tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81232253615047623532024-03-17T23:19:49.127-07:00CartonerdMarauding: to roam in search of people to attack or places to raid. Carto: it's about maps and cartography. Nerd: an intelligent but single-minded, possibly obsessed person who tends to associate with a small group of like-minded people. The title is a phrase (accusation?) used to describe a blog post I once contributed elsewhere that someone took offence to. The fact that they were wrong, not wronged, seemed immaterial so if you can't beat them, join them! I hope I manage to achieve all these.Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.comBlogger164125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-87750987796067429462021-07-28T15:06:00.002-07:002021-07-28T15:06:56.438-07:00So long, and thanks for all the fish.<p>Thanks to everyone who has enjoyed my take on mappy things via this blog. But times move on, and I've not blogged here for nearly 2 years other than my end-of-year summaries. I'm therefore mothballing this blog and setting off on a new venture at <a href="https://cartoblography.com" target="_blank">cartoblography</a>. Join me if you wish.</p>Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-27753786349468250092020-12-22T10:39:00.000-08:002020-12-22T10:39:40.134-08:00Favourite maps from 2020<p><span style="font-size: medium;">So here I am once more, in the playground of the broken maps. One more entry in a diary self-penned.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">But wait, the last blog I wrote was my favourite maps of 2019 exactly a year ago. Have there been no #cartofail teaching moments this year? Have I just missed them all? There have been a few gems. But as I also noted last year they are getting fewer and farther between and I feel that generally the trend is still towards better maps in the wild. That and I just couldn't be bothered writing blogs as I was busy writing a book.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I was even thinking of not compiling this annual list but a quick poll on the Twitters got a good reaction. So here is my annual list of just some maps that piqued my interest this year either because they had some interesting aesthetic, were novel in some way, were just really well executed, or if I just liked it for no good reason other than I liked it. There's no order. There's plenty of COVID-19 cartography (because, 2020). You may well disagree entirely with my selections or question why certain maps are in or not but that's the fun thing about personal lists. You can always make your own.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Links to the original maps and sources are in each title and I'd encourage you to head to the originals rather than rely on my low-res grabs.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Here we go...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html" target="_blank">COVID-19 dashboard</a> by Johns Hopkins University</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9n7fdBruIGs7PegDiepNl5JisU8W7cKeW4IJV80VscOCNYeQNIMgkkgIu0ShnvQAHSqNDCqBd59iqMFOu-wZ-gJDP3xdzxG3b8WQF-QMgqVr_YHkNOT11GL-4R2GlgoaJuyov7vfQJro/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1272" data-original-width="1947" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9n7fdBruIGs7PegDiepNl5JisU8W7cKeW4IJV80VscOCNYeQNIMgkkgIu0ShnvQAHSqNDCqBd59iqMFOu-wZ-gJDP3xdzxG3b8WQF-QMgqVr_YHkNOT11GL-4R2GlgoaJuyov7vfQJro/w640-h418/image.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I'm just going to get this one out of the way first. I do not like the map because of the projection and symbology choices BUT maps sometimes don't need to be the story. What impressed me about the JHU dashboard was the way it signaled a viral moment for maps on the internet. The simple action of building a picture of the incidence and prevalence of COVID-19 using numbers on a web page provided a vital resource for engagement. There are better places to grab the data from too but as an example of viral mapping, this is never going to be beaten.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.visualcinnamon.com/2020/04/designing-the-hubble-skymap" target="_blank">A sky map of the Hubble Space Telescope's observations</a> by Nadieh Bremer<br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWpdugDmedLcP04M9TYX5N9I1r_a2iEBQUzHqVirfTbkaoWZj6x4aYRn3NGNIrcUW6tY1d5hcJKXrfTHULYCSAqldduOfncBYA-EM0IzMP4JoW5ybFvgDezFopl-klDsbyUouQC5y0dU/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="998" data-original-width="1594" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWpdugDmedLcP04M9TYX5N9I1r_a2iEBQUzHqVirfTbkaoWZj6x4aYRn3NGNIrcUW6tY1d5hcJKXrfTHULYCSAqldduOfncBYA-EM0IzMP4JoW5ybFvgDezFopl-klDsbyUouQC5y0dU/w640-h400/image.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Stellar cartography! A map of the 550,000 scientific observations made to celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's 30th anniversary. It's just a thing of beauty. What really appealed to me about the map was what lies behind the map. Nadieh wrote up such a detailed commentary on all of the decisions made in designing the map that illustrated her meticulous approach taken in making the map, and all the small design decisions that were necessary. The end piece, as with any great piece of cartography is the sum of all these well executed parts but it was fascinating to see all the iterations that never made the final map.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://datagistips.hypotheses.org/488" target="_blank">COVID-19 experiment </a>by Mathieu Rajerison<br /><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-9OWJWYXntgUoRInmPvjoqTJxI8RKM79svbejlPj2RF8I2VzOY8EDLCt4Pkdkq0uin4NvN8_Kbg4qLQhyphenhyphenS_c5D3KPML37NoiiLwIMF91Mbbn6INmX2PH2lJ3m-7PXvosBYQ8kH0K1dKo/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2001" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-9OWJWYXntgUoRInmPvjoqTJxI8RKM79svbejlPj2RF8I2VzOY8EDLCt4Pkdkq0uin4NvN8_Kbg4qLQhyphenhyphenS_c5D3KPML37NoiiLwIMF91Mbbn6INmX2PH2lJ3m-7PXvosBYQ8kH0K1dKo/w624-h640/image.png" width="624" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Charts on maps are a particular favourite of mine. These are essentially sparklines, devoid of axes or labels but their purpose is clear as they track the number of coronavirus cases in Départements of France. Mathieu iterated this idea over several days with coloured versions and animated versions among others (check out the <a href="https://twitter.com/datagistips/status/1248508331263545344" target="_blank">thread</a> on Twitter). For me, the first, stripped down version was the most impactful. Since then a number of similar maps including those by <a href="https://rastrau.shinyapps.io/covid-us/" target="_blank">Ralph Straumann</a> and <a href="https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/covidpulse/#@=-94.464,40.252,3" target="_blank">John Nelson</a> have taken the same basic approach to mapping COVID-19 as minimal line graphs to good effect. <br /></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://www.night-trains.com/" target="_blank">World map of night trains</a> by Jug Cerovic</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvftExLsy0KjHN5HQwWrp5LI_-zgOY5yUENF0LmirvktM1GdHEIFm9altqGLPPwnBvl28e-70c41PonbjewO-TLoi3xhPljocpyJhD92vTIavEKkqHk4rykChWHu7Xm8XwA5e7YWbOUmE/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1084" data-original-width="1277" height="543" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvftExLsy0KjHN5HQwWrp5LI_-zgOY5yUENF0LmirvktM1GdHEIFm9altqGLPPwnBvl28e-70c41PonbjewO-TLoi3xhPljocpyJhD92vTIavEKkqHk4rykChWHu7Xm8XwA5e7YWbOUmE/w640-h543/image.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Well it had me at schematic map as Jug simply nails this genre defining example. It's a map of all the sleeper train routes in the world using the tried and trusted (but hard to apply) diagrammatic approach. I really like the 'blobbification' of the coastlines that allow him to give the schematic detail a semblance of reality while supporting the strict encoding of line angles at horizontal, vertical and 45 degrees. Colour is harmonious and the labels and icons sit well and add context to the map.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://multimedia.scmp.com/culture/article/SCMP-printed-graphics-memory/lonelyGraphics/202004A256.html" target="_blank">How the coronavirus spread in Hong Kong</a> by Adolfo Arranz</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz7YkuQg3hEubdB7YUm_dXu08dlI4kFLySCxj1WSQxIO7l_FoVFwZJbKJBnsieNC7us3uLXxl6E61Nb06Tr4_J9BwVyIjbVwXVvM1OPRt3wygznbnaU9MpwZb8SxyUJtxyRosmwtRwRzc/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1250" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz7YkuQg3hEubdB7YUm_dXu08dlI4kFLySCxj1WSQxIO7l_FoVFwZJbKJBnsieNC7us3uLXxl6E61Nb06Tr4_J9BwVyIjbVwXVvM1OPRt3wygznbnaU9MpwZb8SxyUJtxyRosmwtRwRzc/w389-h640/image.png" width="389" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />This is simply stunning. It's visual data journalism at its peak. It's an infographic, but also a flow map with the width and colour of the lines encoding quantity and the difference between imported and localised cases of coronavirus. The central bar shows the broad split but the genius, the GENIUS is the use of white space towards the bottom left that outlines Hong Kong itself. It's such a clever touch that it's easy to miss it. That sounds like an oxymoron because you ordinarily would make what needs to be seen, seen. But by making it unseen, you become curious. You look at it and ask yourself is it Hong Kong? It sure looks like it. It IS! And that's the reward. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://statesider.us/us-font-map/" target="_blank">The United Fonts of America</a> by Andy Murdock</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI0gRaBUroW0ww62AWM_lrrj3cIhCFiqabLsQzpPmyjBBZtpFkChFkXVM4uNBr0B12RcugcJ5dcx-E2iqaJ6bAYWoSqu8Daurhr_8AwSJSNJof_0Wtw8IwkH7OTh8F8NICF1czWcjkjJk/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="1195" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI0gRaBUroW0ww62AWM_lrrj3cIhCFiqabLsQzpPmyjBBZtpFkChFkXVM4uNBr0B12RcugcJ5dcx-E2iqaJ6bAYWoSqu8Daurhr_8AwSJSNJof_0Wtw8IwkH7OTh8F8NICF1czWcjkjJk/w640-h404/image.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />A map of 222 place names in the United States labelled in the font of the same name. Because, why not? And I do enjoy this level of dedication to carto-nerdery. I even appreciate the write-up that accompanies the map and the observation that 222 isn't the answer. It's just that Andy had to stop at some point because the more he looked, the more he found.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://dataviz.spatial.ly/covid_deaths_to_17_april.png" target="_blank">Deaths involving COVID-19</a> by James Cheshire</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim_QtWbyQzNmPOCv8DtPysLhiDkfm3Q4VLCQphTjPCg54f6GKg87mi4YJXUCLIh5dIyH8wvbO9SMG5gkQE6av4KX9Xbdj5nt5y70bTrsOcfJcvlf8s_yF5A_Tk5eNujViTdWvpJYhvo_o/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1564" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim_QtWbyQzNmPOCv8DtPysLhiDkfm3Q4VLCQphTjPCg54f6GKg87mi4YJXUCLIh5dIyH8wvbO9SMG5gkQE6av4KX9Xbdj5nt5y70bTrsOcfJcvlf8s_yF5A_Tk5eNujViTdWvpJYhvo_o/w488-h640/image.png" width="488" /></span></a></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic most of the maps that were being made were choropleths, and many were making the same mistake of mapping totals, not rates. It's understandable that people wanted to know totals but the #cartofails in early 2020 were often simply people with good intention hurridly trying to make a map, any map. I got involved with numerous media organisations to lead them toward a better way of showing the data which is something I'm personally proud of in my own work this year. The ability to have a small influence that improves the maps for millions of people is humbling. But as you'd expect some of those who know their craft were already doing things differently and better. Here, James took essentially the first month of UK data as the pandemic took hold and made a dot density map. Simple technique but expertly crafted. White on somber black gave a location (randomised within the administrative area) to the 20,283 deaths to date. As James explained he wanted to give each person their own dot rather than grouped with others. A very human approach to cartography. The clever use of a single colour to outline places with more than 50 deaths provides an additional visual metric.</span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ordnancesurvey/albums/72157714269843438" target="_blank">The Highlands of Scotland</a> by Alasdair Rae</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvUPcM8cq3RsZodWRGuIHPkONPxk9_p09yjFOzgtLuGcZa4TvuDDl32SoRlsywOkLOx-cnqTXsKeDwVKifDHx0FJZij45N0SOaoq22p3QxT8SAEl4QNC_G7AXe9dADdoMVhsh5eBg76C0/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="831" data-original-width="1483" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvUPcM8cq3RsZodWRGuIHPkONPxk9_p09yjFOzgtLuGcZa4TvuDDl32SoRlsywOkLOx-cnqTXsKeDwVKifDHx0FJZij45N0SOaoq22p3QxT8SAEl4QNC_G7AXe9dADdoMVhsh5eBg76C0/w640-h358/image.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Orientation of places on a map neither has to be 'north up' or fixed to a standard page size. I like this map for those simple reasons as Scotland is rotated to make best use of a landscape orientation, and then extends the page size so the shape fits the page while not leaving any particularly awkward empty space. What makes this particular view special is the decision to have the viewer look directly up the Great Glen that sits perfectly in the centre of the map. I also really enjoyed the richness of the non-standard colours and the subtlety of the label colouring. I would agree with Alasdair's own assessment that "if you're going to use circular place symbols then be careful not to make the one for Oban almost exactly the same size as the 'O' (OOBAN)." It's a commonly seen mistake but worth remembering to avoid people potentially confusing symbols with labels.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://twitter.com/niko_tinius/status/1275322367024259072" target="_blank">Mapping London's ethnic diversity</a> by Niko Kommenda</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu9Ow_JvQJ1GEAbGaenmK9CjX4OpqIy1oztZJMExOc4cEGqmwq2TkoptTkRQoJEIs8S-3ge8s3qTtGGjSMgSHbrGqtX_oUXpOO3RWWyE6LNZVcHJZjUl3SwNpwSmi-twCAvln0YB-6pi4/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1110" data-original-width="1109" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu9Ow_JvQJ1GEAbGaenmK9CjX4OpqIy1oztZJMExOc4cEGqmwq2TkoptTkRQoJEIs8S-3ge8s3qTtGGjSMgSHbrGqtX_oUXpOO3RWWyE6LNZVcHJZjUl3SwNpwSmi-twCAvln0YB-6pi4/w640-h640/image.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It's a sort of Ben Day dots/Halftone/CMYK mashup on a gridded cartogram and I like the simplicity of the overall effect that shows the broad ethnic mix of each London Borough. Often simple ideas lead to some of the most impactful work, here with the mixing of individual colours leading to an overall sense of predominance in each borough. It's just nice to look at but you can dig into each borough a bit. Interesting choice to put the labels on top so boroughs with long names will obscure more compared to those with short names. What might have been interesting would be colour the label in the predominant colour of the mix of symbols below.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><a href="https://chinapower.csis.org/web-connectedness/" target="_blank">How web-connected is China</a> by Chinapower</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv8wrBoK7Y9I0xKHJzN84-KEoesHvS-bJURd3xHeBo372h4qqy0wDvQgzL4GIotiWyYQf03y8xkv3XK145t8CSo4fa-MQQNAlveo87ZEsllv3AtJLmLxTz8nTiOfO0MsJ3ZsGyXB1MZdg/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1061" data-original-width="1041" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv8wrBoK7Y9I0xKHJzN84-KEoesHvS-bJURd3xHeBo372h4qqy0wDvQgzL4GIotiWyYQf03y8xkv3XK145t8CSo4fa-MQQNAlveo87ZEsllv3AtJLmLxTz8nTiOfO0MsJ3ZsGyXB1MZdg/w627-h640/image.png" width="627" /></span></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Another gridded cartogram of charts. This is an interactive (so go take a look at the original). Interactivity really does push the map to become a canvas for more complex information envisioning. The simplicity of the scaffold belies the amount of information and data points shown. The hover over event brings a specific chart into focus beautifully and instead of offering map or cartogram they've integrated the real geography by positioning the map within the cartogram in the space where Mongolia would be. Great layout decision. As you move across the graphs, the real map reacts to bring focus to the geographical where. And finally, the way in which the colours in the map are carried through to the charts also helps cement the link between real and abstract.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://muir-way.com/collections/vintage-relief/products/iran-1957-relief-map" target="_blank">Geological map of Iran</a> by Sean Conway</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3ho_dm3KH06QqELP3DdEqp6l9JGTV7YSEdLcjZM-eGIr-GJ6cpgeHWl0cXhQG_jGb9nM40SLhpXFduOFDJmRREMhjLzQCP3V6Wemgnk112QqjxU9UWJY94eyFhlK1lWxEkx-2wxg95hs/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1113" data-original-width="1121" height="635" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3ho_dm3KH06QqELP3DdEqp6l9JGTV7YSEdLcjZM-eGIr-GJ6cpgeHWl0cXhQG_jGb9nM40SLhpXFduOFDJmRREMhjLzQCP3V6Wemgnk112QqjxU9UWJY94eyFhlK1lWxEkx-2wxg95hs/w640-h635/image.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Draping historic maps over contemporary digital elevation models isn't new but Sean has made this aesthetic his own with the way he uses lighting to create a beautiful three-dimensional image on a flat canvas. I particularly like this example of his work because of the use of lighting to create three-dimensional legends that appear to nest the geological sub-categories. His <a href="https://muir-way.com/" target="_blank">store</a> includes a great number of these types of maps and they're just pleasing to look at. Unless knowing something about the 1957 vintage of Iranian geology rocks your boat in which case it's doubly good.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blog.datawrapper.de/weekly-chart-map-art/" target="_blank">Painting by numbers</a> by Elana Schtulberg</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMVwY1BNNOxR2PZpuvVCh5AC42TmqDCj8wpFs3ezevm-cgT2cxDhFEmBeZkgF7t_LCLqVPWVdlL2MdsDHBsTW1q0HSzVCrjOT6LVnK6sC5Ch84ha_oNbL5IRnwoDcrYMfWRJjqkGBt1d4/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="897" data-original-width="1034" height="555" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMVwY1BNNOxR2PZpuvVCh5AC42TmqDCj8wpFs3ezevm-cgT2cxDhFEmBeZkgF7t_LCLqVPWVdlL2MdsDHBsTW1q0HSzVCrjOT6LVnK6sC5Ch84ha_oNbL5IRnwoDcrYMfWRJjqkGBt1d4/w640-h555/image.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Cartographers have often been demeaned as people only interested in colouring in. Yet that's exactly what's going on here and it's terrific. Mashing up some real geographical boundaries and their distinctive shapes with a photograph and extracting colour values with which to 'paint' each area is the simple technique. It renders an interesting outcome evocative of those old school paint-by-numbers painting kits (are they still available?). Lots of different ways to make these depending on your tech of choice and Elana's blog explains her approach. It's a pleasing artistic rendering using familiar map shapes.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/24/climate/racism-redlining-cities-global-warming.html" target="_blank">How Decades of Racist Housing Policy Left Neighborhoods Sweltering</a> by Brad Plumer and Nadja Popovich</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrj-nFdQU_4u7JWmYijWxktrLcL85B3CuzL4f49NDb_ckjk-iOaaja9AuKzSX83kIc_gWCL7_9eIyZ6bmwlsMbUp6fYldsjDjC3ZyaUNryP4lOLilKWYoaBbd8O2PcT1ahTBxPMHPt0JE/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1111" data-original-width="1352" height="526" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrj-nFdQU_4u7JWmYijWxktrLcL85B3CuzL4f49NDb_ckjk-iOaaja9AuKzSX83kIc_gWCL7_9eIyZ6bmwlsMbUp6fYldsjDjC3ZyaUNryP4lOLilKWYoaBbd8O2PcT1ahTBxPMHPt0JE/w640-h526/image.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />The New York Times have become masters at the art of scrollytelling and this particular story uses maps as a central actor in the story. You have to go to the story to experience how well they delineate the commentary, and explain the historic impact of redlining on contemporary neighbourhoods. The story includes several maps that are cohesive in their overall design but which break down elements of the spatial narrative in different ways and to support different aspects of the story. It's an example of where a collection of maps each does it's own job rather than trying to cram everything on one map and expecting the reader to disentangle the story.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">All of us united by the Biden-Harris campaign</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgul9Sj-29oyQp7XpHXil9drOVLBQfezKVQ3EcnQQhzy9QYgKl2WuafaQSyJe_2_wHtoMS_5YjhUkl0Q8FSy05aZLhYhHk_acUO8iIJ_wSkaA9yxWXYvPqVNWQSpzkzHwXLFIhsosSivp0/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgul9Sj-29oyQp7XpHXil9drOVLBQfezKVQ3EcnQQhzy9QYgKl2WuafaQSyJe_2_wHtoMS_5YjhUkl0Q8FSy05aZLhYhHk_acUO8iIJ_wSkaA9yxWXYvPqVNWQSpzkzHwXLFIhsosSivp0/w640-h640/image.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Map outlines have often been used as a framework for artistic endeavor. I liked this illustration. The use of colour was emotive and filling the map with diversity leaves a very clear and indelible message. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://www.ifitshipitshere.com/freestyle-lego-build-of-manhattan/" target="_blank">Manhattan</a> by Alex Bailey</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZeH-jrJRVjet2bFjAuFGlyRv0SAxkNABsrdF8VwrE3117iLS6FGJ7QWZf5eEHIliT52Xe7F_geK5T5WeJFfKgJ6jHb9BqzUgMQv58AtTEtSaa4vWBAQgyDI2bsU6n3wlMJ3fio0fRSdU/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1088" data-original-width="1000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZeH-jrJRVjet2bFjAuFGlyRv0SAxkNABsrdF8VwrE3117iLS6FGJ7QWZf5eEHIliT52Xe7F_geK5T5WeJFfKgJ6jHb9BqzUgMQv58AtTEtSaa4vWBAQgyDI2bsU6n3wlMJ3fio0fRSdU/w589-h640/image.png" width="589" /></span></a></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Everything about this map is wonderful. Made by 14 year old Alex in two weeks, it's a 6ft 1:12,000 scale model. The detail, and attention to detail is next level. Lego + maps = AWESOME.</span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.ericknightmaps.com/productpage/alps" target="_blank">Panoramic map of the Alps</a> by Eric Knight</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXidJo2m7Fkb6JWwrSAODz31OKXzfgxI8E7pZpueYdpYN-xlPfnrPE79GYIrdTnJLIaDL-w-xUiKS_SYpryFuCdH2Ps8eZ2CuYZApObVb4lXBR4OW6-HycFs5dgUZ7brRWPbnDG4SQ-1M/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="708" data-original-width="2151" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXidJo2m7Fkb6JWwrSAODz31OKXzfgxI8E7pZpueYdpYN-xlPfnrPE79GYIrdTnJLIaDL-w-xUiKS_SYpryFuCdH2Ps8eZ2CuYZApObVb4lXBR4OW6-HycFs5dgUZ7brRWPbnDG4SQ-1M/w640-h210/image.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Clearly this screen grab thumbnail doesn't do justice to this beautiful map (or any of the other examples on Eric's site) but the art of the panorama is not dead. Channeling the likes of Heinrich Berann this is a stunning painted landscape albeit digitally created rather than with pen and paint. Eric still manages to build a very human touch into the work and the labels in particular sit effortlessly in the landscape. There's attention to detail throughout and I particularly like the slight curve of the horizon that immediately tells you you're looking at quite an expanse.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-global-data/" target="_blank">Covid-19: The global crisis - in data</a> by the Financial Times Visual and Data Journalism team.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4D1XU6nPmAB3KT-ixExbnatKjX38jFN-WZ2GbWVtWUnufP-QV5JgnD9lmRNq5hetJ4Q8CdD1T85-I7MUcs5n583Msz9vbCBEunV2s9pOIwy3jff8oab_Dt3TLy5W3-2zPD2FVOgZBojs/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1178" data-original-width="1793" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4D1XU6nPmAB3KT-ixExbnatKjX38jFN-WZ2GbWVtWUnufP-QV5JgnD9lmRNq5hetJ4Q8CdD1T85-I7MUcs5n583Msz9vbCBEunV2s9pOIwy3jff8oab_Dt3TLy5W3-2zPD2FVOgZBojs/w640-h420/image.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Another tour de force from the FT team with this scrollytelling piece that uses words simply as the glue holding the wonderful array of maps, graphics, and interactives together. The colour palettes provide excellent contrast, not only leading the eye, but showing clearly what the reader is supposed to get from each map or graphic. There's been many plaudits for the line graphs and other charts John Burn-Murdoch (and others) created in 2020 to plot the spread of the virus and this article incorporates a copious spread of examples. It's also worth noting that the FT, through blogs and social media have been at great lengths to provide explainers to their work to aid understanding. They're not the only ones (FiveThirtyEight did the same with their presidential election web site) but it's a good trend. Expecting readers to comprehend even the most well constructed maps and graphs can always do with extra help in helping people to be able to read them better.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://aaronkoelker.com/maps/grave-smoky-mountains-national-park/" target="_blank">Grave Smoky Mountains National Park</a> by Aaron Koelker</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIaNwRG8vs3J-5vi3sVf79D1CKBYst-l502JqLFAxr7tjwlZK_-qSUjXMnLbhYHgxZnrCWs44xT_JhIieu0wwa1gijj3gmFh3aa41nA-eY9A5LCHVuQd3KHP7aQD-09liRBFgTRWrFqxE/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1363" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIaNwRG8vs3J-5vi3sVf79D1CKBYst-l502JqLFAxr7tjwlZK_-qSUjXMnLbhYHgxZnrCWs44xT_JhIieu0wwa1gijj3gmFh3aa41nA-eY9A5LCHVuQd3KHP7aQD-09liRBFgTRWrFqxE/w640-h426/image.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Establishing the right look for a map goes a long way to how people feel when they look at it. This map is ridiculously dark with a very bold muted colour palette but it works because of the subject matter. It's an exploration of cemeteries in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It uses an isometric projection to keep scale constant throughout. There's unique and well-designed symbology. There's interest in the detail provided by the written components. It has veils of cloud-cover (whisps of smoke?), a well integrated locator map and excellent use of white space. I could go on. My most favourite component is the neatline which isn't a line. It's composed of text that lists epitaphs from various headstones. Spectacularly creative. A work of cartographic art.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://xkcd.com/2399/" target="_blank">2020 Election map</a> by Randall Munroe (xkcd comic)</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9OXeZVAm3heRLHSWiFsFd7qN0425uaHDpc0KpdgpTF-zREkU696j2k3xaOOivj-s4Upovy9wabUf16B5ZOpUJGqSGEip8VsRVIWY3VMjMXjfvDNkwlOqRwAW1YpLDdbstCFouXcZnwn8/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1539" data-original-width="2048" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9OXeZVAm3heRLHSWiFsFd7qN0425uaHDpc0KpdgpTF-zREkU696j2k3xaOOivj-s4Upovy9wabUf16B5ZOpUJGqSGEip8VsRVIWY3VMjMXjfvDNkwlOqRwAW1YpLDdbstCFouXcZnwn8/w640-h482/image.png" width="640" /></span></a></div></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Given my predilection for election mapping (did I mention I have a book on this very topic coming out in early 2021?) I could have included any number of brilliant news media efforts that kept us glued to the 2020 presidential election result. A special shout-out to FiveThirtyEight, The New York Times and The Washington Post for their exhaustive coverage. There were geographical maps and cartograms galore to feast upon. Yet Randall's map at once does something very simple. He positions symbols in roughly populated places and gives them a colour. It's a dasymetric dot density map of sorts and it does a great job of negating all that empty unpopulated space from the more commonly seen red/blue result by state map. As you'd expect, in a contest where 51.3% voted for Joe Biden, and 46.9% for the other guy, the map looks very even. It's a more human map because it puts every vote on the map rather than just shouting about who won each state through a large block of colour.