Geography 222 The Power of Maps

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Geog 222 Exercise 7: Map Your Own Data
Worth 100 points

Revised: 12/10/12

ASSIGNED in class Monday November 12
DUE in class Monday November 12: Working groups & potential topics
DUE by email Wednesday November 14: Email One Page Description of Project & Data Group will Map
DUE by email Sunday December 9 at 10 pm: Project URL and writeup
DUE in class Monday December 10: In-Class Presentation of Project

Student Maps, Fall 2012:


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? We did this in the first class exercise (psychogeography). Cool and interesting. But howabout mapping your own data with current internet mapping technology? 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 has 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. All maps created with My Maps are publicly accessible (unless you make them private).

One could critique the "power" of making maps with My Maps: you are in essence sticking a few marker, line, or area symbols on a Google Map: most of the map (all the background stuff) is Google's. It's their stage you are making your map upon. Also, these map mashups tend to all look the same, a cartographic monoculture.

Alas, 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.


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 Gmail Account You can use My Maps with your OWU Google account, but I strongly suggest (if you are working in a group) that you create a new account. That way you can all share the account and login without giving anyone access to your personal account.


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. Don't make a map of all the McDonalds around Delaware. You can do that by googling McDonalds! Boring!

I liked the Pirate attacks in Delaware project (as shown in class, and linked below) and you can look at the Improv Everywhere site to see more crazy public stunts. Video them, upload to YouTube and embedd them in your MyMaps map mashup.

Given that this exercise is worth 100 pts I urge you to engage in a serious mapping project. I suggest something interesting around OWU or Delaware - this will get you out and having kilos of fun, frolicking about the fall landscapes of central Ohio. There are some good examples of this in the map examples below.

Review the My Maps examples below from previous semesters. Some suck, but others - particularly those that are more creative - are truly unsuckish. The examples along with input from your instructor will help you develop your own project ideas.

The examples below are from previous semesters, when the exercise was worth 50 points. So please step up the projects a bit, as the exercise is worth 100 points this semester.

Examples: Student Maps, Fall 2012:

Examples: Student Maps, Fall 2011:

More Examples: Student Maps, Spring 2011:

More Examples: Student Maps, Fall 2010:

More Examples: Student Maps, Spring 2010:

  • More Examples: Student Maps, Fall 2009:

  • More Examples: Student Maps, Spring 2009:

  • More Examples: Student Maps, Fall 2008:

  • More Examples: Student Maps, Spring 2008:

  • More Examples: Student Maps, Fall 2007:

  • More examples: Student Maps, Spring 2007:

  • More examples:


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


    Project Proposal: Please type up in an email (and send to me) the following for each project by the due date noted above:


    4) Map your own data! Whilst logged into a Google account, go to Google Maps and click on My Maps on the blue bar in the upper left part of the screen. 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 20-30 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). If you do more time intensive stuff - like shooting custom videos at each location on your map - you can have fewer sites on your map. Ask me, talk to me, bounce ideas off of me.

    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

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