Presentation from the Data Swap conference at Northeastern University on Oct 17th, 2013. Gives an overview of the Power of Maps, a project using geodata, and a quick tour of mapping technologies on the web.

1. News Geography
Catherine D’Ignazio
The MIT Center for Civic Media
dignazio@mit.edu

2. First

4. Maps seduce us with
• Facticity
• Their complexity and claim to completeness
• Their visuality and our desire to see the
“whole world”

5. Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Abraham Ortelius, 1570

6. Hand-held Subway by Nina Katchadourian, 1996

7. As data designers you can use that
seductive power of the map not just
to describe the world but to
reimagine the world
Targets by Joyce Kozloff, 2000

8. Silent London by Simon Elvins, 2005

9. Political/Hydrological by Lauren Rosenthal, 2006

10. Pumpkin Map by Denis Wood

11. The upside-down Hobo-Dyer Equal Area Projection

12. Mapping the Globe
Catherine D’Ignazio, Research Assistant
MIT Center for Civic Media

13. Mapping the Globe
Is news coverage distributed equally in Greater Boston?
✦ What factors explain the unequal distribution of attention?
✦ Beyond quantitative measures of media attention how can
we assess qualitative measures?
✦
globe.mediameter.org

14. globe.mediameter.org

15. globe.mediameter.org

16. globe.mediameter.org

17. globe.mediameter.org

18. globe.mediameter.org

19. • Global
Next Steps
• Comparative
• Integrated with MediaCloud
mediacloud.org

20. Geoparsing the News 101
Q. Can a computer
tell where this text
is about?
A.Yes! With 85%
accuracy.

21. Geoparsing the News 102
Geolocated article
Civic sauce
CLAVIN
Stanford NER parser
News Article

24. Lightning Tour of
Map Tech

25. Do you just need to
make an image?
• Wikimedia for shape files + Adobe
Illustrator for editing
• Use an .SVG file for easy styling with CSS

26. Do you need to do
spatial analysis?
• ArcGIS by ESRI
• QGIS for open source GIS
• Then Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop for
laying out the image
• CartoDB for GIS in the browser

27. Do you want to make
an interactive web map?
• Google Maps API
• LeafletJS
• Modest Maps
• OpenLayers
• D3.js

28. Do you need a
particular projection?

29. Do you need to zoom?
• Use a tile-based system like:
• Google Maps API
• LeafletJS

30. Do you want really
awesome map tiles?
Check out the custom ones from
Stamen Design

31. Do you want fine-grained
control over styles & colors?
• MapBox/LeafletJS/TileMill - CartoCSS
language
• Google Maps API has the
“StyledMapsWizard”

32. Do you want to be able
to print your map?
• D3.js
• Base your map on an SVG file & style with
CSS
• Or just make it a static image

33. Do you need to show
custom shapes?
• GIS shapefiles -> KML -> GoogleMaps
• GIS shapefiles -> GDAL/OGR -> GeoJSON
-> GoogleMaps/LeafletJS
• GIS shapefiles -> GDAL/OGR -> GeoJSON
-> D3 -> TopoJSON -> D3.js

34. Do you want to show
time?
• D3 transitions
• CartoDB
• http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/
interactive/2012/oct/01/first-world-warroyal-navy-ships-mapped

35. thanks
more info:
dignazio@mit.edu
civic.mit.edu/blog/kanarinka