Geography 222 The Power of Maps

...to Geog 222 Main Page and Course Description
...to Geog 222 Syllabus
...to Geog 222 Course Schedule
...to Geog 222 Exercises

Geog 222 Exercise 7: Map Your Own Data
Revised: 12/11/09

ASSIGNED in class Monday, November 16
DUE in class Monday, November 16: Working groups & potential topics
DUE in class Wednesday, November 18: Present potential topics
DUE in class Friday, November 20: Email One Page Proposal for Project & Data Group will Map (see description below)
DUE by email, Thursday December 10 at 5pm: Project URL and writeup (see below)
DUE in class Friday, December 11: Required Demo & Discussion of Project

Student Maps, Fall 2009:

For most of the history of the map, a few people made maps and a much larger number used them. Map-making evolved into a highly skilled profession with an array of theoretical, technical, and practical facets that precluded most people from making more than sketch and hand-drawn maps.

With the development of GIS software and web mapping, some people heralded the dawn of popular mapping: anyone with internet access could be a mapmaker. Geography 222 exercises focus on the diversity of maps you can make on the web.

But there is a bit of a problem: you are making maps with other people's data. The U.S. Census Bureau's data, MapQuest's data, Delaware County GIS Office's data, NationMaster's data, and so on: what other people and organizations think is important.

So what about mapping your own data? If you can map your own data you can map what matters to you, or your organization, or your company, or your family, or your friends. Indeed, making your own maps with your own data means you are liberated from the confines of what other people think is important (and thus what data is made available) about the world.

A map your own data revolution has started on several fronts, driven by technology, in particular Google Earth (and it's KMZ files), the ease of creating a map mashup using Google Maps (and an increasing number of other web mapping sites), and easy access to GPS for collecting your own data. We already did some address matching (or geocoding) in Lab 4 with the BatchGeoCode web site which is, in essence, mapping your own data.

In addition to geocoding, the map "mash-up" is a vital tool in the map your own data revolution. In general, a mashup is just putting different stuff together. Music mashups splice and overlay segments of different songs that, in combination, become a new song. Map mashups do the same thing: combining geographic data and maps from multiple sources into a new map. Both music and map mashups are greatly enabled by digital technology, although they existed long before software and computers.

Enabling the whole map mashup phenomena are open APIs. An API (Application programming interface) is just a bunch of programming tools for building new applications.

More on APIs:

Google provides access to their Google Maps API that allows anyone to combine their data with Google Maps as the background. While relatively simple, Google Maps API still requires a bit of effort (signing up for a free API key which allows you to create mashups with Google Maps, and some HTML scripting). It also requires that you have geographic data, points, lines, and areas, in latitude/longitude, and specify these locations in the HTML code. The benefit is that anyone anywhere with web access can see your data mapped out with a Google Maps background.

Below find a simple map mashup made from the Google KMZ files you created and sent to me as part of Exercise 3:


Google (April of 2007) introduced an even easier way to make basic map mashups, called My Maps. My Maps allows you to place points, lines, and areas directly on a Google Map background, and annotate these features with text, images, and movies. As you are on screen locating features, the accuracy may be a bit off, but you can use a Google Maps search to more precisely locate things, and transfer the points to your map. The problem with My Maps is that you must have a Google Account to create a map. All maps created with My Maps are publicly accessible (unless you make them private).

The big picture: Google's My Maps and other map mashup APIs allow just about anyone to map their own geographic data onto existing geographic data (such as Google Maps). The process can be simple or complex, resulting in a few points located on a map to sophisticated projects with thousands of data points, lines, and areas. While still in its infancy, map mashup technology greatly extends the potential of popular mapping.w


Goals: This exercise uses Google Map's new My Maps feature to create your own personal map mash-up, focused on somewhere and something of your choice that better be damn interesting. You will add your own point, line, and area data to Google Maps and make a publicly viewable map mashup. You can also link text, photos, and movies to these locations. You may work in groups or on your own (groups need to do more substantial projects).


Procedure:

1) Decide if you are going to work in a group or on your own. Group project have to be more substantial than individual projects.


2) You need a Google Account and of course you have one as OWU uses Google for its email. If you want, you can use a different account, or create one just for this exercise (as we are working in a group). All the data you put into "My Maps" is stored on a Google server, so you can access and modify the "My Maps" project from anywhere you can access the web.


3) Think about some potential topics. Your data should be stuff that is locatable at points, along lines, or in areas. It should not be boring. It should be things you don't normally see on normal maps.

Review the My Maps examples below, including student maps from last semester. They may help you ponder your own project ideas.

A couple of fascinating example maps I tossed together:


Be creative and have fun, please. Please. Talk to me if you want to discuss your ideas.


Project Proposal: Please email (Word, PDF, email format) the following for each project by the due date noted above:


4) Map your own data! You may need to do some exploring outside to confirm locations (this works only if your map is focused on the Delaware area, or if you can easily get to wherever you are mapping), use other methods to locate things (Google Maps search, other maps, data sites, books, etc.) or even get information by talking to other people.

The Google My Maps User's Guide has simple and clear instructions on creating a map with your data using placemarks (points), lines, and shapes (areas). The guide also covers how to edit your maps, add photos and movies (which need to be somewhere on the web), sharing your maps, and getting your maps into Google Earth.

Extra Fun: The symbols provided by My Maps are a bit flimpy. You can design your own symbols with a bit of effort: a tutorial I concocted is here on the blog for the Making Maps book. Let me know if you want to create your own symbols and need help.

Each person should generate fifteen annotated placemarks/lines/shapes on a map. Thus if you are working in a group of two, you need thirty placemarks/lines/shapes. Include photos in at least three of the locations (I can assist you in preparing your images and placing them on the internet).

What is Due

Each group please turn in the following by 5pm the day prior to the project due date:

Remember that we will take some class time to demo and discuss the results of this exercise on the day it is due.

E-mail: jbkrygier@owu.edu

...back to krygier top page.
...to krygier teaching page.
...to geography 222 exercise page.

OWU Home
OWU Geology and Geography Home