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://twitter.com/lacxrx/status/1326763865460367361" target="_blank">Carrot production in France</a> by Romain Lacroix</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_YO-L3bdo-4z2cFBlhL-ttyNQDV6aWApMefqHU80OSJbHgIXfDTQicyESvyT9nNMzAAtdAHhsoYKRlauZe8AECGH9Sywiy8J5xHYpSJ462ENC0WFIxm45g98phytdMV_SZFYIkzxt8Ro/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="735" data-original-width="830" height="567" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_YO-L3bdo-4z2cFBlhL-ttyNQDV6aWApMefqHU80OSJbHgIXfDTQicyESvyT9nNMzAAtdAHhsoYKRlauZe8AECGH9Sywiy8J5xHYpSJ462ENC0WFIxm45g98phytdMV_SZFYIkzxt8Ro/w640-h567/image.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />A map with proportional, extruded carrots atop a knitted base. Struggles with occlusion and scale front to back as any 3D perspective map does but...carrots. Romain made this map for day 12 of <a href="https://twitter.com/tjukanov" target="_blank">Topi Tjukanov's</a> #30daymapchallenge during November on Twitter. Day 12 was to make a map not using GIS software. There was no better map that day, or pretty much any day.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B94-FH4IBys/?igshid=2beczc7rpnqa" target="_blank">Commuting in corona times</a> by Kera Till</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEqnLDbki-W4h4_pzAj1LcGYomeeDZwgUk5L_xRmUb0TABuqIRe5CO2E1SuFLkwcJ-62gxxJD0-8zy6h6uwBGpk2ehsbdlbPEYVn24im8yzNG6sc5U7hGdpwwDrBZkZLqjl-AWFnF2zW8/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="893" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEqnLDbki-W4h4_pzAj1LcGYomeeDZwgUk5L_xRmUb0TABuqIRe5CO2E1SuFLkwcJ-62gxxJD0-8zy6h6uwBGpk2ehsbdlbPEYVn24im8yzNG6sc5U7hGdpwwDrBZkZLqjl-AWFnF2zW8/w635-h640/image.png" width="635" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />There were plenty of coronavirus takes on the tube map this year. This one by artist Kera Till was one of the first in March. I generally wince at the various uses of the tube map as a way of representing something other than the tube itself but this gets a pass. It pretty much sums up life in 2020, and I for one can't wait to get back on the real tube some time soon.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.thegoldenhexagon.com/products/naismith-international-park-map" target="_blank">Naismith International Park</a> by Kirk Goldsberry</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgylc0pkKSSscQ0jQOU80U7yjkOwE8SEpgwp01C_dbaGnkvjCZdd1XuNzcfS_rvwyMzhnARN92l6xf0mANr3fW8-FJP89X4w2i5Cxj6jz2pd0A3nBFA0YFPE5JRfTO3SrKJcFDOYD7zVg4/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="824" data-original-width="1099" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgylc0pkKSSscQ0jQOU80U7yjkOwE8SEpgwp01C_dbaGnkvjCZdd1XuNzcfS_rvwyMzhnARN92l6xf0mANr3fW8-FJP89X4w2i5Cxj6jz2pd0A3nBFA0YFPE5JRfTO3SrKJcFDOYD7zVg4/w640-h480/image.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />And squeaking in at the end of 2020 is this playful map of the 2019-2020 basketball season in the US. It's all for the love of the sport as elevation encodes scoring positions - higher ground is an area where more points were scored from. And Kirk then went to town building the map into a US National Park Service map with all the iconic symbology, colours, typography and layout you'd expect. It's not just an excellent homage to NPS maps, all of the features relate to stars of the game itself. Even as someone who has virtually zero understanding of the sport I really appreciate the dedication to cramming so much of the sport onto the map. A proper map mashup!</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And that's just some of my favourites. I likely missed a load I had at one time intended to be included but not to worry, there's been more important things to focus on this year. And with that, I'll leave you with just one more map which wins the 2020 Gromit award for poor cartography. There were a few contenders this year such as the CNN live election map, or some really rather horrid coronavirus maps, all the usual rainbow coloured maps, non-normalised choropleths, splodgy heat maps and so on. But this just hurts the brain. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Property map by anon.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0nTs9PvB06uvlbGDHsWR3KaKFqsqV_tiXNuQ72ao1EHj-zVGJQSScuq_QXDD4hakC5Cp-1DfymT3su6bqJ3lCUrrwTcQCxfGBJvJMG0hPp9aKnvkX9Ks0b78u_JgPC2yHg7FOK3S0nJQ/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="887" data-original-width="566" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0nTs9PvB06uvlbGDHsWR3KaKFqsqV_tiXNuQ72ao1EHj-zVGJQSScuq_QXDD4hakC5Cp-1DfymT3su6bqJ3lCUrrwTcQCxfGBJvJMG0hPp9aKnvkX9Ks0b78u_JgPC2yHg7FOK3S0nJQ/w408-h640/image.png" width="408" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">With best wishes for the holidays and a far better 2021. Hopefully the 2021 roundup won't feature so many coronavirus maps.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Ken</span></p>Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-26864371023026894782019-12-30T15:32:00.000-08:002019-12-30T16:01:27.123-08:00Favourite maps from 2019Maps that cross my path must be getting better. Since I started this blog as a way to critique what I perceived as poorly designed maps, the number of blog posts I write annually has decreased. That's not to say that there aren't still some awful maps out there. There are. But maybe the balance is getting better? Or I'm getting less choosy? Or, who knows?<br />
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There's clearly still some major issues to address in the world of improving people's diet of maps. Persuading people that Web Mercator really isn't either the best choice, or even an uncontrollable default, still needs <a href="https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-pro/mapping/mercator-its-not-hip-to-be-square/" target="_blank">more work</a>. So does the incessant use of rainbow colours on many, many maps. Just <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/endrainbow?lang=en" target="_blank">stop it</a>. Please! If your work suffers from a <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cartofail?lang=en" target="_blank">#cartofail</a> like this then you will not see it in this particular blog post that's firmly focused on the good stuff.<br />
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I always say that great work can do much to show people a better way so in that spirit, here's a bunch of maps that I saw in 2019 that I really liked. It's not a top ten. I saw many more I also really liked. There's likely many great maps I never even saw so it cannot be considered complete or comprehensive. They're in no particular order either but it's just a record of what I found good in this year's world of cartography. I'd also encourage you to go to the originals via the links. All I've included here are some screen grabs.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/mapping-disasters/" target="_blank">Mapping America's wicked weather and deadly disasters</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/timmeko" target="_blank">Tim Meko</a> (Washington Post)</b></span><br />
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Maps took centre stage in this scrollytelling article, and each was well crafted, vibrant and insightful. They're simple in scope but that doesn't mean simple maps. They're just pared back perfectly to fit web delivery. Great examples of contemporary web cartography. Six maps in total. All working together as a coherent set. Here's one:<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.jugcerovic.com/maps/shinkansen-map/" target="_blank">Shinkansen Map</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/jugcerovic" target="_blank">Jug Cerovic</a></span></h3>
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I have a slight fetish for transit maps (as I'm sure most know) but I'm always interested in new takes. Jug's work in redesigning many of the world's major transit systems is phenomenal and worth checking out in its own right. Here, he takes a wonderfully artistic approach to Japan's bullet train network around the rising sun illuminating the north-west of the layout. Genius!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://mapgallery.esri.com/map-detail/5cf09c4820766afa83ad382e" target="_blank">Oakwood Cemetery in Austin, Texas</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/haltead" target="_blank">Alan Halter</a></b></span></div>
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A few years ago I messed around with a technique to symbolize UK election data in a the style of a Jackson Pollock painting (and I recently applied the same technique to the <a href="https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=381271be4de5456c8c2d9ad619b50f46" target="_blank">2019 General Election</a>). But it's wonderful to see ideas take on a whole new life in different contexts and this re-interpretation and application of the technique to showcase tree species and canopies is wonderful. The overall composition including text, graphs, satellite imagery and illustrations creates a perfect modern infographic.</div>
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<b><a href="https://twitter.com/benflan/status/1129473601583964160" target="_blank">Emoji map of the UK</a><span style="font-size: large;"> by </span><a href="http://twitter.com/benflan" target="_blank">Ben Flanagan</a></b><br />
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My friend and colleague Ben wasn't the first to make maps out of emoji but his efforts at making them from 240 characters in Twitter was fun and spawned a whole raft of efforts from many other people. I particularly liked his playful riff on the ongoing discussion of the<a href="http://cartonerd.blogspot.com/2018/03/in-praise-of-insets.html" target="_blank"> Shetland Isles and inset maps</a> which came to the fore in 2018 and still manages to be a source of cartographic humour.<br />
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<b><a href="https://twitter.com/LM_enCartes/status/1153537726811168771" target="_blank">Resilience in the Iroise Sea</a><span style="font-size: large;"> by </span><a href="https://twitter.com/LM_enCartes" target="_blank">Le Monde</a></b><br />
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This is one of 40 maps in the 'The time of the island" exhibition that took place in Marseille, France, this year, on the Geopolitics of Islands. It's just exquisite. Almost an historic, retro aesthetic but the layout, the linework, the colours, the typography - all perfectly harmonious. I particularly like how the north arrow and scale bar are incorporated into the map's frame.<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/interaktive-karte-so-ungleich-ist-das-einkommen-in-der-schweiz-verteilt" target="_blank">Income distribution in Switzerland</a><span style="font-size: large;"> by Angelo Zehr in </span><a href="http://srfnews/" target="_blank">SRF News</a></b><br />
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Bivariate choropleth maps are hard. You have to limit the number of classes to an absolute minimum, maintain a sensible classification, and still allow the reader to see the relationship between two variables. This map does that job perfectly (also on the interactive version). But what I really like about this map is there's no spurious shading where there are mountains and no people. All too often we overlay arbitrary enumeration areas across geographies that exhaust space but fail miserably to show the differences between where people are and where they are not. I love that this map made the effort, and also still managed to add interest with a hillshade. It's Switzerland after all.<br />
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<b><a href="https://twitter.com/deAdder/status/1181179162268229632" target="_blank">Trump Meltdown</a><span style="font-size: large;"> by </span><a href="https://twitter.com/deAdder" target="_blank">Michael de Adder</a></b><br />
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Cartoons and maps have always gone well together and in the expert hands of political cartoonists they really take centre stage. I love this cartoon that shows Trump clinging on for dear hope to Florida as he drags the USA to even murkier depths. The bemused fish perhaps represents what everyone else is thinking as they sit back and watch the current political situation unfold.<br />
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<b><a href="https://twitter.com/g_fiske/status/1193980154927861760" target="_blank">Heating of the Arctic</a><span style="font-size: large;"> by </span><a href="https://twitter.com/g_fiske" target="_blank">Greg Fiske</a></b><br />
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November 2019 saw a fantastic twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/30DayMapChallenge" target="_blank">#30DayMapChallenge</a> which had contributions from many and is well worth a trawl. The concept was simple, for the theme of the day, create a map of some data. The time limit was almost self-imposed so the maps were often quick and dirty, but that didn't mean they lacked beauty and great design. Maps by <a href="https://twitter.com/jwoLondon" target="_blank">Jo Wood</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/CraigTaylorGIS" target="_blank">Craig Taylor</a>, in particular caught the eye. But the single most interesting map I saw was this. It's a view of the data I'd not seen before and that always makes you stop and pause. This may have been made quickly but it's clean, arresting and informative.<br />
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<b><a href="https://jamesniehues.com/pages/the-man-behind-the-map" target="_blank">The Man Behind the Maps</a><span style="font-size: large;"> by </span><a href="https://twitter.com/jamesniehues" target="_blank">James Niehues</a></b><br />
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Not a map, but a collection of maps representing the career of legendary ski resort artist James Niehues. If you've ever been skiing or snowboarding then you've likely used a trail/piste map illustrated by James as he embodies the latest of a small line of talented panoramists (Heinrich Berran, Hal Shelton, Bill Brown). This book came about through a kickstarter project that went viral. Now, instead of tattered, soggy maps you have to throw away after a few days on the slopes, they are beautifully collected in this magnificent book with all sorts of background notes. A true feast for the eyes of anyone who loves mountain cartography.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://www.npolar.no/produkt/fimbulheimen-satellitt/" target="_blank">Fimbulheimen in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica</a><span style="font-size: large;"> by Anders Skoglund (</span><a href="https://www.npolar.no/" target="_blank">Norwegian Polar Institute</a><span style="font-size: large;">)</span></b></span><br />
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This map came away with the big awards at the 2019 International Cartographic Conference in Tokyo and rightly so. It won on so many levels. It was huge. At 1:250,000 but measuring over 2.5m long and a metre tall it was stunning to see such a large high resolution satellite map of this part of Antarctica. Was the size just for capturing attention? No. The size of the map juxtaposes the sparse, barren, yet stunning landscape punctuated with small crops of intense detail. The map is littered with skillfully placed and detailed typography. If you've got a wall big enough you can download it yourself from the link above because clearly this blog cannot do it justice.<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.europa.uk.com/streets-of-gold-map-wins-two-british-cartographic-society-awards/" target="_blank">Streets of Gold</a><span style="font-size: large;"> by </span><a href="https://www.europa.uk.com/" target="_blank">Warren Vick</a><span style="font-size: large;"> and </span><a href="http://www.ewandavideason.com/" target="_blank">Ewan David Eason</a></b></div>
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This map won a shed load of awards in 2019. Of course it did. It's made of gold leaf and is a stunning (c)art(e) piece. If you're after an award then this is the approach to take. Make something visually stunning that people naturally want to pore over in a gallery. Can you use it as a map? Unlikely. Want it on your wall? Sure!</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://public.tableau.com/profile/jonni.walker#!/vizhome/WhereTheWildThingsGlow/Tester" target="_blank">Where the wild things glow</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/jonni_walker" target="_blank">Jonni Walker</a></b></span><br />
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I give my good friend <a href="https://twitter.com/john_m_nelson" target="_blank">John Nelson</a> a lot of ribbing for his <a href="https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/mapping/mapping/steal-this-firefly-style-please/" target="_blank">firefly symbol</a> creation. Truth is I love it, but as with any symbol scheme it often gets mis-used (i.e. applied to any dataset for the hell of it regardless of whether it's actually suitable or not). So to see the approach used on a map of bioluminescence was perfect. But this map goes well beyond just a good match of symbol to subject. The overall atmosphere is engaging. The layout is full of detail yet not overcrowded. There's description to aid the reader's interpretation and best of all, the tilt of Australia to make the map work within the page size and shape, and to provide space for the other marginalia is the best trick.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://tabletopwhale.com/2019/06/03/an-atlas-of-space.html" target="_blank">An Atlas of Space</a><span style="font-size: large;"> by <a href="https://twitter.com/eleanor_lutz" target="_blank">Eleanor Lutz</a></span></b></span><br />
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There was a time back in 2016 when Eleanor gave us simply a beautiful portion of <a href="https://tabletopwhale.com/2016/02/27/here-there-be-robots.html" target="_blank">Mars</a> but this year she released a collection of ten maps of planets, moons and outer space. It's a wonderful collection of different design approaches and new expressions of cartographic creativity. Colourful landscapes of natural and human impacted phenomena which are all made programetrically too. And this work is her part-time gig. She's studying for a Biology PhD in disease vectors of mosquitos.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Wasabi Pea map by </span><a href="https://www.antonthomasart.com/" target="_blank">Anton Thomas</a></b></span><br />
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OK, so, drink was involved. At the <a href="https://nacis.org/" target="_blank">NACIS</a> 2019 conference what better way to divest of a bowl of inedible wasabi pea bar snacks than make a map out of them? Trouble is, in a bar full of cartographers there's only really one person who can carry out the task of making a world map without downloading some map data and churning it through some software. Anton Thomas got to work, captivating the bar and, from memory made this perfect little world map. The best bit - not Mercator (though to be fair it's hard to determine its exact properties). And then it was gone...<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The end of the world by Eloise Field (age 10</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif;">½</span><span style="font-size: large;">)</span></b><br />
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Children's maps are a whole magnificent cartographic sandpit in their own right. The Petchenik Children's map competition at the 2019 International Cartographic Conference in Tokyo showcased some incredible work (plus the usual eye-brow lifting entries that might have had some, ahem, adult help). You can see the winning entries <a href="https://icaci.org/petchenik/" target="_blank">here</a>. But favourite children's map for me this year wasn't part of the exhibition at all. It was drawn by my niece, Eloise as part of her school work. The task was to create a drawing that represented 'the end of the world'. The cartographic force is strong in this youngling.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sharpiegate map by <a href="https://twitter.com/kennethfield" target="_blank">Kenneth Field</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/a_c_robinson" target="_blank">Anthony Robinson</a> et al.</b></span><br />
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And finally, I don't normally put my own stuff in these lists (that's for others to judge according to their own tastes) but the world is in a weird place and with the apparent <a href="http://cartonerd.blogspot.com/2019/10/using-maps-as-weapons-of-dominance.html" target="_blank">Presidential modification of an official NOAA map of Hurricane Dorian</a> I felt this worthy of inclusion. Anthony Robinson and I concocted a bit of fun in the wake of what became known as #sharpiegate. We made some sharpie "official cartography pens" and I took a blank map to the 2019 NACIS meeting in Tacoma WA. Simple idea - leave the map in public for a few days and see what happens. It's cartographic performance art. Most maps show a point or period in time. This map is of its time. It's a collection of dozens, if not hundreds, of people's comments, drawings, additions, modifications and so on. There's some very famous cartographic hands across this work. It was fun.<br />
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Agree? Disagree? I liked them all for many different reasons.<br />
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Happy Mappy New Year to you all.<br />
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<br />Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-8158471504799419732019-10-01T10:18:00.000-07:002019-10-02T08:45:01.875-07:00Trump's maps of dominanceMaps have been used for centuries as tools of power, plunder and possession, to control narratives and sway opinion. Historical atlases have frequently included a frontispiece that illustrated people touching the globe as a statement of their power, authority, and ownership.<br />
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<img alt="Image result for mercator atlas frontispiece" height="400" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Mercator_Atlas_1595_page_5_main_frontispiece.jpg" width="237" /></div>
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The subject has been written about extensively. Perhaps the classic text remains Professor Mark Monmonier's "How to Lie with Maps" which explains how geography and the themes we map can be modified and manipulated in various ways, sometimes innocently, sometimes for persuasion or propaganda. Professor <a href="https://twitter.com/jerrybrotton" target="_blank">Jerry Brotton's</a> <a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6b1s7m" target="_blank">film</a> on the subject is also well worth a watch.<br />
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Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States, has become a master of the use of the map to assert his agenda. In his early days in office he presented a map of the results of the 2016 Presidential election to Reuters journalists and exclaimed "Here, you can take that, that's the final map of the numbers. It's pretty good, right? The red is obviously us."<br />
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<img alt="Image result for "Here, you can take that, that's the final map of the numbers. It's pretty good, right? The red is obviously us."" height="422" src="https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_960w/2010-2019/Wires/Images/2017-04-27/Reuters/2017-04-28T010208Z_891676441_HP1ED4S02VJ7Z_RTRMADP_3_USA-TRUMP.jpg&w=1484" width="640" /></div>
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Despite the map garnering considerable discontent, he wasn't wrong. If I had just been elected Republican President I would likely have used exactly the same map to illustrate the vast swathes of the country that I'd just won; that I'd turned red, perhaps against the odds.<br />
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The same map was seen enlarged, framed and put up on the wall of The White House soon after. Of course you would. You'd want to wander round your home and office and bathe in the glory of your victory, and to pause with visitors to note how red the country was. And reporter Trey Yingst caught the moment.<br />
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<img alt="Image result for "Here, you can take that, that's the final map of the numbers. It's pretty good, right? The red is obviously us."" height="400" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/2556/1*WbZ1pqkcm9wIGYLFHerRmQ.png" width="297" /></div>
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There are many other ways to map the results of that (and any other) election. I've made a <a href="http://carto.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MinimalGallery/index.html?appid=b3d1fe0e8814480993ff5ad8d0c62c32" target="_blank">gallery</a> of them and the point here is simply to note that what Trump did wasn't wrong, but, rather, he selected a representation of his victory that used geography, data and cartographic techniques to create a map that suited him; that asserted his power, position and dominance.<br />
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Remember, the margin of victory in the 2016 Presidential election was slim (and Clinton won the popular vote) but imagine if the result had tipped slightly in Clinton's favour? Would this be the map she'd hang on the wall? Almost certainly not. Clinton would have used the same data which would have shown her with a marginal victory, but the map would have looked very different. More blue. And she wouldn't have been wrong either.<br />
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Towards the end of August 2019, Trump was also embroiled in another map mystery coined #sharpiegate. An official NOAA map of the possible path of Hurricane Dorian had been manually modified by the addition of a line, drawn by a felt-tip Sharpie pen, so the cone of uncertainty extended beyond the official extent so it incorporated part of Alabama.<br />
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It's suggested that this was to support a previous statement by Trump that "Alabama looks like it's going to get a big piece of [the hurricane]". The resulting furor centred on the modification of an official document, the falsifying of statements relating to the forecast, the sharing of misinformation and the way in which someone (allegedly Trump himself) had changed the map to suit a different narrative. This is a more serious case of map misuse. It undermined the official body responsible for producing the maps. It had the potential to be scaremongering and dangerous to people and property who were not in any way going to be affected. Trump denied all knowledge of how the extra mark was put on the map but it's a small leap between hand-drawn modification and more sinister manipulation of official maps that are received as trusted mechanisms of the truth.<br />
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Fast forward to late September 2019 and Lara Trump (daughter-in-law to Donald) tweeted another map as a response to the announcement that Trump was to face impeachment proceedings. Trump himself retweeted it on 1st October.<br />
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— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1178989254309011456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 1, 2019</a></div>
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Once again, a map, bathed in red is used as a way to reinforce the message that Trump's support covers literally every part of the country. Once again, the map itself is not wrong (well, it is, a bit, but we'll come to that). It is exactly the map you'd use to frame your argument that you represent the country when you're threatened and are in reactionary mode.<br />
