A project for Golan Levin's electronic design and art studio at Carnegie Mellon University in Spring 2010. http://golancourses.net/2010spring/01/27/project-1-moving/

1. Moving:
An explora0on of how far we go for work.
Solomon Bisker
Special Topics in Interac0ve Art and Computa0onal Design, Spring 2010
(Golan Levin’s Studio)

2. Resume: Statement of corporate conformity?…

3. …or reminder of who I am, and where I’ve been?

4. The most popular reason for moving is a change of job (according to Ryder.)
What do the worlds’ aRempts at geSng hired tell us about who we are
– and where our lives take us?

5. Places I used
to live. Where I
live now
Idea: Find a ton of resumes. Find where people live now (ZIP CODE), and where they used to
live (CITIES.)

6. Step One: Collect Resumes
Python script uses the Google and Bing APIs to find and download resumes, using the query
"filetype:pdf resume.pdf”. “Buzzwords” salt searches to drum up addi0onal unique results.

7. Step Two: Eliminate Duplicates
Duplicates of resumes are found and deleted using an open‐source Python script, Duplinator
Coverflow confirms results and, op0onally, lets us look for false posi0ve “Sample Resumes.”

8. Step Three: Convert PDFs to TXT format.
On Macs, this is done with Apple’s Automator workflow tool.

9. Step Four: Extract loca0on informa0on from each resume into its own file.
With Python, read in Ben Fry’s “Zip Decode” zip‐to‐city‐name mapping to determine valid US
ci0es and valid US zipcodes. We’ll use his project again later.

10. Ben Fry
Me (Thanks to Ben Fry)
Step Five: Plot loca0on informa0on in Processing
Much of the visualiza0on code came from reverse‐engineering Ben Fry’s “Zip Decode”,
leSng us plot both ci0es and zipcodes easily, and adding a Resume object model.

11. ~1,600 Resumes
~600 Uniques
~450 With Complete Loca0on informa0on (Number PloRed)

12. Finding: There seem to be vastly more jobs (red dots) than home ci0es (blue dots).

13. Finding: Lots of people jump coasts for work (especially to and from San Francisco)

14. Finding: Other people simply Love New York. (Or Boston, or Philadelphia).

15. Finding: Few people seem willing to leave Texas, even for work.

16. Finding: Some people manage to find many new jobs in the same city (especially near big
ci0es, but in smaller ones too).

17. Can I zoom
in on
The Red and Boston?
Blue dots cover
each oher!
What’s the
deal with
this one guy?
Where is this
curve going?
Known Issues

18. Possible Next Steps

19. Thank you (and discussion)