beau pays qui est dans l’actualité en ce moment pour de bien tristes raisons… Malgré les vaillants efforts de l’opposition en Ukraine, le Parlement ukrainien a adopté une loi brutale qui dirige le pays en plein dans la dictature. Sont interdits en vertu de la nouvelle loi (sous peine d’emprisonnement) de conduire des voitures dans des colonnes qui dépassent cinq véhicules longs, de mettre en place un système sonore (émission ou réception) non déclaré, les « perturbations de masse » sont passibles de 10 à 15 ans d’emprisonnement, des informations sont collectés sur la police ou les juges, j’en passe… (l’image en grand format) Bref, comme souvent je vous invite à rester vigilant autant que possible sur vos droits, vos libertés et à rester informés tout en informant… et à militez avec vos propres moyens, si vous le pouvez! source Êtes-vous adepte du multitasking ? (voir l’image en grand) Et vous, êtes-vous « multitâche » ?
Blog | The Noun Project, Investigative Journalism Icons now Available Chart Porn Smarter Than You Think: U.S. Highways, Mapped Like A Subway System The graphic language of the London Underground map is so iconic that "[insert any network or process here] visualized as a London Underground map" has become a design cliché. So why are we writing about the latest iteration, a Tube-style map of U.S. interstate highways, created by Cameron Booth? Because, clichéd or not, visualizing this particular system in this way is actually damned useful. The U.S. interstate system actually has a grid-like logic to it: Highways that go north/south are labeled with odd numbers, and highways that go east/west have even-numbered labels. Not that you’d be able to easily tell, though--much like the London Underground rail system, interstate highways look like an overturned plate of spaghetti when plotted on a geographically accurate map. Chucking geographic accuracy for a Tube-style schematic makes much more sense for plotting routes on the U.S. interstate system. Click to zoom. via Visual.ly; top image by Tim Roberts/Shutterstock.
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