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But this binary red/blue county level map obfuscates perhaps a more truthful version. Yes, the counties that are red were won by Trump but the map pays no attention to population distribution, population density or, indeed, the electoral college voting system. It's an artifact of the cartographic technique, the many decisions over time that have determined where boundaries are drawn, and not where people voted and in what amounts. The addition of the statement "Try to impeach this" is a challenge as well as a threat, and its juxtaposition with the map frames the argument as "us vs them". The use of the map to create a strong connection between Trump and what he perceives as his all-encompassing support in the face of what he sees as Democrat and media fuelled fake news is made. The map is published and consumed. It breeds division as some will find it speaks to their truth, and others will be appalled since it pays no attention to their truth.<br />
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As an aside there was some debate about whether the map was, in fact, the 2016 result. Some thought it bore more of a resemblance to Bush's 2004 victory. Put simply, some counties are red that were not red in 2016. The map appears to have been modified to appear more red than it really was. On closer inspection it seems that some counties that were won by Clinton, but with less than a 50% majority (because of third candidates in the main) have been shown in red.<br />
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There's some irony in the map too. San Bernardino county is the largest in the US. It's down in the bottom left corner in California. It's blue. Yes, at a county level Clinton won it but 95% of this county is unpopulated. So there's actually more blue on the map as a function of this county's size and shape than needed to have been on the map if another cartographic technique had been used.<br />
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So Trump is a serial map-abuser. These three examples clearly show how he uses the map for dominance and to assert his apparent power and possession. This is Trump's America. He's simply the latest in a very long line of leaders, politicians, dictators and many others to use maps to try and illustrate a version of the truth that has been cartographically mediated to suit a partisan purpose. Like I said, it's not wrong to use maps to tell a certain story (apart from when the facts are clearly manipulated which is stretching truth to the realms of plain lies) but it is a case of "reader, beware".<br />
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Those that consume the maps he promotes (us!) have widely varying abilities in seeing beyond the cartographic tricks he's using. Many have little idea or motive to question what they are seeing. This, to me, is the more fundamental problem. The general population have no reason to question the maps that are presented to them. But they should. They absolutely should. I spend much of my professional life exploring how maps can be made to tell different stories and how we can imbue them with shades of the truth in different ways, for good or bad. My second book is going to be on this very topic.<br />
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In the meantime, I'd encourage you to challenge yourself to read maps and charts with a more critical eye. And to do this, go read Monmonier's <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo27400568.html" target="_blank">"How to Lie with Maps"</a> and the recently published book by Alberto Cairo called <a href="http://albertocairo.com/" target="_blank">"How Charts Lie"</a>. You will become a much smarter consumer of graphical information by learning a little of how you are being manipulated by the maps put in front of you.Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-33004600814150831232019-04-30T16:18:00.002-07:002019-04-30T16:21:52.232-07:00Revisiting another new mapI don't think it's possible to make a map in isolation of critique. You have to get eyes on your map and listen to people's comments, concerns and (if you're lucky) congratulations. And of course, the closer you are to a deadline the more pressured the situation, and the less likely you are to be able to give people time or to make changes based on feedback.<br />
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And so it was when I hurridly finished up my re-imagined version of the London Underground map a few weeks ago. You can <a href="http://cartonerd.blogspot.com/2019/04/another-new-design-for-old-map_8.html" target="_blank">read</a> about my original map and a <a href="https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/product/mapping/make-a-transit-map-in-arcgis-pro/" target="_blank">how-to</a> that explains the technical side of its construction. The map needed to be finished and printed in time for me to take it to the <a href="http://cartonerd.blogspot.com/2019/04/academic-parochialism.html" target="_blank">Schematic Mapping Conference</a> in Vienna. I was up against it because I was due in Washington D.C. the week before and our production facility also (quite reasonably) needs an amount of time to print it. So I ended up rushing it and didn't have enough time to get enough eyes on it before it would be publicly shared.<br />
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I sent it to Cameron Booth who runs the wonderful Transit Maps blog and he provided some <a href="https://www.transitmap.net/overground-underground-kenneth-field/" target="_blank">extremely helpful comments</a>. Colleagues at work also briefly looked at the map once printed. 'Text is too small' we all cried. Me included. Too late to do anything about it. I went to Vienna where no-one really bothered looking at the map or offered comment. But I've gone back to the map and made changes I believe make it better. So here's the updated map (you can grab a full-sized hi-res version <a href="http://carto.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=60783989a359409c81e59569eb178946" target="_blank">here</a>):<br />
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There's larger lettering throughout. The smallest text is now 3pt larger than before. It's more visible and legible. Clarity is improved. I've also introduced text with different treatments to marry to the station functions. Interchange stations have larger text. Stations that connect to National Rail services are both larger and a different colour to match the updated station symbol colour. I've printed it at the same size as the current official London Underground pocket map (22cm wide) and the legibility holds up.<br />
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I've avoided the use of a separate symbol to show connections to National Rail services altogether. Originally I wanted to avoid the old British Rail symbol (arguing that international visitors wouldn't have a clue what it was anyway). But despite trying multiple different icons to sit beside the station names it never really worked. Simply encoding the station's different function into the size and colour of the typography and changing the colour of the station symbol itself allows me to do away with the additional symbol altogether.<br />
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There's more consistency in terminus symbols where one line folds into another. I just hadn't done a good job in what is quite a unique approach. I'd missed some. These are now corrected.<br />
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The previous design was a 'lines first' approach and whilst this second version is by no means a 'labels first' approach there's been quite a lot of moving and reorganising of linework to give better balance and create additional space for the larger labels. I don't think the result deviates too much from my original intent. In fact there's better spacing across the map whereas previously there were a few fairly congested areas.<br />
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The Elizabeth Line westward extension stations to Reading now appear in a box rather than on the line itself. I wrestled with this. They can fit into the line but Reading is nowhere near London and it's a fair point to suggest it shouldn't be included on a map that portrays it no further west than Uxbridge or Heathrow Airport. This is a nod to Harry Beck's original designs that used a similar style for edge cases.<br />
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I clarified the Barbican/Farringdon/Elizabeth Line interchanges. previously there were two separate Elizabeth Line stations connected to Farringdon and Barbican but this isn't how they operate in situ. Rather, Farringdon and Barbican both link to a new intermediate connected station on the Elizabeth Line.<br />
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I repositioned South Tottenham station below Seven Sisters so that those walking between them would be able to at least understand which is north of the other.<br />
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Many of the outer extremities of lines and stations have been repositioned and spaced to try and improve the overall appearance.<br />
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The station labels have all been tweaked to improve the consistency of their placement with respect to distances between lines and offsets from station symbols.<br />
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So, there you go. This is version 2 of the map. I'm quite pleased with it. I've been able to spend more time with it and appreciate the limitations of the first version. I've taken on board comments and made changes where necessary. I still think I've been able to retain what I like about the official map (colours and typeface) that relates it to the 'London look' but it's develops a new graphical language for pretty much everything else. Version 2 is a better map than version 1 because it's had eyes on it.<br />
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As with the first version, I invite people to rip version 2 to shreds and offer comments.Thanks.<br />
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PS - And yeah, there's now an Easter Egg on the map. Should have added it first time round but ran out of time and forgot. Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-62529411582372950502019-04-16T10:17:00.001-07:002019-04-17T08:52:41.250-07:00Academic parochialismLast week I went to a <a href="https://schematicmapping2019.ac.tuwien.ac.at/" target="_blank">schematic mapping workshop</a> in Vienna, Austria. Schematic maps are some of my favourites and I'd used this opportunity to finally get round to developing <a href="http://cartonerd.blogspot.com/2019/04/another-new-design-for-old-map_8.html" target="_blank">my own ideas</a> about a redesign of the London Tube Map. I'm by no means the first and won't be the last but after penning a discussion of what I characterised as the over-use, mis-use and abuse of Beck's original style from 1933 (<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/ref/10.1179/0008704114Z.000000000150" target="_blank">The Cartographic Journal</a>, 51, 4 pp343-359) it really was about time I put my money where my mouth was and had a go. The workshop provided a hard deadline and an impetus to make a map and throw it to the lions.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me. And my map.</td></tr>
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There were about 40 or so people attend the workshop. People came from a wide array of academic backgrounds - psychologists, computer scientists, graphic designers, cartographers and the transport industry itself. I'll be blunt. It was disappointing. While there were some interesting talks there was very little true sharing of ideas or development of collaborative opportunities. The cliques stayed within their own cliques and so the opportunity was lost. I displayed my maps and not one person wanted to actively engage in a discussion, or offer ideas for improvements. Having paid for the trip out of my own pocket that's disappointing. So what we ended up with was another example of academic parochialism at its worst. Niche groups striving headlong up their own small part of a much wider discourse and not really willing to engage beyond what they know or do. There were lots of words but not much else.<span id="goog_782103265"></span><br />
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We had people focusing on usability, but not really appreciating practical implementation. We had people searching for efficient algorithms for label placement or line arrangement, not appreciating that many software packages already exist to do much of that heavy lifting. We had the idea that a fully automated map is difficult to create but never a real discussion about why you'd want that anyway. After all, maps are always made by humans to a greater or lesser extent. We had the idea that many who make schematic maps do so with design software. There was little from the GIS or data-driven cartographic community and no real appreciation of its existence or value. A lot of it was searching for a solution to a problem that isn't properly defined. It's low-level academic effort. The sort that keeps people busy but doesn't ever actually get anywhere purposeful. I know. I used to live in that world, and the further I get from it the more I recognise it for what it is and the more I am relieved to be out of it.<br />
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And the classic examples of 'research results' based on a survey of a group of students who are easy to cajole into research always has me raising my eyebrows. At best it's lazy, at worst, it undermines your work beyond it being useful. Of course students are likely to also be public transport users but they are not a diverse enough set of people if you want to capture the wide variety of people who have many and varied needs. I think we can do better. But there was also something else that made me think about the event in a way that I cannot ever recall feeling before.<br />
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I guess what I found most disconcerting is I felt like an outsider. This is a group founded and moulded by Maxwell Roberts who <a href="http://brexitmapping.com/about_brexit_mapping.html" target="_blank">describes himself</a> as "the world’s leading specialist in schematic map design". So, inevitably, there's going to be some disciples of his work in attendance and, as it turns out, all but 4 talks were 'invited'. Dr Roberts even took the floor twice for two 35 minute stints to bookend the event. Except I'm not one of his disciples. I like much of his work but ever since I wrote that journal article, Dr Roberts has made it known he took exception to my characterisation of some of his work as being unhelpful to wider debates about the value of Beck's work. To me, there's value in debate. Just because person A says something, person B does not have to agree. I used the opportunity to write a refereed paper that expressed my views based on the evidence I presented. In normal academic discourse, such views can and should be challenged. Different views expressed and published and so forth. But, it seems, this is not the case and it was unfortunate that Dr Roberts went out of his way to avoid me in Vienna. It's unfortunate but I can live with that. Should I have approached him? Possibly. But when you get bad vibes you tend not to bother in the interests of self-preservation.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map Gallery at the Vienna Transport Museum.</td></tr>
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There was a gallery of work on display at the Vienna transport museum on one evening. My maps were up there and earlier in the day I'd expressed my wish that people tackle them, rip them apart and let me know what they thought. I even wore my London Underground District Line Moquette shoes for some added interest. Maybe Dr Roberts would take the opportunity? Unfortunately not. Again, he went out of his way to avoid me (and my colleague Professor William Cartwright too).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Professor William Cartright and I at the map gallery.</td></tr>
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I was going to leave it. If that's how these people want to work and (not) foster collaborative opportunities or, even, have a good old-fashioned academic slanging match then that's up to them. I returned from Vienna glad to have reconnected with some good friends, met a few new people and, once again, to have visited such a beautiful city. Except this morning I woke, to this tweet by @TubeMapCentral (aka Maxwell Roberts)<br />
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Any designer can create an attractive schematic map if the lettering is small enough, but it takes a very special designer indeed to create such a questionable schematic map with tiny lettering. Dr. Field should actually read the usability research that he is so quick to dismiss. <a href="https://t.co/k8tKfymTCD">pic.twitter.com/k8tKfymTCD</a></div>
— Tube Map Central (@TubeMapCentral) <a href="https://twitter.com/TubeMapCentral/status/1117305852732616704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
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So let's get this straight. Dr Roberts had every opportunity to talk to me last week. He had every opportunity to discuss my previous paper as well as my effort at making a map of the London Underground. But no. Instead, he posts a bitchy tweet (without using my twitter handle). It's a shame he didn't say my font was too small to me in Vienna because I totally agree with him. In fact, the prints were the first time I'd seen the work printed and my first reaction was the same - fonts are way too small. WAY too small. And this is the point of critique - to put your work in the gaze of your peers and others and to take on board comments and criticisms. A future iteration will address this limitation.<br />
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I wasn't going to write about my experience in Vienna but his tweet has me annoyed simply because he could have spoken to me in person. I should have seen the signs. Last talk on day one. My colleague, Professor Cartwright given less time than the other speakers. It all added up to support the fact that we simply were not wanted at the workshop because 5 years ago we had the audacity, the sheer temerity to offer some critical thoughts on some of his work as part of a wider debate. Yet they took our registration fee quite happily to boost numbers. If you're going to marginalise people then do so with class. But it doesn't achieve much. It narrows your potential for considered debate, albeit some of which might be challenging, but which ultimately strengthens a discipline. I don't like some of his work so therefore he doesn't like me. Makes sense eh? Not to me it doesn't. Tweets are cheap. I know, I send enough of them! But having had the opportunity to tackle me about the 2014 paper, or even chide me for my amateurish effort at tackling a really tricky map he, instead, waited until there was no danger of discussion. Ahh well.<br />
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What I did find of immense value at the workshop was listening to a presentation by the train manufacturer Siemens along with those at Wiener Linien who are exploring their cartography in relation to real needs, namely to fashion maps for a new generation of trains. So they are getting on with the job. We weren't allowed to take photos and I should probably not say too much as the work is currently not public and remains confidential. Except to say, they are experimenting with some really innovative animated maps. These go well beyond having a simple animated symbol that shows where you are on the route. There's morphing of the map under particular circumstances, changes to content depending on location and conditions, focusing of detail to serve the needs along the route, and real-time information delivery that goes way beyond simply showing train times and connections. I've honestly not seen anything like it and had a wonderful chat with the people behind it. These are the conversations you enjoy and ones which take you forward. The small-mindedness of a few has not detracted from my experience of this particular work and the potential it offers.<br />
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This, to me, also shows where we are in terms of who is driving research these days. Industry has overtaken academia in many fields. Cartography is one such field. Small groups of people doing very niche academic research into aspects of map design are becoming unimportant. And I think that's why these sort of workshops become increasingly frustrating. They aren't really helping move things forward, certainly not with much pace. There's too much reinvention and no real cohesion. They seem to exist to further one or two people's aspirations for relevance, rather than a sustained research agenda that feeds into real implementation. And along comes a train operator who, along with their customers, defines a need, researches it, and develops a solution.<br />
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I expressed this view earlier in the day at an 'open mic' slot where I used 10 minutes to play devil's advocate. In 2005 Google both decimated and utterly reinvented cartography. Since then, most transport networks persist with their schematic maps yet I contend that people are more interested in travelling between places of interest, not station names. Of course, this goes against Harry Beck's principles that above-ground geography is unimportant to the traveller but I think times have changed. So, for instance, if I'm in London and I want to travel between the London Eye and Selfridges how do I work out my route? I open Google Maps and I type in directions. I would suggest most people will likely do the same. In fact, I cannot recall the last time I actually saw someone use a pocket London Underground map. And even if I did I have to know where the two points of interest are in the first place and relate them to the location of stations. That's often very difficult with a schematic map. And yet Google Maps returns the optimal route (walk to Westminster station and catch the Jubilee line to Bond street). It gives me real-time train arrivals, journey time, walking routes to bookend the tube journey, as well as bus alternatives, and it now even tells me that a Lime scooter is nearby and could be quicker. The map zooms to become hyper-local. We see the actual location of station entrances so we can relate our geographical surroundings to where we actually need to go. And the map has the geographical tube network overprinted. So, my assertion is that, in 2019 the schematic map as we know it and love it may be dead. People use their smartphones and Google Maps to do their journey planning. It may well be the case that the printed schematic map has been killed by Google. Maybe this is what upset Dr Roberts? I don't know. I don't particularly care.<br />
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Unfortunately, in retrospect, the workshop was simply about his self-promoting academic parochialism. I'm glad I'm out of it, and Max, if you're reading this, please be assured I'll not darken your door at the next workshop. But I will be buying your next book on airline schematic maps because I'll likely very much enjoy it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgat2EfIb2p4wX0F25NoUvIA2yOrZjRl2GZs-l7otSum3uk0-DosIlWGLRz5HApj8jMHDUgLAglA8ph-PAYrH3RS61DKPxlIdobOhuLYPCqxEmJV1bU89aznZEZ7iwAgxTSc7ZTgeAK4gQ/s1600/IMG_20190411_184606%257E2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1211" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgat2EfIb2p4wX0F25NoUvIA2yOrZjRl2GZs-l7otSum3uk0-DosIlWGLRz5HApj8jMHDUgLAglA8ph-PAYrH3RS61DKPxlIdobOhuLYPCqxEmJV1bU89aznZEZ7iwAgxTSc7ZTgeAK4gQ/s400/IMG_20190411_184606%257E2.jpg" width="302" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Professor Georg Gartner and Dr David Fairbairn discuss the Vienna map.</td></tr>
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Update:<br />
Unfortunately, Dr Roberts has decided to double down on his twitter rant.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-cards="hidden" data-conversation="none" data-partner="tweetdeck">
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Dr. Field's opinions about schematic mapping are questionable because he does not have an intellectually defensible, coherent theory of effective design. You can see that from own creation. In fact, I am not even sure he understands what the issues are and why they are important. <a href="https://t.co/jvTNTXeF82">pic.twitter.com/jvTNTXeF82</a></div>
— Tube Map Central (@TubeMapCentral) <a href="https://twitter.com/TubeMapCentral/status/1118451466912653312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Seems a little unfounded to me but I made the point that the opportunity to discuss, debate, argue even, was last week. Why didn't he take the opportunity to have me on a panel discussion for instance? Or even have a quiet word with me during one of the breakout sessions? It's not unusual for people who are passionate and knowledgeable about a subject to sometimes disagree but the art of academic discourse is to attempt to appreciate other people's perspectives. If you are closed to that, and wrap it in unsubstantiated personal attacks then you are doing yourself a disservice. I am concerned for his students if this is how he fosters discussion and engages in debate. It also reflects poorly on the University of Essex if this sort of approach to academic discourse is in any way supported.<br />
<br />Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-87961642970022513222019-04-08T20:28:00.000-07:002019-04-10T20:05:54.934-07:00Another new design for an old mapAs many of you will know, I have a long-held fascination with the London Underground map and schematic maps in general. And for at least the last decade I have written and presented extensively on an assertion that while Beck’s ideas (though not necessarily new in and of themselves) have become the model for many transit networks, the Beck map also suffers from misuse, abuse and parody. I’ve even gone to the effort to catalog this collection as an interactive tube map of tube maps using a tube map which currently has over 300 entries (stations).<br />
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<div class="embed-container">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="400" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//carto.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Embed/index.html?webmap=84a606bfb3d848c69ca61321f3ac2e9f&extent=-0.5206,51.4154,0.1237,51.6954&zoom=true&previewImage=false&scale=true&disable_scroll=true&theme=light" title="End of the Line" width="500"></iframe></div>
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In 2014 I wrote a paper with Professor William Cartwright that was published in The Cartographic Journal entitled<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/ref/10.1179/0008704114Z.000000000150" target="_blank"> 'Becksploitation: The Over-Use of a Cartographic Icon'</a> (preprint <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B74oo5QGpleoVi1Ya1hTNms4REE/view" target="_blank">here</a>) We played devil’s advocate as an attempt to provoke and promote debate about the legacy and ongoing use of the Beck model for transit mapping. And in conclusion, we summed up our critique by calling for a fresh start, a reset of the London map to overcome many of the problems that the current map faces as it simply tries to update Beck’s ideas:<br />
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“We’d like to encourage a return to thought, experimentation, drawing and testing as a way of discovery and the search for the next great map style. Beck made a cartographic icon for one purpose – to navigate the London Underground; a perfect map made at a perfect place and time. We need new, fresh and challenging maps.” (Field and Cartwright, 2014 p358)<br />
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And that problem begins with the current London Underground map which has become a model of how not to iterate a map which had its day nearly 90 years ago. The original map is a piece of perfect cartographic design and undeniably useful for navigation and wayfinding. It’s debatable whether the current version is useful any more.
Beck's brilliance was to omit above ground detail, creating a schematicised map with huge distortions in scale and real-world location. The colours were coded to fit the wider corporate design aesthetic and he used straight lines for curved railways – horizontal, vertical, 45° which were also indicative of speed and efficiency of the network. A practical outcome as much as a brilliant design statement.<br />
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And this is the current map (<a href="https://tfl.gov.uk/maps/track/tube" target="_blank">link</a> to TfL maps) showing the massively increased network of interlinked services but which still retains the same basic principles that Beck brought to the map.<br />
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In my view (and that of many others) it’s lost its way. It’s full of clutter. There’s still elements that need to be retained – the typeface and colours are intrinsic to the look and feel of the London map in my opinion. But the lines are disorganized. The amount of detail overbearing. The station tick marks might be due for retirement and the interchange symbols might be modified. Representing accessibility has become a preoccupation for Transport for London but it may be better off the map, in a list of stations. And what of the British Rail symbol? – is this really so useful for foreign tourists for instance? Can that be redesigned? Do we have to show intermittent services on the map? After all, there’s a separate map for night services now and there's no sign of those services on the main map. Some interchanges have become terribly congested.<br />
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In summary – it was about time I put my money where my mouth was and had a go at a redesign rather than just moaning at the map and what it has become, not to mention some of the redesigns I've not warmed to particularly. And it's worth noting at this stage I'm not the first and I won't be the last.<br />
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The idea was simple, start from scratch, and if you're making a schematic, it's a diagrammatic approach and you need a grid to start with to give the map order. A grid that tessellates such as squares, triangles or hexagons. I’ve experimented before and was almost settled on a hexagonal grid but there was just something aesthetically that I didn’t particularly like. Too messy.<br />
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So I settled back on using squares because it just seems to fit London quite well. And because I wanted to begin by physically ‘sketching’ I built a peg board. A piece of board with 800 nails at 3cm intervals to create my scaffolding.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj74Bq26pauD-P7tP89jDFHtv5kPPOTcqtnfuxLEKWd1oY-tvN4zOu9v-a2-plI_LSSk_pPr1yIHqGVPTHz_eZG-04cfR7PZwwRfWC5vlt0pnaCFTHaA66ULY-sFfXfzcHlqv_uAcJvGqA/s1600/peg1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="856" data-original-width="1129" height="484" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj74Bq26pauD-P7tP89jDFHtv5kPPOTcqtnfuxLEKWd1oY-tvN4zOu9v-a2-plI_LSSk_pPr1yIHqGVPTHz_eZG-04cfR7PZwwRfWC5vlt0pnaCFTHaA66ULY-sFfXfzcHlqv_uAcJvGqA/s640/peg1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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And I bought some thread and began to make my tube map from scratch. The beauty of this was that the physical process meant I could rapidly re-route as I encountered issues and difficulties, but I was trying to be a little more geographical so, for instance, the Northern Line actually doesn’t go vertically north as it does on the official map, and many others. So I began with that as an anchor, but it moves more north-westerly. And the Central line remains quite well served by remaining broadly horizontal.
One of the key differences I wanted to establish was a better relationship between the above and below ground. Yes, this would be a schematic, but I wondered if I could keep the key physical feature, the River Thames geographical. I was also trying to build a map that could support an experimental 3D version where I could fit above ground detail into the intervening spaces.<br />
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And this is what I ended up with, about 30hrs later.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX9pBagP0aloHOOLvw3YnwQDZfPt8tnjfQJKkJ4ffo5aJDB-q9f_D5drO1T1sX5dkh3MvgYxigZMF1IEIYFdQzK3Jp1eOUCHCit4PqwpaOLJYvBUcDb1GR9u7QwMpiyPwjsXSMtsTM1VI/s1600/peg3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1129" data-original-width="1538" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX9pBagP0aloHOOLvw3YnwQDZfPt8tnjfQJKkJ4ffo5aJDB-q9f_D5drO1T1sX5dkh3MvgYxigZMF1IEIYFdQzK3Jp1eOUCHCit4PqwpaOLJYvBUcDb1GR9u7QwMpiyPwjsXSMtsTM1VI/s640/peg3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
As I was building the map I became aware of something interesting that began to excite me – there’s diamonds everywhere. And, of course, Beck’s initial map used diamonds as interchange symbols, and the Johnston typeface is renowned for the diamonds atop the lowercase I. So I liked the nod to his legacy even though I was trying to make something new.<br />
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I won’t bore you with the process of generating the digital version but I effectively brought digital photograph of the peg board into ArcGIS Pro, georeferenced it, then build a digital peg board and traced my map. I wrote a <a href="https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/product/mapping/make-a-transit-map-in-arcgis-pro/" target="_blank">blog</a> about that whole process as part of my day job if you're interested in how to make this yourself.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBEkehXofD5VqG5FK6RkdrhxaqDJr2vwW7Tld8kcqcDpzrjwErAr9yq6CuCbpTMq1VWI2nXBbJMxxWJ0ecJI6_xOFRjmEa7wxRvDB0X79zWYLyCS6H4P345syjO-jOzzEImrVhu_q9ZVw/s1600/peg4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="618" data-original-width="915" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBEkehXofD5VqG5FK6RkdrhxaqDJr2vwW7Tld8kcqcDpzrjwErAr9yq6CuCbpTMq1VWI2nXBbJMxxWJ0ecJI6_xOFRjmEa7wxRvDB0X79zWYLyCS6H4P345syjO-jOzzEImrVhu_q9ZVw/s640/peg4.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Of course, dealing with digital thread that used the same nails as vertices was the next challenge so there was plenty of offsetting lines. But I ended up with this basic layout:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioAN3FLvbHVTsuWf9kP3O91iUrnGvcWaIK49nLRkbmKGsuzscm61U9RDFtVt2AZscffzhDvDEgCsbjvPF-X68GZvFgkkAavvl-V84dJHSsQJZXehCTMqU-bUBpZ-EcWDRUWjuLUZnfF44/s1600/diamondmap.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="592" data-original-width="990" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioAN3FLvbHVTsuWf9kP3O91iUrnGvcWaIK49nLRkbmKGsuzscm61U9RDFtVt2AZscffzhDvDEgCsbjvPF-X68GZvFgkkAavvl-V84dJHSsQJZXehCTMqU-bUBpZ-EcWDRUWjuLUZnfF44/s640/diamondmap.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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There’s significantly fewer changes of line direction compared to the official map. There’s a similar density of linework but I feel the strong central diamond of the Northern Line within which others nest in and around brings the eye back to the core area of the map. In my opinion it’s a cleaner network. Less spaghetti. Crisper perhaps? Yes it’s still intrinsically diagrammatic but perhaps better balanced. The central area is a little more rectangular in overall appearance.<br />
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Let’s take a closer look at some of the design decisions.
I retained the horizontal, vertical and 45° lines; TfL colours. Johnston typeface, but now in a more muted 70% black. These are all decisions that give the map 'the London look'. I omitted river services, accessibility detail, limited services, and fare zones which to my mind are simply clutter. They just do not need to be on THIS map and can be better presented in other companion products. At some point you have to make the decision about what MUST go on the map. Omission is the most under-used cartographic tenet yet it is vital to deliver clarity in a final product.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHNFVH7HvqvbwGaGkZ1OC1ZwlpYP1Kvxbx7Exxkde4HkQmH42Jq729If6lwK1_U60XQ-jOu-nJ0bvuhcMxnltqcCJs0103C1BstgjYaT2JSzTpvkp5iR-qEWfVdNWcqTTV7E7NY2uMUY4/s1600/insert1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="629" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHNFVH7HvqvbwGaGkZ1OC1ZwlpYP1Kvxbx7Exxkde4HkQmH42Jq729If6lwK1_U60XQ-jOu-nJ0bvuhcMxnltqcCJs0103C1BstgjYaT2JSzTpvkp5iR-qEWfVdNWcqTTV7E7NY2uMUY4/s400/insert1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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I changed the line symbols which are now cased which helps with establishing separation between adjacent lines and for where lines cross. The British Rail symbol replaced by a different national rail interchange symbol. Station symbols are replaced by white (negative) space and within the line to leave more space for labels and other content. Interchange symbols follow the same basic structure but with an internal 70% black symbol. Interconnectedness is implied by adjacent symbols ‘touching’.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdLaxhW2y7Q9qTzpJ3xqQDUpcGOnNX57n9JlG6W96OxQvKDEF82YoSoNEfhpn8D0Hs_0TlDcOmdXdPLrzfuY7GMfrOocBc5MyISi-TG0bpjHNjsFtLh2WlqhTCt_xyG2RRtlyu8h5ImLQ/s1600/insert2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="712" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdLaxhW2y7Q9qTzpJ3xqQDUpcGOnNX57n9JlG6W96OxQvKDEF82YoSoNEfhpn8D0Hs_0TlDcOmdXdPLrzfuY7GMfrOocBc5MyISi-TG0bpjHNjsFtLh2WlqhTCt_xyG2RRtlyu8h5ImLQ/s400/insert2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Walking symbols replace the pecked lines on the official map which I think are more intuitive. I also simplified many of the junctions with fewer overlaid symbols, for instance here at Earl’s Court. I also used line folds into a single symbol at terminal junctions.
In some respects this new map respects geography a little better. The wayward northerly direction of the western edge of the Central Line has always bothered me. Yes, it veers north a little but I managed to straighten it out and return it back to the horizontal line on Beck’s original 1933 map.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCcv7M5ASvFf9sHyLNA-pfH4A-0qK5jK3B6nypMvh6A6exiYefa-Elp4DVqcQ5ogbt8WppLQlOiGanCJo09XrqGlQks0ubFzrz8C7bkgsT35TCwp-FOAp0G0FlPSdWPggSLJGg7xm0Dn4/s1600/insert3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="594" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCcv7M5ASvFf9sHyLNA-pfH4A-0qK5jK3B6nypMvh6A6exiYefa-Elp4DVqcQ5ogbt8WppLQlOiGanCJo09XrqGlQks0ubFzrz8C7bkgsT35TCwp-FOAp0G0FlPSdWPggSLJGg7xm0Dn4/s640/insert3.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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I would also argue that my mainline London station connections are far more streamlined than the official map’s counterparts (comparison for Paddington below).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx8ZqFQ4qkRUPhYhjSp2h6GwDBAbkitzEguWdWbj5AdAyYtD1QJJHWP1UblN7sTEsCOOZhgCU-O-EfLhPo_SMQsHpfYOajfwdYYTIEUo5UeNgsKFQbiclvRFhS3qzpQXqk95pMJ7AxhBA/s1600/insert4comparison.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="430" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx8ZqFQ4qkRUPhYhjSp2h6GwDBAbkitzEguWdWbj5AdAyYtD1QJJHWP1UblN7sTEsCOOZhgCU-O-EfLhPo_SMQsHpfYOajfwdYYTIEUo5UeNgsKFQbiclvRFhS3qzpQXqk95pMJ7AxhBA/s320/insert4comparison.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9IK1Im_Z2k3boeAALPUxxRJQkYChGeNIL8W01VYVhMiOhS0-NN1s3lAO4dl8_mgO5jXhBlgM5yRyqH13j6z-UeZPh_qQIu2HOjBCZgPn54Xdf4zABgBVrWIRSj1fyh5Z47IzuC34XiU0/s1600/insert4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="430" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9IK1Im_Z2k3boeAALPUxxRJQkYChGeNIL8W01VYVhMiOhS0-NN1s3lAO4dl8_mgO5jXhBlgM5yRyqH13j6z-UeZPh_qQIu2HOjBCZgPn54Xdf4zABgBVrWIRSj1fyh5Z47IzuC34XiU0/s320/insert4.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Though <a href="https://www.transitmap.net/overground-underground-kenneth-field/" target="_blank">early critique</a> of my use of a different way to represent national rail connections proves how iconic embedded symbols can be in our minds eye. I was trying to avoid the old British Rail symbol but I may end up going back to it, or something else.
Simple connectors are used for complex interchange stations like Bank/Monument.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLM9hhxzoqIrGfHFd5tu1l_90VHlyPICriPkZUakkJSmnPbQv1jkgehgI_mASHQi3z0uW_3iGr8w2BZ8iE8jhK2w7mj7ubFZDbi9GoX-SqjNzXBFKUsEupQWBC-D-5tB5lDkIqIWt83ho/s1600/insert5.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7x7djMzL1-gbsmdJlM_SuEqm6pDBFRE4Fgi3I_ZilGhMKtQ9XppERLCwPZU0wQNO8E-ywwMkhglo8vuodKffQMkktFjdCOB0V2DlBAFuib_kYabXrQyVZw7TV54XdN8nHuW4gY1XtXiA/s1600/insert5comparison.png" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="294" data-original-width="353" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7x7djMzL1-gbsmdJlM_SuEqm6pDBFRE4Fgi3I_ZilGhMKtQ9XppERLCwPZU0wQNO8E-ywwMkhglo8vuodKffQMkktFjdCOB0V2DlBAFuib_kYabXrQyVZw7TV54XdN8nHuW4gY1XtXiA/s320/insert5comparison.png" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLM9hhxzoqIrGfHFd5tu1l_90VHlyPICriPkZUakkJSmnPbQv1jkgehgI_mASHQi3z0uW_3iGr8w2BZ8iE8jhK2w7mj7ubFZDbi9GoX-SqjNzXBFKUsEupQWBC-D-5tB5lDkIqIWt83ho/s1600/insert5.png" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 16px; margin-right: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="294" data-original-width="351" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLM9hhxzoqIrGfHFd5tu1l_90VHlyPICriPkZUakkJSmnPbQv1jkgehgI_mASHQi3z0uW_3iGr8w2BZ8iE8jhK2w7mj7ubFZDbi9GoX-SqjNzXBFKUsEupQWBC-D-5tB5lDkIqIWt83ho/s320/insert5.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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I think this comparison, perhaps more than any shows that I think the time has come to dispense with large, bulky, black cased interchange symbols. We can make a more elegant map.
And I managed to get a geographical River Thames into the design which I believe gives the map a sense of realism rather than the stark schematic. It’s tapered – like Beck’s original and a feature that has also been lost in the mists of time. I carried the diamond motifs to the four corners of the map which helped tidy up bits of line going off in all directions – a bit contrived in places but, well, why not. After all, it is a 'diagrammatic map' And here's the final (first iteration) of my effort:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj11v98d8oAG63u4w_IXnfAlbB_MF9mvmlzZf_Kkzrze8nXS_tUfS0rn_j4sGQwOa5L4Pi9gS2Jv13SHDbKx6w8fmBqOJJNqLEpoEb8xe0qPbJy2_UTH4WdhIArWLAFMTuW0pH_pVXt6Ks/s1600/finalmap1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1075" data-original-width="1505" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj11v98d8oAG63u4w_IXnfAlbB_MF9mvmlzZf_Kkzrze8nXS_tUfS0rn_j4sGQwOa5L4Pi9gS2Jv13SHDbKx6w8fmBqOJJNqLEpoEb8xe0qPbJy2_UTH4WdhIArWLAFMTuW0pH_pVXt6Ks/s640/finalmap1.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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You can download a copy of the map <a href="http://carto.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=60783989a359409c81e59569eb178946" target="_blank">here</a> as an A2 poster. It’s designed for paper because…paper.<br />
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The basic form of the new map takes a traditional planimetric form that I think gives it a cleaner result, with less map furniture to get in the way of the basic task of getting from one place to another through the network. I firmly believe that omitting a lot of extraneous information, that can be better delivered in other forms, frees the map up, lets it breathe and reduces the need for seriously thinking about having to make the map A3 or A2 simply to fit detail on. The idea of a pocket map can be retained with this omission of detail.<br />
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But the intent was always to go beyond this and experiment and for that we go 3D. Now let me be clear, I’m a 3D sceptic and I firmly believe that there needs to be a good reason to go to 3D that simply cannot be supported by 2D. But my assertion here is that Beck's original idea of omitting above ground detail on the basis that the traveler doesn't need to know it seems a weak argument. Do I intrinsically know that to go from the London Eye to Stamford Bridge, I need to go from Waterloo to Fulham Broadway?<br />
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And I’ve always been fascinated with this sort of map:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIsDU24-63Z2w7uosQwSFILbdslqF06s_ZbGDTzLdM8wxw49aiDHb7XLrb8ZKltMdhSKhvcOOc06FBTQoHN8BHOvu3dkMnGWPQyXIG-IYiekcz5nTe_kjnEWD1E3N8jnnp90Npf299EeM/s1600/piccadilly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="506" data-original-width="235" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIsDU24-63Z2w7uosQwSFILbdslqF06s_ZbGDTzLdM8wxw49aiDHb7XLrb8ZKltMdhSKhvcOOc06FBTQoHN8BHOvu3dkMnGWPQyXIG-IYiekcz5nTe_kjnEWD1E3N8jnnp90Npf299EeM/s400/piccadilly.jpg" width="185" /></a></div>
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It explicitly lays out the line but manages to incorporate the above ground. This was created by a small mapping firm, Global Vision Mapping in 1995. The original is 8ft tall. This, to me, is a magical map because we have ways to relate the below with the above-ground. But there are still issues because the use of perspective means that the foreground is in the foreground and illustrated far more prominently. This is how we see reality, things nearer to us are more prominent in our field of vision. Things in the background are distant and smaller. And of course, this map and many like it are laid out geographically as the Piccadilly Line meanders into the distance.
And so, when I flip the schematic we see the same problem.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnmmKVEUlNdtaAF2WAoZu4L3yaMu3O48H6V__vjvkTkki5XDSjP1iLb1Jq13AFq6mF_kRolN_gymrIgatfVsxLmaC9VLA72WMSfX1JwINGhQ7Lnjjo2Pct-OkWkhX5V3sW5S6XKZFp5gU/s1600/perspective.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="989" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnmmKVEUlNdtaAF2WAoZu4L3yaMu3O48H6V__vjvkTkki5XDSjP1iLb1Jq13AFq6mF_kRolN_gymrIgatfVsxLmaC9VLA72WMSfX1JwINGhQ7Lnjjo2Pct-OkWkhX5V3sW5S6XKZFp5gU/s640/perspective.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here, viewed from the south west, Heathrow is prominent, the central area becomes congested once more and the north east is way off in the distance. This simply doesn’t work, and I’ve not even tried to add any detail.
But there is a potential solution and that involves taking a cue from this map.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUcZL2hBebMcMMpKjd_Q_KGH0SyQWHj4-sdCYzsKBoT-dux1lMgJvhX_GAJXieojbssbEc-P6F3BfAiL2UnoGW3UST-0wK61RNaQXeF7T3L7odb-aYZzQhxH3PUpv4sHICJ0lH8uNvOt0/s1600/bollman.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1033" data-original-width="1309" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUcZL2hBebMcMMpKjd_Q_KGH0SyQWHj4-sdCYzsKBoT-dux1lMgJvhX_GAJXieojbssbEc-P6F3BfAiL2UnoGW3UST-0wK61RNaQXeF7T3L7odb-aYZzQhxH3PUpv4sHICJ0lH8uNvOt0/s640/bollman.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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It's the View and Map of New York City by Herman Bollmann, 1962. The map exaggerates widths of streets to create a perfect amount of white space in which buildings sit. The dense fabric of the city is represented at the same time as giving clarity to individual buildings. Vertical exaggeration is used to give a sense of the skyscrapers soaring. In many respects it’s also a schematic. So what if we apply this idea to the tube map?<br />
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Here goes…<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihcbgWlpaIUy2_y1lTmpRQm-IJXW5-w8NPgB_5tXtPkhN1hdIBvKQCPyy_TA_5-9wMX2SEDdCqrtDOU9YYS2KfU-SHXwsms6jnQpTijescMxiqZ4pfOMK2X_RdSWLOBOj8pKkGQMYEa9o/s1600/axonometric.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="717" data-original-width="730" height="628" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihcbgWlpaIUy2_y1lTmpRQm-IJXW5-w8NPgB_5tXtPkhN1hdIBvKQCPyy_TA_5-9wMX2SEDdCqrtDOU9YYS2KfU-SHXwsms6jnQpTijescMxiqZ4pfOMK2X_RdSWLOBOj8pKkGQMYEa9o/s640/axonometric.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here's my planimetric map flipped into an axonometric 'parallel' projection. Weird? Zooming in gives a sense of how the lines, which are now represented as tubes in 3D, sit.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIJISKYMQu3bgBxzdRU37-icFzBsmv0EPYnhvn6eLBM-uyn8JY6Uw2_NhazvG-bjHpWBwCa9EX4qZlW9HhbHgCw6to9Lo3SmpbpWpYkwTmHVRhsX9P3hOO3x90BuxjV4dHKkXmTDeYVuw/s1600/axonometricinset.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="636" data-original-width="754" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIJISKYMQu3bgBxzdRU37-icFzBsmv0EPYnhvn6eLBM-uyn8JY6Uw2_NhazvG-bjHpWBwCa9EX4qZlW9HhbHgCw6to9Lo3SmpbpWpYkwTmHVRhsX9P3hOO3x90BuxjV4dHKkXmTDeYVuw/s400/axonometricinset.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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In this configuration it makes sense for the labels to now sit at a 45° angle. This idea is not without some obvious difficulties such as where lines that previously had vertical separation now cross one another. It’s OK where there’s an interchange but not where there’s not.
But we can begin to populate the map with points of above ground interest. After all, people often want to go between real-world features and not just (often) abstract place names.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijGtQ9ops5fS0aTyGDVYjOlujlpD5MT08_uHkdH1_4GShIFEJyiKgBzXGVEEQt48a_KIsUULimTjiYQSVgTDtx86J50rxEDXIBVT1W3q_HWiUAt8nv2PokVmMdmLpbi1yNAXTqreY3dXE/s1600/axonometricinset2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="636" data-original-width="770" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijGtQ9ops5fS0aTyGDVYjOlujlpD5MT08_uHkdH1_4GShIFEJyiKgBzXGVEEQt48a_KIsUULimTjiYQSVgTDtx86J50rxEDXIBVT1W3q_HWiUAt8nv2PokVmMdmLpbi1yNAXTqreY3dXE/s400/axonometricinset2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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And here's the final version of the map, well, a first iteration at the very least.<br />
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You can grab a larger version of the map <a href="http://carto.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=766e047a415f4176831f2dd59530b30d" target="_blank">here</a>. It's not perfect I know. It's a bit of an experiment.<br />
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In summary, the new planimetric map undoubtedly shares some characteristics with Beck’s original and also with many other versions. This is largely due to the fact that it’s the same underlying network. Any solution that seeks to create a diagrammatic version of a transport network will share characteristics and a lineage that extends back to Beck, and others.<br />
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Physically sketching (via the peg board) has allowed the planimetric map to form organically which I believe overcomes some of the limitations we may have if we over-prescribe graphical demands on structure.<br />
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Finally, I believe I've made a map that adds a new approach by borrowing from other cartographic work that lends a different aesthetic to the mapping of a transport network. The axonometric form of the map portrays the network in a way we’ve not seen. It needs work but it's just...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNvhh7KfkrtePBWEMjiZBf3uwbY9H9_t01KMI73-OV6sNWepZWwtYm3L9VgwTYn7rucqy81olydaxij5GY6oqBajrpMBXLOhmHVfw1oLaedEV5ALuxb1jcc_03ZhqaCixA0Ueqk3kuxfY/s1600/signoff.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="404" data-original-width="683" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNvhh7KfkrtePBWEMjiZBf3uwbY9H9_t01KMI73-OV6sNWepZWwtYm3L9VgwTYn7rucqy81olydaxij5GY6oqBajrpMBXLOhmHVfw1oLaedEV5ALuxb1jcc_03ZhqaCixA0Ueqk3kuxfY/s400/signoff.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Couple of thank yous...firstly to <a href="https://twitter.com/elliothartley" target="_blank">Elliot Hartley</a> from <a href="https://www.garsdaledesign.co.uk/" target="_blank">Garsdale Design</a> who supplied the building models for the 3D version of the map. A map is only as good as the data and the buildings are key to my approach for the 3D version (Thanks Elliot!). Also, to <a href="https://twitter.com/transitmap" target="_blank">Cameron Booth </a>who has written a useful and fair critique of the 2D map on his <a href="http://www.transitmap.net/" target="_blank">Transit Maps</a> site. He offers some great advice which I'll look to include. Critique is vital. It improves your work.<br />
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Thanks for reading!Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-70039926130372533952018-12-17T08:46:00.001-08:002018-12-18T08:35:21.372-08:00Favourite maps from 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Just some things that piqued my interest this year, in no particular order. And please do go to the links to see larger and higher-res versions posted by the authors.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Evolution of China's subway system by <a href="https://twitter.com/pdovak" target="_blank">Peter Dovak</a>.</span><br />
So technically this was from 2017 but I didn't see it until 2018 so I'm giving it a bump here. I love the mini-subway maps on their own but the animation works well too.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="428" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1E4QngjpdOs" width="500"></iframe>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/cold-records" target="_blank">While the East coast is freezing, the West will be warmer than usual</a> by The Washington Post <a href="https://twitter.com/karkliscarto" target="_blank">Laris Karklis</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/tierney" target="_blank">Lauren Tierney</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnMuyskens" target="_blank">John Muyskens</a> </span><br />
In a world where the scientific community invariably defaults to rainbow colour schemes for any map that shows climate or weather, this is a soothing sight for the eyes. Proving that maps do not need to be overly complex, this is a cracking map by the talented Washington Post graphics team.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwY99NSddWM190QhhRW4npK4rx3D8wxtet4evdOYqb4BrJDtm2RjmW6XGmExcvpZU9Ug_Pa6IkhOB3xC4VasVbPIe31Z5Hqp3GWsCz5D4GyZT31RoYmBDN4Oinu4z4m9BxPtPhOzFhOe4/s1600/WAPO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="790" data-original-width="913" height="552" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwY99NSddWM190QhhRW4npK4rx3D8wxtet4evdOYqb4BrJDtm2RjmW6XGmExcvpZU9Ug_Pa6IkhOB3xC4VasVbPIe31Z5Hqp3GWsCz5D4GyZT31RoYmBDN4Oinu4z4m9BxPtPhOzFhOe4/s640/WAPO.jpg" width="640" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.heathergabrielsmith.ca/maps/html/iturup.html" target="_blank">Island of Iturup</a> by <a href="http://www.heathergabrielsmith.ca/" target="_blank">Heather Smith</a></span><br />
Mixing digital techniques with some old school hand drawn terrain gives this map a wonderful aesthetic, not to mention that white on black is both stunning and difficult to do well.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://somethingaboutmaps.wordpress.com/2018/11/26/typewriter-cartography/" target="_blank">Typewriter Cartography</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/pinakographos" target="_blank">Daniel Huffman</a></span><br />
Many people are shying away from digital and experimenting with more human mechanisms for map creation. Here, Daniel gets out his father's old typewriter and does some experimenting. I just like it. There's a few different examples on his blog, linked above.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.thisismikehall.com/spain" target="_blank">España</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/thisismikehall" target="_blank">Mike Hall</a></span><br />
This is just a beautiful map. mike's taken design cues from a number of historic styles and blended them into this composition to perfection. I could write paragraphs about the colour, typography, cityscapes, cartouche etc. but, the whole piece is cartographic elegance personified.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwmMXcCKbh5aExcmezHQkVAEitYWonyrbjDArNjQ0_dvp3W4wG5ZnH-TQdg_GsvEYLUcdUxcCwM8LwusMz-YFzQaYvv7e7_eZMDMVX2rqzQ8LKRuw8YKmrTq5iih7S1IfPZD-W2WH15Ks/s1600/espana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="731" data-original-width="1024" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwmMXcCKbh5aExcmezHQkVAEitYWonyrbjDArNjQ0_dvp3W4wG5ZnH-TQdg_GsvEYLUcdUxcCwM8LwusMz-YFzQaYvv7e7_eZMDMVX2rqzQ8LKRuw8YKmrTq5iih7S1IfPZD-W2WH15Ks/s640/espana.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://equal-earth.com/index.html" target="_blank">Equal Earth Projection</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/bojansavric" target="_blank">Bojan Šavrič</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/mtnmapper" target="_blank">Tom Patterson</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/mappingbernie" target="_blank">Bernhard Jenny</a></span><br />
It's not every day that a new map projection gets people excited but this year we had such a day. A new projection showing the land masses at true sizes relative to one another. An antidote to that bloody Mercator thing, and far more useful as a wall map.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC5u0LKYhdlrSh2xla_Td-75pdaRbGQMFcmZs2Dj2V9uFt0iy87TeHXcScpZoyP7dJFGuu8tocUc9psa6ktaclgqdMGOwbFSBuoGH-e7jbm9FgF3u2zj09ey660LEM2N9QQzkFqPZtIRU/s1600/Equal-Earth-small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="1024" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC5u0LKYhdlrSh2xla_Td-75pdaRbGQMFcmZs2Dj2V9uFt0iy87TeHXcScpZoyP7dJFGuu8tocUc9psa6ktaclgqdMGOwbFSBuoGH-e7jbm9FgF3u2zj09ey660LEM2N9QQzkFqPZtIRU/s640/Equal-Earth-small.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://theddaystory.com/" target="_blank">The D-Day Story logo</a></span><br />
Combining the map of the south coast of England and the north west coast of France, broken by the English Channel, with the letter D makes this a fantastic, if not poignant, expression of the focus of this museum.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://timesatlas.com/" target="_blank">The Times Comprehensive Atlas</a> (15th edition) by HarperCollins</span><br />
You don't need a new atlas but you can certainly want one and this would be it. The 'greatest book on earth' gets a facelift as well as the many content updates. Beautiful cover, but I always like the giant bookmark because it doubles as a legend for all the maps, and there are 320 pages of them. Cartographic consistency and coverage at its finest. Authoritative? Of course.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/hurricane-harvey-texas.html" target="_blank">Tracking Harvey’s Destructive Path Through Texas and Louisiana</a> by The New York Times (<a href="https://twitter.com/driven_by_data" target="_blank">Gregor Aisch</a> et al.)</span><br />
A feast of animated and static maps tell the story of this destructive hurricane. i particularly liked the lead map that showed the rainfall intensity by hour as proportional circles, with cumulative rainfall denoted by colour. Again, no rainbows! And as you hover over the map you get a graph of the rainfall across the week for wherever you hover (go to the animated version using the link above). Superb.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://twitter.com/pmcruz/status/1010012782253826048" target="_blank">Immigrants and natural-borns in the U.S. 1790-2016</a> by<a href="https://twitter.com/pmcruz" target="_blank"> Pedro Cruz</a></span><br />
Wonderfully creative metaphor - the use of tree rings (each ring being 10 years) to show the pattern of immigration from different parts of the world compared to natural-born. And I am a sucker for a Dorling cartogram.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://jwasilgeo.github.io/esri-experiments/earth-at-night/" target="_blank">Earth at Night</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/JWasilGeo" target="_blank">Jacob Wasilkowski</a></span><br />
Normally, I'm not a fan of spiky digital globes but this tends to the artistic rather than analytic so it works. Height of the globe's surface modified by luminance from nighttime light.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGeupK2JUDrb6kR5T3r_Cm2naHImeasd8NkmSms34YRVchCqR_zsEZnddZsd1To3iwfwSRB-CytxAHrsldIHtlKJHtTdlGQgtp7Mr7hSYxSGmfFssJUEq3uAZ4_iol87L_hz3fkkFQQnY/s1600/earthatnight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="687" data-original-width="1183" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGeupK2JUDrb6kR5T3r_Cm2naHImeasd8NkmSms34YRVchCqR_zsEZnddZsd1To3iwfwSRB-CytxAHrsldIHtlKJHtTdlGQgtp7Mr7hSYxSGmfFssJUEq3uAZ4_iol87L_hz3fkkFQQnY/s640/earthatnight.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://twitter.com/MapScaping/status/1038115988473044992" target="_blank">Victoria Peak (Hong Kong</a>) carved into duct tape by Takahiro Iwasaki</span><br />
This is insane. It's a miniature sculpture cut into the tape. Who needs 3D printers!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiztb3eYfKn2itQvA_HjMcZhd0Dy8Zz_7JK2tQdytjrcOIHJJu_Q23Zd0PBeIl0Zl-Z-uOG1Vbf7Fft5kTdgNxzW_huLWNXTL7rhiiy3JceQQhBkPyUnwatGWbvkthShm6xtQFonWy8gdA/s1600/tape.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="724" data-original-width="724" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiztb3eYfKn2itQvA_HjMcZhd0Dy8Zz_7JK2tQdytjrcOIHJJu_Q23Zd0PBeIl0Zl-Z-uOG1Vbf7Fft5kTdgNxzW_huLWNXTL7rhiiy3JceQQhBkPyUnwatGWbvkthShm6xtQFonWy8gdA/s400/tape.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-tax-schemes-fred-trump.html" target="_blank">Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father</a> (map by <a href="https://twitter.com/gabrieldance/status/1047208674408710144" target="_blank">Gabriel Dance</a> et al.)</span><br />
'A tiny, little, beautiful company' is a great piece of cinematic cartography embedded in this article on Trump's proclamations about his finances. Uses a monochrome grey palette for the map, punctuated by splashes of colour for notable buildings and assets, all accompanied by a soundtrack of Trump statements by the man himself and a cumulative total of his alleged worth.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIA1Da6wdZES2b6rSUWESw8kw5JEqKLRWKc_Jw4pzd8kP468TgNrNgGiGoJtSEynfSHRv32tlwGjyYBccNB8Ku7S5pHNeoJEvPNjSwHD37JE1YuKjZF36QSE2v8OPCCaL_YClm8A142AM/s1600/trump.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1116" data-original-width="1416" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIA1Da6wdZES2b6rSUWESw8kw5JEqKLRWKc_Jw4pzd8kP468TgNrNgGiGoJtSEynfSHRv32tlwGjyYBccNB8Ku7S5pHNeoJEvPNjSwHD37JE1YuKjZF36QSE2v8OPCCaL_YClm8A142AM/s640/trump.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://twitter.com/mappingmashups/status/1048045381144068096" target="_blank">Shetland in a box</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/mappingmashups" target="_blank">Alan McConchie</a></span><br />
The year was marked by a right kerfuffle over the nonsense proclamation that The Shetland Isles should no longer be placed in an inset box. This provoked much humour and cartographic satire. Alan nailed it with this <a href="https://twitter.com/xkcdComic/status/1021244424234287109" target="_blank">xkcd inspired</a> solution.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1MyMcdfIRRpG-uafI3FgTmvECZKJkM7tICJtZxESaTz18LjyJCMrC6PzXOsz_e830gyD81NMICCErKHnLiarSrp4s6s2UR4ZhUQSpJNLun83TOU0a8HNGWnk6fRnauQwHOdeVDuAY2To/s1600/shetland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="407" data-original-width="361" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1MyMcdfIRRpG-uafI3FgTmvECZKJkM7tICJtZxESaTz18LjyJCMrC6PzXOsz_e830gyD81NMICCErKHnLiarSrp4s6s2UR4ZhUQSpJNLun83TOU0a8HNGWnk6fRnauQwHOdeVDuAY2To/s400/shetland.jpg" width="353" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://twitter.com/drewpatroopa17/status/1049400841281654785" target="_blank">West World</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/drewpatroopa17" target="_blank">Andrew Degraff </a>and AD Drew Dzwonkowski</span><br />
A terrific cartoon styled map commenting on the shift in balance in the NBA as LeBron James moves to the LA Lakers. Perfect for the kids edition of Sports Illustrated but adults can appreciate the cartographic worth too.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoJtjGpVmw-YQdS-WAL8_J_6BfEq9WazaDZDS_bRACOtlUxA3AC1YMr4X9jXpraddr29KeBL6lqC1oHqHiKYCD8DCx5fv26fFNNhJqhCWOscJ1p9lRSJWt1b0NJmrMR9ZZmQFqpYCZf7g/s1600/degraff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoJtjGpVmw-YQdS-WAL8_J_6BfEq9WazaDZDS_bRACOtlUxA3AC1YMr4X9jXpraddr29KeBL6lqC1oHqHiKYCD8DCx5fv26fFNNhJqhCWOscJ1p9lRSJWt1b0NJmrMR9ZZmQFqpYCZf7g/s640/degraff.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.zeit.de/feature/streetdirectory-streetnames-origin-germany-infographic-english" target="_blank">Streetscapes</a> by <a href="https://www.zeit.de/index" target="_blank">Zeit Online</a></span><br />
Anyone and everyone interested in thematic mapping should bookmark Zeit Online. they consistently set the bar for great cartography of a diverse and rich spread of data. Here, an analysis of German street names reveals the legacy of times past and the impact of composers to dictators. Great example of marrying maps with scrollytelling too and proof that the hex-bin is alive and well.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqOC4m4ncZgB-ycJyu440h5IXJ0BndcDErC8urSaL0HDcr5Y4tiQjVlLQFisTo9FTYuvVb6970u0Z10cIjSDT-NmUvHZ4Fq02Z3kBzyRA-w2133bPZsjZAP_Mx5CE3O7zg12qX71ffPt8/s1600/streetscapes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="1221" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqOC4m4ncZgB-ycJyu440h5IXJ0BndcDErC8urSaL0HDcr5Y4tiQjVlLQFisTo9FTYuvVb6970u0Z10cIjSDT-NmUvHZ4Fq02Z3kBzyRA-w2133bPZsjZAP_Mx5CE3O7zg12qX71ffPt8/s640/streetscapes.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/06/us/elections/results-house-elections.html" target="_blank">U.S. house Election Results 2018</a> by New York Times</span><br />
A hat-trick of favourite maps for NYT this year. Also, a great twist on the cartogram with white space used very effectively to create a non-contiguous version of the map of House Seats. There's also a geographic version if you prefer, a good trend to offer both which many news organisations are going with. And, of course, if you hover over each square you get the results (go to the link above). High quality interactive cartography.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYGujC-k75Bz8q2OokVmwh3OfMscpNGTiBlPrIxmMVlSHZT1LqZIjLSz45-xFMjGBFUxub9dEYZj6hzm2SHbCMdW9jNRFyGXvoCsvd663NB2ti4GYP5hvJK-A_Hdzq-vZJaokBveIoLZU/s1600/NYT+cartogram.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="806" data-original-width="1076" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYGujC-k75Bz8q2OokVmwh3OfMscpNGTiBlPrIxmMVlSHZT1LqZIjLSz45-xFMjGBFUxub9dEYZj6hzm2SHbCMdW9jNRFyGXvoCsvd663NB2ti4GYP5hvJK-A_Hdzq-vZJaokBveIoLZU/s640/NYT+cartogram.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/people-and-culture/all-over-the-map/" target="_blank">All Over the Map</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/betsymason" target="_blank">Betsy Mason</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/dosmonos" target="_blank">Greg Miller</a></span><br />
Not a map, but a book of maps and terrific stories. Definitely in my top one of these coffee-table style books of maps.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNNVLILdUUzxYvI6LxDmB7Q0MJgi8X9398pfypsclE6NXad1ol1UU7HtkESNXHLYpKnoZxd0q3dHGaf5eX2n9IybcLxCECIaN3qN1HrQwnjMPN_UP2BPgjmd5Q_f18_FYd_2JneEEnhg0/s1600/all+over+the+map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNNVLILdUUzxYvI6LxDmB7Q0MJgi8X9398pfypsclE6NXad1ol1UU7HtkESNXHLYpKnoZxd0q3dHGaf5eX2n9IybcLxCECIaN3qN1HrQwnjMPN_UP2BPgjmd5Q_f18_FYd_2JneEEnhg0/s400/all+over+the+map.jpg" width="330" /></a></div>
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And if I may beg your indulgence, I don't normally include my own work in my end of year favourite's list but I'm kind of proud of a few projects from this year so I'm just going to put them here for your enjoyment...or you can stop reading now. You've had fair warning.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=e0f6cbff7e584ce4a8fb9be4f27e1e2c" target="_blank">MOOC map</a></span><br />
Together with my colleagues <a href="https://twitter.com/epunt" target="_blank">Edie Punt</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/john_m_nelson" target="_blank">John Nelson</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/wesleytjones" target="_blank">Wes Jones</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/nathancshephard" target="_blank">Nathan Shephard</a> and an army of people behind the scenes it's been amazing to deliver a Massive Open Online Course to over 80,000 people this year. Who would have thought there were that many people interested in learning about making maps! And here's a map of a good portion of those students, who come from all over the globe. I think it's the best map of a large online class of cartographers this year.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK8jT0vuscqwzsrfXYrA_1yRDDju-DAs79Qi47E9UHRLwYk4a6zULMgHq-DO6EXMwFQsrLil_nh8CIT6vkJtd9nSRVcmu7qRObFc91MQzuXNKDOWw4BlK7yTE_wfZ3nYTJNEOM7Sywd8Q/s1600/mooc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="1600" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK8jT0vuscqwzsrfXYrA_1yRDDju-DAs79Qi47E9UHRLwYk4a6zULMgHq-DO6EXMwFQsrLil_nh8CIT6vkJtd9nSRVcmu7qRObFc91MQzuXNKDOWw4BlK7yTE_wfZ3nYTJNEOM7Sywd8Q/s640/mooc.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Cheese map</span><br />
I made a map, from wood, and used as a cheese board. Accompanied a Geomob event in London in September and is the cover map for the <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/view-cart.ep?utm_source=GeniusMonkey_VT" target="_blank">2019 GeoHipster calendar</a>. I think it's the best map of cheese this year.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYk-S1m6ZYpDYVYGvrpkdWpUt5Xv02QfjgzeTZyR2ema5jUre85p07ZEM38MAOUIF5apTzD_h582JoLYQBp4hWZ8Li93UgzUULi-nznbuHeFXomTyr2C6GR_wYFGBvnwfsi4-pRRiWhWA/s1600/cheeseboard_full.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1436" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYk-S1m6ZYpDYVYGvrpkdWpUt5Xv02QfjgzeTZyR2ema5jUre85p07ZEM38MAOUIF5apTzD_h582JoLYQBp4hWZ8Li93UgzUULi-nznbuHeFXomTyr2C6GR_wYFGBvnwfsi4-pRRiWhWA/s640/cheeseboard_full.png" width="574" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Lego globe</span><br />
Based on a design by <a href="http://dirks-blog.tumblr.com/LEGO-globe" target="_blank">Dirk</a> I built my very own Lego globe. Because...Lego AND maps. I think it's the best Lego globe this year.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimr_fRMu4Y3uelfxCGig-pURPoZYlwinoq5-vkXJbzGdadxw6_GHgsf1n0pFJB3W7oG4SWA_RN98ju3-S8wavaiByRulTRLTvrAmhQJeHJrc5LCXouF0Yd9pFKcI5fncTQr4usUBAjZY8/s1600/lego.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="900" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimr_fRMu4Y3uelfxCGig-pURPoZYlwinoq5-vkXJbzGdadxw6_GHgsf1n0pFJB3W7oG4SWA_RN98ju3-S8wavaiByRulTRLTvrAmhQJeHJrc5LCXouF0Yd9pFKcI5fncTQr4usUBAjZY8/s640/lego.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://carto.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=8732c91ba7a14d818cd26b776250d2c3" target="_blank">Dot map of the 2016 Presidential Election</a></span><br />
A technical challenge but a 1 dot to 1 vote election map that became my 15 minutes of <a href="http://cartonerd.blogspot.com/2018/03/dotty-election-map.html" target="_blank">viral fame</a> in 2018.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cartography-Kenneth-Field/dp/1589484398" target="_blank">Cartography.</a> book.</span><br />
I wrote a book that was published this year...I know, I've been quite quiet about it. I'm bloody well proud of it and immensely grateful for my talented colleagues and the company I work for, for giving me the space, scope, help and freedom to write it. I think it's the best book on Cartography this year.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi42vvKyH7BzVkoEyFUespfMdQLBmfrj5rWxZ7NMbLCNgfyigpNlpxTXwRFmbHDcw5MQDc_t_HOt5iCLH5RLinlTBjjzMpfRyNgzhmc381EaS9zUpmR-1-t5R5m-Ug5XjxrPEW_w8NdNBw/s1600/cartographybookcover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="835" data-original-width="676" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi42vvKyH7BzVkoEyFUespfMdQLBmfrj5rWxZ7NMbLCNgfyigpNlpxTXwRFmbHDcw5MQDc_t_HOt5iCLH5RLinlTBjjzMpfRyNgzhmc381EaS9zUpmR-1-t5R5m-Ug5XjxrPEW_w8NdNBw/s400/cartographybookcover.png" width="323" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://mappery.org/" target="_blank">Mappery</a>.</span><br />
And finally, because my good friend <a href="https://twitter.com/StevenFeldman" target="_blank">Steven Feldman</a> just moaned that I hadn't included it - we started a side-project called <a href="http://mappery.org/" target="_blank">Mappery</a> this year. Send us your pics of maps in the wild and we'll post them at the <a href="http://mappery.org/" target="_blank">Mappery</a> blog. It just has to be a map. Somewhere. Anywhere (happy now Steven?)<br />
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OK - so my entries are a little cheeky but I hope you found them of passing interest in the list of your own maps and map-related products of 2018. Here's to a mappy 2019!</div>
Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-73109390702969371732018-11-01T00:30:00.000-07:002018-11-01T00:30:07.198-07:00All Over the Map - a review<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsYdc-KeRm2Y_4YlzHIpmyMn3YJ_WtHtnfu7miaE8GNWQYhwO5G7bOZJVH4QeF-BpAZAE_gFbtcN3A3zeg_OHYFObNqYXM0jPMxX8doil4faoLAyevjJaAkj_x6CK5ne5UgePavdokhVU/s1600/All+Over+the+Map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1334" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsYdc-KeRm2Y_4YlzHIpmyMn3YJ_WtHtnfu7miaE8GNWQYhwO5G7bOZJVH4QeF-BpAZAE_gFbtcN3A3zeg_OHYFObNqYXM0jPMxX8doil4faoLAyevjJaAkj_x6CK5ne5UgePavdokhVU/s400/All+Over+the+Map.jpg" width="332" /></a></div>
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So many large format
coffee-table map books are written by map experts, map librarians or map historians.
They carefully select the maps based on a criteria that generally relates to some
cartographic measure of their worth. Betsy Mason and Greg Miller are not
cartographic experts, well, at least not by training, though they are fast
demonstrating a deep understanding of what makes great maps tick. Mason and Miller are
journalists, award-winning journalists in fact. More specifically they have a
background in science (earth science, geology, biological, behavioural, social
and neurological science!), and the reporting of science in some of the most
august publications and came to cartography via their excellent blog from Wired
which they launched in 2013. They now co-author the blog <a href="http://nationalgeographic.com/alloverthemap" target="_blank">All Over the Map</a> at
National Geographic. Is this background
on the authors at all relevant? Yes, because what they bring to their interest
in cartography is a fresh perspective. They aren’t burdened by having a list of
maps that have to go in their collection (you know the ones…we all know them).
They have chosen what they want to go in, and so their list is, in the main, a
fresh list and contains many maps you’re unlikely to have seen. Of course,
there’s some absolute classics such as Mount Everest (1988), published by
National Geographic. It appears early on but it’s a book published by National
Geographic and they would be remiss not to include such stunning work. But the
book goes far beyond the vaults of National Geographic and presents well-known maps side-by-side with lesser known examples. I’m pretty sure even
if they had a classic map in mind it’d not make the cut if they couldn’t find
something interesting and fresh to say about it.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The book is broadly
divided into nine sections that group the maps by theme: waterways; cities;
conflict and crisis; landscapes; economies; science; human experiences; worlds;
and art and imagination. Think of any map and you can probably position it in
one of these broad topics and it gives the book a pleasing structure. It makes
it non-linear and that allows a certain element of randomness when you turn the
page. Within each section we see both historical examples and contemporary
maps. Maps made by government, commercial companies and also individuals just
experimenting with some data. I found myself actually ignoring the groups and
just going page-to-page from one delightful map to another, sometimes flicking
and stopping as if you were thumbing through a pack of cards and stopping randomly. Each page is
different and captures the map in rich printed form but it’s the writing that
elevates this from just a collection of maps and their makers. Mason and Miller
dig into the personal stories of the maps, and the people who made them. They
explore the contexts and environments of the maps; and often the trials and
tribulations of their circumstance. They reveal far more than the map as a
captivating and arresting image. They reveal the often intriguing and personal
stories behind the maps. So, in this sense, the book is more of a collection
about maps than it is a book of maps. The fact that the maps are beautiful
makes it simply a superbly illustrated story book. And it’s important that many
of these stories are told because for many, maps just appear, devoid of
context. Sure, people may like them but a general audience will unlikely not care
one bit about the people who made them and the work that went into them. For
instance, we learn of the incredible lengths that Bradford and Barbara Washburn
went to create their utterly stupendous 1978 map of the Heart of Grand Canyon.
Eight years of planning, fieldwork, analysis, drafting, painting and
negotiating to create one map. Every trail in the canyon surveyed several times
by multiple people using a measuring wheel to check and check accuracy again
and again. Assistants were sent to check Bradford Washburn’s own measurements
with strict instructions “if you make a bad mistake, never back up, as the
wheel won’t reverse. Just stop and cuss a reasonable amount. Then go back to
where you know you made your last reliable measurement.” Even the map’s main
relief artist, the inimitable Tibor Toth reckoned he spent 1,074.5 hours to
paint the map. I love these stories. They show the very human nature of
cartography and the fact that everything on a map is somehow touched by a human
whether it’s in data collection, decision-making, design or production. Every
mark has the impact of the maker and the craft of their expertise and this book
is at pains to reflect that in each piece of writing that accompanies the maps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As any good reporter
will know, the story isn’t about them but it’s about what they are reporting
and while there’s clear evidence of Mason and Miller’s love of the subject and
the maps they write about, they have gone to great lengths to interview
cartographers, curators and scholars linked to the maps and who can provide
authoritative knowledge and insight. They’ve gone to the best and, so we are
often treated to critique and comment from some of todays most experienced and
respected cartographers and map experts. This brings a whole new level of
character to the writing because we’re not merely reading descriptions, we’re
reading a reflective piece that draws many pieces of information and views
together. They’ve marshalled their interviews into consistent reportage as if
they are simply the eyewitnesses to the stories. They write in an accessible
and engaging style for a general audience. While there’s plenty to delight the
knowledgable cartographic expert, the book will also reach a wider audience
merely interested in some of the stories which they can access without having
to interpret cartojargon. The layout of the book is also appealing with a loose
structure combining maps and text as appropriate. Each illustration is provided
with a detailed description so you’re guided through each entry by the main
text and the annotations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">There are around 300
illustrations in the book and it’s hard to provide a definitive list of the
type of content but there’s maps (obviously), diagrams, photographs, postcards,
illustrations, paintings, posters, globes, atlases, examples of work under
construction and so much else that helps paint a picture of the context of the
maps. For instance, how many have seen the magnificent world ocean floor map by
Austrian artist Heinrich Berann? Plenty. But the six pages devoted to this map
includes photographs of the map’s scientific authors Marie Tharp and Bruce
Heezen hard at work plotting soundings, transect profiles of the Atlantic
Ocean, a wonderful physiographic diagram of the Atlantic drawn by Tharp herself
which demonstrates the plan oblique approach then painted by Berann. Together
the illustrations help tell the story of the famous map. There’s a nod to the
work of Minard though with a focus on some of his less famous but equally wonderful
statistical thematic cartography. And there’s even one of my colleague John
Nelson’s maps: his lights on/lights out map showing the changes in nighttime
illumination between 2012-2016. This fact alone demonstrates the efforts Mason
and Miller have gone to in order to represent the full gamut of cartography
which is no mean feat in 320 pages. Since the book is organized thematically
there isn’t the usual old to new flow either. We see historic examples
intermingled with contemporary and vice versa. It works well and you can pretty
much just flick open a page and dive straight in. No, lose yourself just
exploring and saying to yourself, oh go on then…just one more page.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It'd be pretty
difficult to review the breadth of maps in the book to give you a flavor even.
Let’s just say Mason and Miller have got you covered whatever your map vice is.
So whether you like the painstaking detail of beautiful topographic maps, the
imagination of celestial charts, the analytical representation of statistical
data or the fantasy of the map of Westeros or the Death Star then there’s
plenty in this book to feast on. Hand-drawn, pixel pushed, sewn or plotted from
the smell of a place, I’m struggling to think of a phase of cartographic
history, design aesthetic or production method that isn’t covered somewhere in
the book. That’s quite some achievement and it makes this a really
comprehensive compilation that reflects the rich variety of cartographic work.
I’d like to say that the book is a bit U.S. centric but it isn’t really and
anyway, who would care if it is? I mean, London A-Z is well represented just as
much as Soviet maps of Washington D.C. There’s plenty of great maps of the US
but there’s maps of pretty much every part of the world as well. So they’ve
even made a book that covers the world geographically too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I’ve worked with Betsy
and Greg on a few of their projects over the last few years and come to know
them as hard working, meticulous and honest people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reporters often get a bad name for being a
bit lackadaisical and missing those crucial details that the experts of the
content sweat over. But that’s not my experience with these two passionate
reporters who want to find and deliver quality in their work. They have a knack
of finding a story and what they bring to this book is a new perspective on the
maps they’ve chosen. Even familiar maps are given fresh life and their style
gives a modern take on the process and practice of cartography and the maps we
make. I guess my only real surprise, rather than a criticism, is that the book
wasn’t subtitled ‘Volume 1’ because I, for one, hope that they are already
delving through National Geographic’s archives as well as the wider world of
cartography to bring us a second collection at the very least. Maybe next time
I’ll get a map in because that’d be a huge privilege and it’s possibly the
biggest acclaim I can give to the book that I’m jealous that I haven’t yet made
anything worthy enough to be considered. That makes me want to try harder as I
hope for the next installment of their cartographic odyssey.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All Over the Map: A cartographic odyssey<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
By Betsy Mason and Greg Miller<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hardcover 320 pages<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
$50.00 / £38.39<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
National Geographic, 2018, ISBN <span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.2667px;">978-1426219726</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 16px; text-align: center;">
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Full disclosure: I received a free copy of the book for review from the publisher though there was no requirement to write a review, positive, negative or indifferent. I also acted as an advisor to the book albeit I can’t recall precisely what and am sure it was a miniscule contribution, a fleetingly brief conversation and pretty much irrelevant to the final product anyway. But you’ll find my name in the acknowledgments so it’s best to mention this.</div>
<br />Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-87078765558989249652018-09-21T15:48:00.001-07:002018-09-21T16:22:03.777-07:00The United Kingdom of Cheese on a BoardA year ago I saw a lovely map entitled <a href="https://images.krop.com/christopherwesson-5a673a5623d5adb.jpg" target="_blank">'Biscuits'</a> (cookies, but way way better, for my American friends). Made by friend and talented cartographer Chris Wesson, it was a quirky but really interesting way to look at 'a very British obsession', to geo-locate classic products and provide a little explanation. I liked it. And, as tends to happen when I peruse map galleries an idea popped into my mind.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdS4ILUMLsN0Zz_K7xbp94a9e8ewZKGLPqZS-85IXMgnAk05AOKPkLLxLz1vsfPkxkV9c5IjzSXDWoDoVk88AG8JZ2Ui0eBH_nYuQVTiAjZFe_I3nrqgYdJWKhunKr6tMtgu8jKU36kw8/s1600/christopherwesson-biscuits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1204" data-original-width="850" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdS4ILUMLsN0Zz_K7xbp94a9e8ewZKGLPqZS-85IXMgnAk05AOKPkLLxLz1vsfPkxkV9c5IjzSXDWoDoVk88AG8JZ2Ui0eBH_nYuQVTiAjZFe_I3nrqgYdJWKhunKr6tMtgu8jKU36kw8/s640/christopherwesson-biscuits.jpg" width="449" /></a></div>
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Biscuits by <a href="https://twitter.com/chriswesson_uk" target="_blank">Chris Wesson</a></div>
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Since I've lived in the US, whenever people ask me what I miss about the UK my standard retort has always been 'cheese and electricity'. (actually, the real answer is my family and friends but that seems boring and wouldn't get a laugh). Cheese, because, let's be frank...cheese in the US is utterly awful. Tasteless plastic nonsense. And the electricity - at 120V is half-powered. Almost impossible to toast a piece of bread in anything under 10 minutes and the only benefit being you really don't need to switch off the mains to do home repairs. I forgot once in the UK and got thrown off a ladder with a charred forearm...proper 240V electricity. I digress.<br />
<br />
So, I love English cheese and although I've seen occasional maps showing the location of English cheese I wanted to do something altogether more interesting. I decided right there and then to make a large edible real-life map exhibit. A cheese board of UK cheese. But let's not stop there. Let's get a cheese board in the shape of the UK. And let's fill it with geo-located cheese <br />
<br />
I decided to give myself a year to plan the project. It turned out this was a necessity. The first problem was sourcing a cheese board in the shape of the UK. They don't exist despite extensive searching. So I decided to just make one. I made the map in ArcGIS Pro using data representing the ceremonial counties of the UK (that's the <a href="http://soileiragusgonta.com/map-uk-great-britain/map-uk-great-britain-2-england-vs-united-kingdom-explained-diagram/" target="_blank">United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland</a>). I was targeting it as an exhibit at the UK Mapping Festival in September 2018 so the map had to be the UK.<br />
<br />
The original idea was to make a jigsaw out of cheese on top of the map. Each county represented by a piece of cheese that would be cut into the shape of the county. As the cheese is eaten, the map underneath emerges. Except, despite there being over 770 different UK cheeses the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem and boundary lines stymied my idea. There were some very large areas with little or no cheese production (particularly in Scotland and the East of England). Some cheeses, being very soft, would not be easily cut to shape. And the modern administrative map of the UK contains all sorts of weird and wonderful counties and Unitary Authorities. Ugh! So I went with ceremonial counties. The jigsaw of real cheese idea still wasn't going to work as there would have been over 136 tiny pieces of cheese on the board and a hell of a lot of waste considering most cheese is sold in a minimum 250g size.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimo_W7R2IMGfnsPFBCHuNNdMoUb2DFaNZZ64khe1x3rPulgFPb6-E0FQFWryKO0CmMFGVotKjpTdHeJKCnS6wLOX5ITEdtvuLMC-3ZFW-OHIHMAqXCBTyqpv0vpCELXuTsaKpKxphOkT0/s1600/cheesemapSVG.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="734" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimo_W7R2IMGfnsPFBCHuNNdMoUb2DFaNZZ64khe1x3rPulgFPb6-E0FQFWryKO0CmMFGVotKjpTdHeJKCnS6wLOX5ITEdtvuLMC-3ZFW-OHIHMAqXCBTyqpv0vpCELXuTsaKpKxphOkT0/s640/cheesemapSVG.png" width="572" /> </a></div>
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Design for the United Kingdom of Cheese on a Board </div>
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The map was designed and I was originally going to make it myself but it soon became clear I didn't have the correct tools. I found <a href="https://www.custommade.com/by/amabbott/" target="_blank">Andrew Abbot</a>t, an experienced artisan woodworker who had the required tools - a CNC router and a laser engraver - and the willingness to help me with my crazy idea. Over a period of several months I worked closely with him here in California to make the cheese board. We discussed wood types and settled on Maple. I iterated the design and gave me good advice on what would and wouldn't work. He glued laminate maple blocks together and set to work. He worked from svg output from ArcGIS Pro to drive the machinery and he finished the product by hand, and stained the Maple wood to a beautiful finish. Here's a few pictures of the board in various stages of production. It's a metre tall and about 80cm wide at its widest. it's a big board capable of holding a lot of cheese!<br />
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Laminated block of Maple waiting for their first cut</div>
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The CNC router gets to work </div>
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Laser engraving the boundaries and labels </div>
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The finished cheese board, beautifully made by <a href="https://www.custommade.com/by/amabbott/" target="_blank">Andrew Abbott</a></div>
<br />
There weren't too many design decisions because the map is really just administrative boundaries and labels. But a couple of fun dilemmas. What to do with the Isle of Man for instance? It's a self-governing Crown dependency and not part of the UK yet it would be silly to leave it off the map. I was going to get a hole cut in the board in its shape but the potential for cheese to fall through the hole was too much. In the end I just didn't label it. And what of boundaries in the Republic of Ireland? Well - I chose to remove them as the Republic is also not part of the UK and, instead, used the space as a perfect place for the title cartouche. I didn't label it either. I have had one person get somewhat annoyed about my apparent ignorance for the Republic but that was my cartographic editorial decision. Tough.<br />
<br />
And the biggie...at a time when debates were raging about the position of Shetland and Orkney in <a href="http://cartonerd.blogspot.com/2018/03/in-praise-of-insets.html" target="_blank">inset maps</a> what the hell should I do? They are too far removed from the mainland to be cut in their real position. the wood would not have held and it would have necessitated a large expanse of nothing. Yeah, there's some very small local cheese producers on Shetland but not enough to warrant a huge proportion of Maple all for itself. So I opted for an inset and the islands now occupy the coastal area off eastern Scotland. A pragmatic decision but one which was preferred to the only other viable option - leaving them off the map altogether! Actually, after the cheese board was produced <a href="https://twitter.com/john_m_nelson" target="_blank">John Nelson</a> suggested Shetland and Orkney could have been a floating olive dish. I still might get my jigsaw out and set them loose. John has a strange relationship with olives. You should ask him some time.<br />
<br />
So, turning attention to the cheese. The criteria was simple...fill the board, make the cheese as geographically located as possible, and get a good mix of the classics and the rare, and of different styles. There were also a small set of around a dozen cheeses with European Union 'Protected Geographical Indication' and 'Protected Destination of Origin' designations. These were important and should be sourced. Whittling down a list of over 700 cheeses and sourcing the cheese became a challenge. I had an initial list of around 60 and was aiming for around 30-40 cheeses. And here's my top tip for anyone thinking of doing this...phone suppliers, work closely with them. Ensure that they will have product and can ship it to arrive on a particular day. Don't get too wedded to having a specific cheese as it may be only available seasonally. I eventually settled on a list of 30 cheeses, sourced from six different suppliers that met the criteria, were available, and would fill the board fairly well.<br />
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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 622px;"><colgroup><col style="mso-width-alt: 8009; mso-width-source: userset; width: 164pt;" width="219"></col>
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<td class="xl65" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 164pt;" width="219">NAME</td>
<td class="xl65" style="width: 75pt;" width="100">STYLE</td>
<td class="xl65" style="width: 117pt;" width="156">COUNTRY</td>
<td class="xl65" style="width: 110pt;" width="147">COUNTY</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Dart Mountain Dusk</td>
<td class="xl66">Semi-hard</td>
<td class="xl66">Northern Ireland</td>
<td class="xl66">County Derry</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Kearney Blue</td>
<td class="xl66">Blue</td>
<td class="xl66">Northern Ireland</td>
<td class="xl66">County Down</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Smoked Cheddar</td>
<td class="xl66">Hard</td>
<td class="xl66">Northern Ireland</td>
<td class="xl66">County Tyrone</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Young Buck</td>
<td class="xl66">Blue</td>
<td class="xl66">Northern Ireland</td>
<td class="xl66">County Down</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Blue Murder</td>
<td class="xl66">Blue</td>
<td class="xl66">Scotland</td>
<td class="xl66">Highland</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Caboc</td>
<td class="xl66">Soft</td>
<td class="xl66">Scotland</td>
<td class="xl66">Highland</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Crowdie</td>
<td class="xl66">Soft</td>
<td class="xl66">Scotland</td>
<td class="xl66">Highland</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Dorset Blue Vinney*</td>
<td class="xl66">Blue</td>
<td class="xl66">England</td>
<td class="xl66">Dorset</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Isle of Wight Blue</td>
<td class="xl66">Blue</td>
<td class="xl66">England</td>
<td class="xl66">Isle of Wight</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Little Wallop</td>
<td class="xl66">Soft</td>
<td class="xl66">England</td>
<td class="xl66">Somerset</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Perl Las</td>
<td class="xl66">Blue</td>
<td class="xl66">Wales</td>
<td class="xl66">Carmarthenshire</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Strathdon Blue</td>
<td class="xl66">Blue</td>
<td class="xl66">Scotland</td>
<td class="xl66">Highland</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Strathearn</td>
<td class="xl66">Semi-soft</td>
<td class="xl66">Scotland</td>
<td class="xl66">Perthshire</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Caerphilly*</td>
<td class="xl66">Hard</td>
<td class="xl66">Wales</td>
<td class="xl66">Carmarthenshire</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Cheddar*</td>
<td class="xl66">Hard</td>
<td class="xl66">England</td>
<td class="xl66">Somerset</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Cheshire</td>
<td class="xl66">Hard</td>
<td class="xl66">England</td>
<td class="xl66">Cheshire</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Cornish Yarg</td>
<td class="xl66">Semi-hard</td>
<td class="xl66">England</td>
<td class="xl66">Cornwall</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Lancashire</td>
<td class="xl66">Hard</td>
<td class="xl66">England</td>
<td class="xl66">Lancashire</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Stilton*</td>
<td class="xl66">Blue</td>
<td class="xl66">England</td>
<td class="xl66">Nottinghamshire</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Beenleigh Blue</td>
<td class="xl66">Blue</td>
<td class="xl66">England</td>
<td class="xl66">Devon</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">Isle of Mull</td>
<td class="xl66">Hard</td>
<td class="xl66">Scotland</td>
<td class="xl66">Isle of Mull</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Lincolnshire Poacher</td>
<td class="xl66">Hard</td>
<td class="xl66">England</td>
<td class="xl66">Lincolnshire</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Red Leicester</td>
<td class="xl66">Hard</td>
<td class="xl66">England</td>
<td class="xl66">Leicestershire</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Yorkshire Wensleydale*</td>
<td class="xl66">Semi-hard</td>
<td class="xl66">England</td>
<td class="xl66">North Yorkshire</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Double Gloucester*</td>
<td class="xl66">Semi-hard</td>
<td class="xl66">England</td>
<td class="xl66">Gloucestershire</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Golden Cenarth</td>
<td class="xl66">Soft</td>
<td class="xl66">Wales</td>
<td class="xl66">Carmarthenshire</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Single Gloucester*</td>
<td class="xl66">Semi-hard</td>
<td class="xl66">England</td>
<td class="xl66">Gloucestershire</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Stinking Bishop</td>
<td class="xl66">Soft</td>
<td class="xl66">England</td>
<td class="xl66">Gloucestershire</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Pantysgawn</td>
<td class="xl66">Soft</td>
<td class="xl66">Wales</td>
<td class="xl66">Gwent</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Y Fenni<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></td>
<td class="xl66">Hard</td>
<td class="xl66">Wales</td>
<td class="xl66">Mid Glamorgan</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
*cheese of 'Protected Geographical Indication' or 'Protected Destination of Origin'<br />
<br />
I'll not bore you with detailed logistics but given I live in California the cheese had to be delivered to my brother <a href="https://twitter.com/1_kidney_col" target="_blank">Colin'</a>s house in Lincolnshire and he (and my wonderful nieces Isabella, Amelia and Eloise) then drove the cheese down to London ahead of the conference event at which it was going to be displayed and devoured. Keeping it cool and fresh was paramount. My hotel room then began to get a little whiffy for a day or so and the mini-bar fridge was somewhat rammed with around £400 worth of cheese. And how did the cheese board get from California to London? That'll be British Airways allowing me an additional bag as part of my frequent flyer status. Very handy, thanks!<br />
<br />
So the United Kingdom on a Cheese Board was then transported and set up at the #geomob event on Thursday 7th September at the <a href="https://geovation.uk/" target="_blank">Geovation hub</a> in Clerkenwell, London. Each piece of cheese was topped with a small sign indicating its origin and history. Unfortunately 7 pieces didn't make it. They had been delivered to my brother's house simply too early and were no longer in an edible state. We ended up with 24 cheeses all told and that turned out to be just about right to fill the board. Around 50-60 geogeeks and map nerds were in attendance for the evening talks and the cheese board was very much a star attraction. With wine supplied by friend and colleague <a href="https://twitter.com/benflan" target="_blank">Ben Flanagan</a> (and thanks to Esri UK) we had a glorious spread of cheese, biscuits and wine to wash down the geotalks and a good evening was had by all.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBjFbsTHl81Oeknf5iodC6Q7LSllrbtFgwA2RflasYeOKJYQ_rk55dnhx6LaRNr0lrW7m2xS5P210QxxwXWD0D6_t3h9_1mFhAvZjvbUEFHY9wWxyhGB7O3RP4OOty0cXD6pnYU5SxH5g/s1600/cheeseboard_full.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1436" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBjFbsTHl81Oeknf5iodC6Q7LSllrbtFgwA2RflasYeOKJYQ_rk55dnhx6LaRNr0lrW7m2xS5P210QxxwXWD0D6_t3h9_1mFhAvZjvbUEFHY9wWxyhGB7O3RP4OOty0cXD6pnYU5SxH5g/s640/cheeseboard_full.png" width="574" /> </a></div>
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The United Kingdom of Cheese on a Board at #geomob, Thursday 7th September 2018 </div>
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Here's a selection of photographs from the evening itself.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS5MqaTlyQSxHidFWIUAuedKnxjr5S6wNBqnDdCjfu69ppsec2DEXnaosDQabiptrSkiC-xTqotTAS1NYauctSalA11QqQ3qa7X2xsnnpgr6_VrlplcS6Ww0SAU8WYoCfVsN4DTS7EWho/s1600/IMG_20180906_181204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS5MqaTlyQSxHidFWIUAuedKnxjr5S6wNBqnDdCjfu69ppsec2DEXnaosDQabiptrSkiC-xTqotTAS1NYauctSalA11QqQ3qa7X2xsnnpgr6_VrlplcS6Ww0SAU8WYoCfVsN4DTS7EWho/s400/IMG_20180906_181204.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Awaiting the cheese </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpISt9jd3E0rmo1n8aL76dj8AEYH05aU_W2ocmikZei0DryWPY1m3REEuTuk6z6AboDFVDYQ6PKTyuEk1mKOslc623lcjjNEYu_YHdKg6UFCCVLTjAoJpM1oYafWZa54ssjieDJjIkpE/s1600/IMG_20180906_183234.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpISt9jd3E0rmo1n8aL76dj8AEYH05aU_W2ocmikZei0DryWPY1m3REEuTuk6z6AboDFVDYQ6PKTyuEk1mKOslc623lcjjNEYu_YHdKg6UFCCVLTjAoJpM1oYafWZa54ssjieDJjIkpE/s640/IMG_20180906_183234.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Labelling the cheese </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg27ePBCiIzOVFJQynRntAXs47qYIY6bLjWz6bQV5QiqaW41CBAvqOATiiBBXm_m0v7o6KNU5X-xuyZWZbo_jwQBtJTvir63Nv6sxvNcQn5vhL2Sr058aXl9SwTbAo2CuwiCXDD5I-WZoU/s1600/IMG_20180906_183534.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg27ePBCiIzOVFJQynRntAXs47qYIY6bLjWz6bQV5QiqaW41CBAvqOATiiBBXm_m0v7o6KNU5X-xuyZWZbo_jwQBtJTvir63Nv6sxvNcQn5vhL2Sr058aXl9SwTbAo2CuwiCXDD5I-WZoU/s400/IMG_20180906_183534.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The first cut </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBuDaazyq4ik7MrFWCMwMRgdIOBadO77mEgEaCS2-bgNYi-cM1cpyk1-WtO_-Q2j_WLaBDjRnfre3cnN4o1ZaQDibEBUceXskAcC4n-VlyMtXYtO16hSktlxeGCRRIWoYQ_45XxoW7Xuw/s1600/cheeseboard_empty.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1554" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBuDaazyq4ik7MrFWCMwMRgdIOBadO77mEgEaCS2-bgNYi-cM1cpyk1-WtO_-Q2j_WLaBDjRnfre3cnN4o1ZaQDibEBUceXskAcC4n-VlyMtXYtO16hSktlxeGCRRIWoYQ_45XxoW7Xuw/s640/cheeseboard_empty.png" width="620" /></a></div>
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The end result</div>
<br />
I had a lot of fun with this project, combining my day job of map design using ArcGIS with the ability to turn digital maps into a physical product beyond a piece of paper by collaborating with people with the right skills and tools to put my thoughts into action. My goal of creating a one-off edible map exhibit was achieved and, so, the cheese board was washed and packed ready for its return journey to my kitchen in the US. Will it appear again? Quite possibly. In the meantime, it'll remain empty because provolone, sharp cheddar and pepperjack are simply not cheese. I'd rather poke my fingers in an electrical outlet socket :-)<br />
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Footnote...I'd contracted a gastrointestinal 'issue' in Tanzania the week before and so I didn't actually get to try any of the cheese myself. Very disappointing. And what's that you ask? My favourite cheese? Gotta be Stilton from Cropwell Bishop or Colston Bassett in my home county of Nottinghamshire. Perfect!Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-47059973157835515462018-09-11T16:16:00.002-07:002018-09-12T08:42:30.119-07:00Three conferences and a cheeseboardI recently had the privilege of attending a couple of geo conferences and thought I'd jot down some thoughts. There's also one I didn't attend...but it's relevant to the discussion and it'll get a few comments too.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://2018.foss4g.org/" target="_blank">FOSS4G</a>, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 29-31 August</b><br />
I've been to a few FOSS events. It's not my wheelhouse, so to speak, given I largely use Esri products due to the nature of my employment BUT, and it's a big BUT, it's crucial that all sectors of geo play a role in supporting the work of those in the FOSS community. We share values. We actually share an awful lot, and attending these sort of events allows exchange of ideas and an opportunity to perhaps foster relationships and contacts across communities. I've long held the belief that the tools you use to do your 'geo' make no difference to how you should be perceived. Proprietary or Free - it's just a different business model to get the tools in your hands. It's what you do with it that counts. Some of my closest friends in geo are FOSS advocates. We get along fine. Others should too.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitrF6XTE6CcUm_BXhJK0bLpxIs6ZKXQnkXRE_2kO0LFB03KsU-Kh9P41BsoUXxvKF1uCyOoP1bbN2SNfSyAxraR2nxU1fQGBc2YuQjLCo_HPUmHHMG6jG-h4jQPMsal2zARtaEVrfzKdY/s1600/IMG_20180831_164422.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="605" data-original-width="1023" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitrF6XTE6CcUm_BXhJK0bLpxIs6ZKXQnkXRE_2kO0LFB03KsU-Kh9P41BsoUXxvKF1uCyOoP1bbN2SNfSyAxraR2nxU1fQGBc2YuQjLCo_HPUmHHMG6jG-h4jQPMsal2zARtaEVrfzKdY/s400/IMG_20180831_164422.jpg" width="400" /> </a></div>
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FOSS stalwarts and good friends Steven Feldman and Mark Iliffe </div>
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<br />
There was the usual tribal minority who seem to revel in their almost religious hatred of others but I have to say this seems to be a dwindling faction. It was a really valuable few days discussing a multitude of projects and ideas, plotting the spark of a few new ideas and taking the opportunity to reconnect with people I rarely see at other geo events. There was considerable interest in my recently released book <a href="https://esripress.esri.com/display/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&websiteID=342&moduleID=0" target="_blank">Cartography</a> and, also, the <a href="https://www.esri.com/training/catalog/596e584bb826875993ba4ebf/cartography./" target="_blank">MOOC on Cartography</a> that I built along with my colleagues at Esri. Community focused projects, ultimately vendor neutral, that I helped bring to the fore to support the wider community.<br />
<br />
This was only the second time FOSS4G had been to anywhere in Africa (2008 was in Cape Town). It attracted over 1,000 attendees, including over 150 young professionals and students who were able to take advantage of an innovative travel grant programme that supports them with a financial contribution to help them attend. But what amazed me more than anything was here we were, in a part of the world with many significant barriers to the successful organisation of a large, major, international conference and it appeared to go with out a hitch (I know it didn't, but that delegates were unaware is the success). This is no small feat by the organisers. The web site was populated early, the programme was put together professionally. There was a good mix of work on show, and people from all walks of geo: academic, professional, big business, NGOs, startups and pretty much all the major players such as OSGeo (obviously) but also Esri, Mapbox, Carto, and Google were on board as sponsors.<br />
<br />
The conference was run professionally. It was dynamic, interesting, vibrant. The social programme was carefully designed to facilitate delegate interaction. There were all manner of meetups. Water, tea, coffee and food was copious and always on tap. There were film crews and a professional team doing the AV. There was professional signage everywhere from booth graphics to directions and room information. The organisers sweated over the small stuff. If you pay attention to the detail you bring together a coherent whole.<br />
<br />
But here's the thing. It's a serious undertaking trying to organise a conference, any conference, and in this part of the world the challenges are numerous. I was privy to some of the behind-the-scenes issues and to say that some were huge is an understatement. Kudos to the entire LOC for overcoming often very acute problems and delivering a superb event. People left with smiles and I only heard positive comments.<br />
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<b><a href="http://events.verisk.com/events/uk-mapping-festival-2018/event-summary-67f99cfd6a43404383d2a00346b708e1.aspx?p=13" target="_blank">UK Mapping Festival</a>, London, England 2-7 September</b><br />
After FOSS4G I hopped to the UK for the inaugural UK Mapping Festival. In past years I've been critical of the model used by the British Cartographic Society whose preference for their conference to be a one day event at a hotel (often in a remote area, often undergoing refurbishment), a single track of presentations (often including product pitches from sponsors), and very little more than an old boys reunion. Now don't get me wrong, the opportunity to reconnect with people you possibly only see once a year at such an event is important (particularly for an ex-pat like me), but it shouldn't be the raison d'être.<br />
<br />
So I was delighted that the organisers of the annual BCS conference were changing things and going for a week long celebration of UK mapping. Brilliant! Flights and travel booked. Looking forward to it. Unfortunately, after the wonders of FOSS4G I have to say that it was one of the biggest letdowns I've experienced on my 25yrs on the conference circuit.<br />
<br />
There were signs well ahead of the event. The web site was late being populated with way too much placeholder text and I was hearing murmurings on various backchannels. The booking system was unclear and unwieldy. Speakers and, crucially, keynotes, were being added right up to the event itself.<br />
<br />
There were supposed to be three main conference days run by various UK geo societies and bodies co-located yet, strangely, with separate registration fees. The Association of Geographic Information went on the 4th, BCS, in conjunction with the Society of Cartographers, on the 5th and the British Association of Remote Sensing Companies (BARSC) on the 6th. OK, so there's no way I'm paying for three separate days so the 5th was it for me. This was a real opportunity missed to support cross-pollination of communities. I'd certainly have been interested in some of the stuff from the other days but not for separate registration fees. I went to the exhibition on the 4th and 6th and numbers were not healthy. This strategy must have hurt attendance.<br />
<br />
And on the 5th, there were workshops that delegates may very well have gone to but the one-track presentation session was on all day. Why weren't workshops on another day to encourage people to attend for longer? I'm sure there's arguments for all of this by the organisers but it's a baffling approach for delegates shoe-horned into making a choice when there would appear to have been alternatives to avoid that problem. It's not like the conference had parallel tracks so you effectively had to choose between a bit of hands-on training or listening to the talks which, on the whole, were very interesting it must be said.<br />
<br />
The exhibition was odd - a so-called London street scene which comprised some wooden huts, a London bus and a huge British Army truck. The latter got some interest. The bus got no use at all from what I can make out and the exhibitors...hardly any traffic because it's the same companies that exhibit year on year to the same small group of attendees. I tried to get a coffee on the 4th when I only had an exhibitor pass and was charged £2. If the exhibition was free, where was everyone? Is this an apathetic British population? Is it poor advertising? Is it poor location? Timing? Well, possibly all of these. Holding the conference the week that children went back to school after the summer holidays wasn't smart. Charging a lot for exhibition space didn't help. Locating in London (8 million people) should have yielded a large population of potential visitors but where were they? I've heard a few people say that the accommodation and travel costs to London are too expensive to make it worthwhile but I do wonder whether they are assessing it against the value of the event itself. Make it worth every penny to attend and people WILL attend. I was bemused about the idea of creating a so-called London street scene. I mean, honestly, there was a London street right outside the front door. The conference was actually in London!!! Everyone knows what a London bus looks like!<br />
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Chair of the Society of Cartographers, Steve Chilton, who taught me</div>
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everything I know about guerilla t-shirt marketing</div>
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And herein lies the problem - the UK Mapping Festival ended up being a BCS conference in disguise. Same organisation behind the scenes. Same structure. Same exhibition. Same faces. Sure, there were a few variations around the edges but not much. It was stale, unimaginative and, frankly, rather dull. And let me be clear - this is not just me saying this. Many others voiced similar concerns during the day. It cannot continue like this because UK cartographic societies are dying, fast. The Society of Cartographers AGM resulted in a formal winding up process because the Society cannot continue on a shoestring. This is dreadfully sad. SOC has at least tried to move with the pace of change in modern cartography over the last few years where BCS has stood rather still. I sincerely hope some of the smart people involved in the running of SOC are given positions on the BCS Council as SOC members are encouraged to move their membership fees over.<br />
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The UK Mapping Festival web site was difficult to navigate. Ideas that I know were proposed to the programme committee (and even by those on the programme committee) were either ignored or never followed up. A series of potential high profile cartographic experts as keynotes was replaced by a minor celebrity whose talk was poorly targeted. Ken Hames (who?) was not a motivational speaker. Anything but. Anecdotes from army days and friendships with the late Princess of Wales really aren't what people want from a modern mapping conference. Oh - and it was an additional tenner to attend if you hadn't got a pass for that day. Even the choice of beer at the nearest hotel bar came down to Corona, Budweiser or Becks. And there wasn't even a single complementary beverage. The so-called comedy night was also poorly thought-through as well. Much of the material may have worked in a dimly lit comedy club with a tanked up crowd but only a couple of the acts even bothered weaving in some map-related material. I understand they were cheap to hire. That probably says it all. It's simply not good enough! There is far better out there. People expect far more.<br />
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Advertised as part of the UK Mapping Festival, the #geomob event on the evening of the 6th was, at least, a little more forward thinking. It was held at the geovation hub. It was free to attend and that garnered nearly as many people as had attended the BCS/SOC conference on the 4th. Event space is given for free. Sponsors help buy beer, nibbles and wine. The atmosphere is one of mutual interest and genuinely, people had a good time and, en masse, decamped to the bar where conversations continued. Organising events is not rocket science and the stuffiness of the days evaporated with the freshness of this particular evening. But why...WHY were only a handful (maybe 3 or 4) people who had attended any of the day's events also at the #geomob event? It's simple. Events that are put on in the UK, unlike the way FOSS4G was organised are targeted to a very very niche group. This is why they fail. There's no real attempt to foster integration. As I said earlier, this attitude has to change.<br />
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Some cheese at #geomob </div>
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I was also due to present at a Better Mapping seminar on the 4th but it was cancelled with a few days notice due to lack of interest. Only a few people had signed up and the event space (the Royal Geographic Society) needed 12 attendees to make it viable. Now I do not know the finances and the fees structure for the event but it strikes me as astonishing that we cannibalize our own group of core societies by charging for space in this way (if, indeed, that's the case, I only assume it is) and holding it on a day when another competing activity was taking place. The organiser, Chris Wesson, had done a great job putting the event together but it was advertised late, it was a paid-for event (£75 sounds steep to me, though it was free to BCS members) AND put on against a day's event at the main conference site (all sadly out of his control). You can get so much training for free these days that these events have to look at alternative models if they are going to succeed. Cut out venue costs and speaker expenses (they should offer their services and costs for free to contribute...they get exposure for their ideas and companies for a start) and then look at ways to get people interested. This is valuable outreach for BCS and it's another failed opportunity to place some of the UK's prominent cartographic experts at the fore, sharing ideas and espousing the value of a wider community.<br />
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There were events for children to get involved with at the exhibition. I didn't see a single child involved with any of the mapping activities. I felt sorry for all the hard work that the organiser of that component (Alice Gadney) put in to make a fantastic event space but it was ultimately poorly used.<br />
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Even the BCS awards dinner descended into minor farce with none of the awards certificates being signed and one award (the Henry Johns award) not even judged by the time of the evening ceremony. This may seem a terribly minor issue and it is, in many ways. But it's not the first time it's happened and it's just symptomatic of the issues that bubbled to the surface once more.<br />
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And what of the attendees - yes, many of the usual faces but perhaps surprisingly, some very notable absentees who you'd ordinarily see at these events. Again, it's unclear why but I'd have thought the Chair of the UK Cartographic Committee, also on the Executive Committee of the International Cartographic Association, might have attended. UKCC represents UK cartography on the international stage. Some sort of report, review, or statement would be useful. In that person's absence, surely some sort of acknowledgement of how the UK is shaping up for the International Cartographic Conference in Tokyo in 2019 might have been forthcoming? Nope.<br />
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Anyway, to many of the people I spoke to at the event, it was simply a letdown and the promise of something fresh and different simply did not materialise. Back to the drawing board for next year but I feel there's more than simply a change of city and venue and tinkering with the model that needs to change.<br />
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<b><a href="https://cartography.org.nz/geocart2018" target="_blank">GeoCart 2018</a>, Wellington, New Zealand 5-7 September</b><br />
I didn't go, but I know someone who did. I had to make a choice earlier in the year whether to go to the UK Mapping Festival or GeoCart. I've been to the last four events (they're every other year rather than annual events). They attract a similarly sized crowd to UK events (around 100 people). I plumped for the UK but regret my decision. By all accounts GeoCart was vibrant and fascinating.<br />
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With a similar amount of people (from a population of around 4 million - half that of London!!!) they manage to encourage not only attendance but participation. Instead of a single track with 12 presentations there were well advertised pre-con workshops and two tracks offering over 100 presentations. There's ice breakers with free wine. There's a relaxed gala dinner where you don't have to decide your menu choice months in advance. All in all - a similar conference yet the difference with the UK Mapping Festival could not be more profound. And my simple question is this...if a society like the New Zealand Cartographic Society can develop something really rather magnificent, why do we continually fail to do so in the UK?<br />
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<b>Wither UK cartographic events?</b><br />
As people who know me appreciate, I make these sort of observations and comments out of a love for the societies that I have grown up belonging to. I hate to see them, and the events they stage, wasting away. While some (like the New Zealand conference and, also, the hugely enjoyable NACIS conference in North America) seem to have moved with the times, adapted, and worked hard to develop a model that works, the UK efforts are sorely flagging. They are tired, generally expensive to attend, and disappointing.<br />
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There are so many geo events that people are making hard decisions on what to attend and, currently, events staged by the British Cartographic Society, their preferred organsing company and the like are suffering. they're actually making decisions much easier to make! Heck, I even sent an email and get a private visit to Bellerby Globemakers arranged with no effort at all. It can't be that difficult to arrange events that actually interest people, take advantage of a locality and make them WANT to visit. Everyone knows what a London bus looks like so having one parked in an exhibition hall isn't going to be much of a draw. But what an opportunity missed - London. There are so many fascinating map-related places and people in and around the capital and none were harnessed.<br />
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A visit to Bellerby Globemakers - not a UK Mapping Festival event </div>
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And I have left the biggest issue of them all until last. The UK Mapping Festival was scheduled for 2-7th September. It still says that on the web site. Some (me, and a few others at least) booked flights and London-based accommodation on that basis. It turns out that there was nothing, absolutely nothing, on the 2nd, 3rd, or 7th at all. I was told that the intent had been for other events to take place but they didn't emerge. Why? And when it became clear that the 6 days was fast shrinking to 3, and just a single day if the other two conference days weren't of particular interest to you, the organisers should probably should have been a little more honest with your potential delegates. I made the best of my time by arranging meetings, visits to places like Bellerby, the Imperial War Museum and the Design Museum to explore their cartographic collections but I wanted to enjoy a week's festival, as advertised...not have to build my own festival.<br />
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Two UK Mapping Festival delegates (me and Bill Cartwright) who, between them</div>
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traveled nearly 45,000 miles and stayed 16 hotel nights in London.</div>
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So what now? Will the BCS conference revert to type? Will anyone actually review what happened and put in place mechanisms for change? Does anyone have the will? I fear there's a long way to go. There's a number of good, young people who have tried to get involved to affect change. My understanding is it's a challenging environment in a volunteer society that has many longstanding officers. But I wonder what their experience is beyond that of their own conference? I don't see them anywhere else so it makes you wonder. They cannot simply live in a bubble forever. Others have to pop it and force change to reinvigorate UK events. I hope for better, I really do. But let's be honest, this is not simply an accusation I'm leveling at the UK and its various geo societies. Many societies and many conferences are stale. They have relied on the same approach for far too long, often underpinned by the same team of people who just rinse and repeat. People aren't stupid and they are getting wiser when deciding where to spend their shrinking conference budgets.<br />
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I tried my best to help this year by bringing my Lego globe (no-one really commented about it), by making sure we had book giveaways, and by proposing my edible map exhibit...an idea that became too difficult to arrange anywhere in space and time on the 5th that I switched it to the #geomob event where it was devoured. Conferences these days have t-shirts, stickers and badges. I made some of my own as giveaways. Tote bags full of corporate brochures is so 1980 and they only go to landfill.<br />
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If a small organising committee of volunteers can make a large international conference work in Dar es Salaam, and a similarly sized conference can work with a much smaller population in New Zealand to put on a stimulating event, why can't we get it right in the UK? Hopefully 2019 will see some progress. I live in hope at least.<br />
<br />Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-58520474853163851862018-07-26T08:13:00.000-07:002018-07-26T08:21:17.008-07:00Cartographic hyperboleJust when you think we've exhausted mapping the 2016 Presidential election maps along comes another. New York Times' <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/upshot/election-2016-voting-precinct-maps.html" target="_blank">'Extremely Detailed Map' </a>presents precinct level data from the work undertaken by <a href="https://twitter.com/rarohla/" target="_blank">Ryne Rohla</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrByTHV857ZeTJNaNOgn6FCczC5cszyH8yB34lCujRmpO0fGgRwFptLJtAeKawGLzWDHzE_N2cdKQ3BKpltZpLUouSJEMB7I0zAemJXTu1eOTUKNccp4tzOcxQcQbhdy77q_7vEIRfknY/s1600/NYTprecinct.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="968" data-original-width="1600" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrByTHV857ZeTJNaNOgn6FCczC5cszyH8yB34lCujRmpO0fGgRwFptLJtAeKawGLzWDHzE_N2cdKQ3BKpltZpLUouSJEMB7I0zAemJXTu1eOTUKNccp4tzOcxQcQbhdy77q_7vEIRfknY/s640/NYTprecinct.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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And thus, my Twitter feed went into a late night tail spin as I saw, in equal measure, exasperated cartographers bemoaning the map and political commentators and everyone else and their dog exclaiming it's sheer wonder. I offered a few comments which drew plenty of agreement, but which also had others telling me that the map wasn't made for master cartographers etc etc. No, Nate Cohn, the map is not <a href="https://twitter.com/Nate_Cohn/status/1022316992471228416" target="_blank">'as I've never seen it before'</a>. It's not <a href="https://twitter.com/Nate_Cohn/status/1022319732479983616" target="_blank">'amazing' or 'Incredible'</a>. No, James Fallows, the map is not <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesFallows/status/1022362568898166784" target="_blank">'great'</a>. Such hyperbole simply reinforces people's beliefs because they take their lead from the sort of comments you make. Who cares what a few expert cartographers might have to say on the topic...you know, those people who are actually qualified and experienced in ways that make their perspective worthy.<br />
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So what's my beef? First off, the map is not 'wrong'. The data is more detailed than many others (<a href="http://carto.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MinimalGallery/index.html?appid=b3d1fe0e8814480993ff5ad8d0c62c32" target="_blank">including virtually all I made</a>) by being at the precinct level and not the county, or state level. So you have smaller geographical areas. Detailed, yes. Accurate, certainly. Useful? Absolutely not because of the way the map was made. The very fact that it's made for a public not versed in cartographic wizardry is precisely why maps like this need strong cartographic editorial control. The general public is drawn in by the headline, they are told detail matters and they infer that the map must be bloody great because they are told it is.<br />
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It's a straight-up choropleth showing share of vote. Darker shades of red for a higher Republican share and Darker shades of blue for higher Democrat share. It uses a standard diverging colour scheme. Again, not fundamentally 'wrong' but the choice of map type and symbol type lead to a very particular map. A map that, visually, over-emphasizes geography.<br />
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You see, there are hundreds of small areas on the map with ridiculously low population counts which are given equal (and sometimes greater) visual prominence as other far more densely populated areas. An area that has 100 voters and 90 of them voted Republican is shown as dark red and a 90% share. Exactly the same symbol would be used for an area that has 100,000 voters, 90,000 of whom voted Republican. The differences between the number of people who live, work, and vote in each area is fundamental to the impact the resulting map has on our senses because we end up seeing a shit load of red. That much red distorts our perception of the result. It exaggerates the election results by persuading our eyes that more red equals more votes and a larger winning margin. That simply isn't true. Many small areas with a lot of people carry far more importance, electorally, than many large areas that have small population counts. And so, the map misleads, it reflects more of the geography of the country than it does of the people of the country. That huge swathe of red down the middle of the country is not a huge crowd of Trump voters, distributed as evenly as people on the two coasts, but simply where sparsely scattered people preferred Trump's pitch.<br />
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The very same data was far more eloquently mapped by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/09/08/toward-a-more-perfect-2016-presidential-election-results-map" target="_blank">The Washington Post </a>back in September of 2017.<br />
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This map takes the very same data yet is designed to ameliorate the form. It considers the underlying problems of its distribution and the geographies it is bound by. It then reflects on how best to show the same data in a way that a person needs not to have a degree in cartography or electoral geography to disentangle the reality form the mapped form. In short, they thought about how to rid the map of misleading symbols and present a more truthful version. This, is good cartography. Where a cartographer has actively considered the impact of his or her design choices on the map, the message imbued in their choices, and the way the map will be perceived and cognitively processed.<br />
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The Washington Post map scales point symbols and uses subtle transparency shifts to take account of geographical and population distribution disparities. Same data. Fantastic map. Still plenty of red but, now, in visual balance with the rest of the map. And comparisons are what maps like this are all about. We see one place and we visually compare with another. That's how we assess our understanding of spatial patterns and the simple processing of where there is less compared with more.<br />
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Back to the NYT map for a moment because there are other problems that I honestly cannot believe we're still talking about. The map uses Web Mercator as its projection. This is flat out wrong for a map where you want, sorry, NEED, equal area to be maintained. Just dumping the map across a Web Mercator basemap is downright lazy. Alaska...<br />
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And the 3D view...holy crap map. It flips the map to an oblique angle but the map is flat. Flat as a bloody pancake. There's nothing 3D about it whatsoever. A gimmick. A pointless, and mis-labelled gimmick that ends up distorting the relative coverage of colour even more. Foreground gets visual prominence. Background recedes.<br />
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So there we have it, the latest election map. Not the best by any stretch but another clear demonstration of the vital role cartographers have in educating people to understand that what they are seeing is as much a function of the choices in map design (and laziness in not doing anything to prepare or display the data) than it is the actual data. Making maps for mass public consumption demands good cartography, not technical gimmicks. It demands you reflect on what the map will tell people through your design choices. Cartography mediates understanding. The lens of the map-maker is fundamental to how we see the world. If you choose, actively, or through ignorance, not to bother with cartography then your map is doing your viewers a huge disservice and reinforces the already pathetically poor appreciation of geography that exists in society. Think about it. Do better, and end the nonsensical cartographic hyperbole that this sort of map crap feeds.<br />
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I'll end with this...<a href="https://twitter.com/Nate_Cohn/status/1022486202912595968" target="_blank">Nate Cohn</a> trolling any and all of us who make comments on the problems of the default choropleth.<br />
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Let me be clear...I love a good choropleth map. Modify the map by adding in an alpha channel to visually mute areas with smaller populations and you've got a good choropleth. Put it on an Albers Equal Area projection and you've got a great choropleth. Alternatively, modify the geography to account for population and you've got any number of different cartograms all with choroplethic symbolisation. Do your due diligence and make the map right.<br />
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<br />Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-1942333213594861262018-06-19T05:59:00.002-07:002018-06-19T07:58:02.159-07:00Building the worldI've always really enjoyed building things. As a kid I had a lot of Lego: a huge box of the stuff. I also made dozens of <a href="https://www.airfix.com/" target="_blank">Airfix</a> kits and recall a giant Millenium Falcon that for some bizarre reason I once decided to see how far it would fly from my bedroom window. It didn't but that's another story altogether.<br />
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I have long held the notion that Lego is more of an adult plaything than a children's toy. It's expensive. The kits get larger and more extravagant every year. There's little chance I'd have been gifted many of the kits my adult solvency has enabled me to buy and enjoy building. I know many adults who enjoy building Lego. But there's always been a set that's eluded me...a globe. Lego, to my knowledge, have never made a globe as a set. And yet if you go to one of their parks you'll see them. Here, a giant at Legoland California:<br />
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A sphere is a technically challenging build. It has to look like a sphere for a start, which is a major difficulty when your basic building blocks are cuboid in shape. I am also nowhere nearly proficient enough to design a globe myself. Thankfully there are master builders who do have the necessary chops. After many years exploring all of the various builds you can find online I went with <a href="http://www.moc-pages.com/moc.php/353076" target="_blank">this one by Dirk</a>:<br />
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(animated gif from Dirk's site)</div>
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It's a 48-brick wide monster but, beyond the engineering, he made a real effort to get the cartography correct. For me, that was vital (obviously).<br />
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Dirk offers the <a href="https://sellfy.com/p/XMOZ/" target="_blank">plans for sale</a> for an extremely modest price and so my adventure began. It took around 60 separate orders from <a href="https://www.bricklink.com/v2/main.page" target="_blank">Bricklink</a> to collect the >3,800 bricks needed for the build. Some of the bricks are pretty rare and my globe was made from bricks from around 10 different countries as I had to scour the globe to find them all. Our postie wanted to know what the hell I was ordering with all the small parcels arriving, and at one point the mailbox was too stuffed full to fit any more in.<br />
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It took probably around 30 hours to build in total and dominated the dining room table for over a month...but it's finished and it is mighty impressive. I customised my globe a little differently from Dirk's original but it's ostensibly the same build. I'll leave a few images below of the build but Dirk goes into a lot of detail about the model on his page. It's his work and I'm grateful that he spent the time and effort to make such a wonderful model. I'd refer you to <a href="http://www.moc-pages.com/moc.php/353076" target="_blank">Dirk's page</a> if you want to find out more.<br />
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Maps and Lego...so much fun! So why don't Lego make a globe set? I've no idea!<br />
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PS. If you're attending the Esri User Conference in San Diego July 2018 then my Lego globe will be on display as part of a Creative Cartography exhibit. Stop by and take a look. There may even be a special Lego minifigure appearance.Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-15867864640228120852018-04-26T09:05:00.005-07:002019-03-07T09:50:11.085-08:00Compiling listsSo you want to make a list? Be prepared for some shit. People simply hate it if your list doesn't tally with theirs, or their criteria, or you missed their favourite or...well, read on.<br />
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For both writing the <a href="http://esripress.esri.com/display/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&websiteID=342&moduleID=0" target="_blank">book</a> and developing the <a href="https://www.esri.com/training/catalog/596e584bb826875993ba4ebf/cartography./" target="_blank">mooc</a> I recently found myself attempting to compile lists of expert resources that I felt were worth sharing. The point of such lists, whether in a book or a blogroll, or just part of your personal bookmarks is to link to stuff you find useful. Stuff that you also think would widen people's exposure to information on a subject. Stuff written and shared by experts in their domain. My domain is cartography so the lists I want to compile are those that I think will be useful to people beyond what I have to say on the subject. They're lists collated over the years. I've had a smidgen of criticism for not including person x or person y, or this blog, or that blog so let me be clear about the criteria I used.<br />
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First and foremost, if it's a list of blogs or tutorials then it must be a blog or have content in a tutorial style - how tos, for instance. That precludes people's Twitter or Instagram accounts (which, by the way, I have included in the book as a list of interesting mapping people whose work is worth checking out and which DOES include many names people are mentioning to me). The blog has to be current and not appear to be on indefinite hiatus. It can't simply be a shroud for marketing. It has to be focussed and not a catch-all with the odd post on cartography. It has to be technique-driven, not just 'about maps'. It might be by one person or it might be by an organisation with multiple contributors. It can't just be stuff that you can find elsewhere in a better form. Crucially, it must be of a sufficient quality. It has to be something I find interesting, informative and useful. Often, something I learn from just as much as I hope others learn from. It has to exude expertise, not just regurgitated stuff that is better explained elsewhere.<br />
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Ultimately, with any list, you draw a line. The line demarcates what I consider to be a minimum quality (my list, my red line). It can't just be a list of anything and everything or include a particular person because the internet has decided they've won a popularity contest. It's been sorted, curated and I've done the work of identifying the signal from the noise based on the cartographic content and quality on offer that I consider marks it out from the rest. Some may disagree and that's their prerogative but the beauty of the internet is mine isn't the only list. Others exist. Importantly, many of those I include on my lists will link to others that I don't include and so the process of learning where to seek information is somewhat organic.<br />
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I want people to get to the 'best' first. I'm tired of the vast unsorted soup of the internet providing a mouthpiece for anyone who thinks they have cartographic chops to be seen as a self-styled go-to. Often, the evidence is in short-supply. Really, you may think you're great because you have thousands of 'followers' or a gazillion 'likes' but that metric is also just noise. All I have done is pulled out some gems; sifted them from the mass conglomerate and suggested their work is worth being considered as best practice. It's not simply about highlighting the work of my buddies or, conversely, ignoring that of people I perhaps don't necessarily agree with.<br />
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As someone from an academic background, compiling such lists is no different to doing research for a project, an essay or a journal paper. You seek prior knowledge to frame your own work. You cite your sources, references and inspiration. You don't just throw in a list of every single Google hit that includes a particular keyword. You don't cite the newest reference you find based on current volume, you seek the original source and give credit where it's due. Expanding the metaphor, if someone asks me for a reference or recommendation for someone they're considering hiring do I give an honest appraisal or just say he or she is a nice person? It has to be about the work. Not the person. It's exactly the same to how I critique maps. It's about the map as a product and what it does or doesn't offer, not the person or organisation who made it.<br />
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Your reputation is at risk if you perjure yourself when giving any sort of recommendation. If you end up wasting people's time by recommending a person ill-suited to a job, or you send them to a blog that, actually, really isn't particularly useful in the wider scheme of things then you lose the trust of your audience and trust is crucial. I've developed a lot of really good connections in the cartographic world over the years. Many trust me for advice and comment. Some disagree, but that's OK. If I start selling-out or bullshitting just to please someone then I lose all of that. I lose the reputation of someone who tries to be honest, straight-talking and giving of objective comment. I have my cartographic likes and dislikes but I'm open about them and I confidently stand by them.<br />
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Sorting out what is of a high enough quality is part of the process of determining any list. For a list of useful cartographic material it should be as objective as possible in the sense of not precluding based on anything other than the quality of the cartographic comment. That is how I approached it. I also sought comment from others who recommended some I'd missed or hadn't known about. Yes, I've seen plenty of other blogs, web sites and collections of resources. Why aren't they in my lists? They didn't make the cut because the quality didn't warrant it. It's as simple as that. And the lists I have compiled have not been done so in a vacuum. The list of resources for the mooc was reviewed by the team. The lists that appear in the book were reviewed by impartial reviewers and a large editorial team. Hard questions were asked. Discussion over why some were included or excluded were part of the process and justifications were made.<br />
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Let me be honest though - there's an ugly tribalism at work. There are many people who I know have no internet presence and whose work is stellar. Just because you're online it does not necessarily make you worth listening to. You want other divides that people hang their cartographic allegiance on?...proprietary/open source; Adobe/GIS; drawing/coding; desktop/browser; PC/MAC; old/new; academic/maker; old bloke/cool kid; Blogger/Tumblr. the list goes on. People increasingly identify with a tribe that supports their own echo chamber and that also tends to give rise to lists that suit that meme. I genuinely try to go beyond that and I'd ask that you try and look beyond it too.<br />
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And finally, there's the elephant in the room - under-representation. If people identify under-represented socio-economic/age/gender/geographic groups in my (or any) list then please don't think for one minute that there's bias in the selection whatsoever. What you may very well be identifying is under-representation in the source, or, possibly assuming the list should be something different to what was intended. In terms of online content, the bigger question is how come this sort of online content doesn't better reflect the wider world? Let me give you an example using the demographics of Twitter use. 67% of all internet users use social media. People who live in cities tend to use social media more than those who live in rural areas (geographic inequality). Only 16% of those who use social media use Twitter (platform inequality) and they are most likely to be adults aged between 18-29 (age inequality)...and male (gender inequality). So by definition, if your source is Twitter then anything you do with information will undeniably reflect the character of those that use it and miss those that don't. That doesn't denigrate those that don't or deliberately shun them. If those who write cartographic blogs tend to reflect wider patterns in the use of social media then any list will likely reflect the same.<br />
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And the page that caused the most consternation in my book is what are loosely called 'contributors'. This is a page that lists the people who wrote one of the 25 alphabetical divider pages; great maps that have ~150 words written by someone other than me. I thought it would be good that the list was not just my list and the words not just my words. There's a good spread of people from different backgrounds, ages, disciplines, expertise and nationalities but all but one are white and male. And that has caused a small number of people to be very upset. this is difficult. Any defense I might want to make will always look like a desperate attempt to cover my tracks. I've had conversations with some of those who have taken offence and they are difficult conversations. Did I drop the ball? I had only focussed on content but I’ve thought about this a lot since. I asked people who I felt had gravitas and who could reflect on maps from their experience and their domain.<br /><br />And as I pondered the issue I stared back at my bookshelf. There’s 129 books on my bookshelf published between 1962 and 2019. Only 11 have a female author or editor. That’s less than 10%. And all of those were published in the last 10 years. There’s only 2 from (the same) non-white author. You see the same pattern reflected in blogs and other forms of social media. And if I widen that scope to look at the International Cartographic Association then of the 27 Commissions, only 6 have a female Chair. This is not an excuse but it is a reality and one that is changing for the better.<br />
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I did add sections of further material and resources in the back matter which perhaps have a better balance.<br /><br />But my list of contributors simply does not satisfy some people and I fully understand that and accept the criticism. I also entirely agree with their assessment that there are many more women, in particular, getting involved in cartography and I do very much hope the person who writes the equivalent of my book in 20 years time has a greater opportunity to draw upon a more diverse range of expert contributors, and it needs to go beyond simply improving the gender balance. If there’s ever an appetite for a second edition I’ll try and deal with the issue too.<br /><br />That said, I hope the content in my effort speaks for itself regardless of who wrote or contributed. If you approach any work and view it through a very specific lens you will find fault. You will find problems. If you use raw counts as a way to frame your argument then I don't think you're helping move the conversation forward because that misses the point and, arguably, means once you've fixed one balance you've likely fallen foul of another. Should my list have had 50% women? It's an argument I know some would make. But widen that approach and you soon find that it's impossible to implement without it becoming an artificial construct, or seen as positive discrimination, or, leaving others off the list. The shortage, or under-representation of certain groups of people is easy to see when we count but that metric often hides the illusion that we might in some way have some element of control over it. I've had people say I should be using my position and the position of the book to do more and be that agent of change but forcing my list of contributors to be something other than the criteria I used was not an agenda I wanted to get into. There were commercial reasons why some people were not approached (whom I might otherwise have done so). The book was published by a private press and while I got considerable latitude, there were still a few rules I had to play by. There were also many many great up and coming people who some think I should have included. Yes, maybe in 20 years when they have a body of work and a background that qualifies them. I have made the point that if the criteria was 'make a list of 25 great, cool, modern cartographers then that list would be fundamentally different. In fact, most of the people that were listed as contributors wouldn't find themselves included.<br />
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If you see my book through a specific lens then I think you're distracting yourself from the substantive work. It's hard to see the forest when you're busy counting trees. My friends, colleagues and those I know in the business are many and varied. I engage with them in different ways for different reasons and needs. I juggle who I contact, highlight or work with based on who is expert enough. The very idea that looking from the outside on a list, and deciding whether I'd made it 'correctly' based on gender seems really presumptuous. If you're going to argue for diversity to capture a fuller portrait of reality then I agree, but to do so means you need to look more widely than a list of 25 names. Look at the maps made by people in the book, look at the ways in which others have contributed. Look at the entirely female team of experts in editing, copyediting, graphics editing, aquisitions editing and so forth that brought the book to life. Focusing on that one page gives a very false sense of clarity or certainty to your argument. Categorising people by anything before determining if their presence is just seems to be to the detriment of the final objective.<br /><br />
Let me be clear. I wholeheartedly encourage increased participation from any and all under-represented groups to give a better balance in all walks of life. Cartography is no different. I hope those that feel my list(s) did a poor job of representing diversity can see the value in the wider work as it pertains to cartography.<br />
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So, rather than focus on a list of 25 people, here's a list of my sources which is far more useful Here's the one that's in my book and you can download it as a <a href="http://downloads.esri.com/kfmaps/Sourcesandresources_poster.pdf" target="_blank">small poster here</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://downloads.esri.com/kfmaps/Sourcesandresources_poster.pdf" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="1136" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhliEkY75yTvOoF8S9Trs6H7z-oYOkEc_d6G2bWfXaX0_YSoNZ1zNXZCPeBk71kQFiGLqG8m-tI8CvLQnkKBeNxb7hjcFq-5D5KDaavlJtBr5bgQEv18jbHwAzf0Iz8g0-uDK2luciSk8/s640/sourcesandresources.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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If you post links below citing a blog, tutorial or person's work that I didn't include then two things. First, if it's genuinely something I am not aware of then I'll give it due consideration and it'll be included in future lists if it makes the grade. Second, you are, of course, presuming I haven't already considered it (or the person involved) and decided it wasn't going to be included (based on the criteria I explain above) and that's already the case with many that have already been proposed on other social media platforms. Thanks.Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-616420695728367942018-04-25T10:46:00.002-07:002018-04-25T10:46:38.909-07:00A new map in prospectWe took <a href="https://twitter.com/wisley_dog" target="_blank">@wisley_dog</a> to one of his favourite local parks the other day. <a href="https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/prospect-park" target="_blank">Prospect Park</a> in Redlands is a lovely spot that sits a little up the hill in south Redlands offering spectacular views across the San Bernardino valley to the mountains beyond. It's a mix of trails, orange groves, places to picnic and also houses an outdoor amphitheatre. It's also next to <a href="http://kimberlycrest.org/" target="_blank">Kimberly Crest House</a> - one of Redlands historic houses. At 11 acres it's not a large park.<br />
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Like many, we parked on Cajon St and entered the park by its North-East access points. There's a shady picnic spot and, as I found, a new information board which houses a new map of the park. Here it is, measuring about 3ft wide:<br />
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That's a lot of map for a small park. It kinda ruined my walk. It likely ruined Linda and Wisley's walk too as I bent their ear about the map and its problems. So let me bend your ear too and, hopefully, in the process, show you how to critique a map.<br />
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On the face of it it looks nice enough but as with anything that's dressed nicely it can often deceive. So let's deconstruct it a little and have a conversation about some of the cartographic and design choices.<br />
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The information board is located on the North-East edge of the park. You look at it facing South-West. Yet the map is oriented with North-West at the top to align Highland Ave with the top edge of the paper. This makes absolutely no sense. Fundamentally, the map is oriented incorrectly. These sort of in situ maps need to be oriented so the map is laid out as you look at the park in front of you. This map should have Cajon St at the foot of the sheet and, as you look (and wander) beyond the map you can then easily process the lefts, rights and other locations of points of interest in the park. Rotate the map and you get this which is far more useful from that location:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihvElpXVBsSUG6j1pZKee_rTlFhJJGbcZtLaLOr1kNhsgwdCz9pIF85O4-XFTOOyoHMkq0z14Ivh74e8Gmp8QYy3IcgBF_2k2EGVwZLWXfYzKdKaE5FUXxcNM0yM3DMg2wNMzGieOfHg0/s1600/prospect2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="846" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihvElpXVBsSUG6j1pZKee_rTlFhJJGbcZtLaLOr1kNhsgwdCz9pIF85O4-XFTOOyoHMkq0z14Ivh74e8Gmp8QYy3IcgBF_2k2EGVwZLWXfYzKdKaE5FUXxcNM0yM3DMg2wNMzGieOfHg0/s640/prospect2.jpg" width="449" /></a></div>
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This is an all too familiar problem of maps on information boards like this. It simply needs the people who commission the map and those making it to have a conversation about where it's going to be displayed. It means if it's to be displayed at several locations it should be rotated accordingly but that's not difficult if you use a GIS and it's data-driven. It's also not difficult with some forward thinking as this other Redlands park map shows. The Caroline Park map is on a board on the south edge of the park. North is top and you stand looking at the map, looking northwards. Perfect. It's also a beautifully illustrated map that shows you the function of different parts of the park as well as the flora and fauna you may see.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzhSAs2h7vJx20dVGJtJeZlIYEi-zZOSTzht6vfVGCEr11CncWUSA4rPjZTH0m-pqYcKt44009ZXqa_ZdCMXynFjMiC0wrz1FSYCa7-DUUBTGYwhO5uTpfd-RMhdusRG9uGY7LNAQnk3A/s1600/caroline.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzhSAs2h7vJx20dVGJtJeZlIYEi-zZOSTzht6vfVGCEr11CncWUSA4rPjZTH0m-pqYcKt44009ZXqa_ZdCMXynFjMiC0wrz1FSYCa7-DUUBTGYwhO5uTpfd-RMhdusRG9uGY7LNAQnk3A/s640/caroline.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Back to the Prospect Park map. Orientation is not the only problem. The labeling is awful because you have difficulty reading it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlV0bJvlO-26WtTFSTg1E0nfcbLvShR96C2Y738tj3Xq9-Y6Twf3oBh4Cm6KJ12xH5Zbv8iFhkJuGnUB9uYvCZ4VJCiIQ0c1AatjGutG8D_uURFTWAjnZK1LCH4OK9ar7EeiT2GPPWG1Q/s1600/prospect3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="179" data-original-width="309" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlV0bJvlO-26WtTFSTg1E0nfcbLvShR96C2Y738tj3Xq9-Y6Twf3oBh4Cm6KJ12xH5Zbv8iFhkJuGnUB9uYvCZ4VJCiIQ0c1AatjGutG8D_uURFTWAjnZK1LCH4OK9ar7EeiT2GPPWG1Q/s400/prospect3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Simply overprinting black text (in boring Arial) over the background is never going to work. There's so many ways of improving this. Masks, Halos, Shadows. Anything! And there's leader lines everywhere. they're unnecessary.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieMgrZUWUZB2VETHCyKkg9SO07M6rzBKE3nB3YCr4af5mspyyZ2ViiKm6xIi-pIDUWw4eINp0rlvdTSE_fpwgG5G_BomDeyEKIZHNgInF5Sj4s4kl6pGTvmEudaTfAk3pd2gipVViEjSc/s1600/prospect4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="124" data-original-width="286" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieMgrZUWUZB2VETHCyKkg9SO07M6rzBKE3nB3YCr4af5mspyyZ2ViiKm6xIi-pIDUWw4eINp0rlvdTSE_fpwgG5G_BomDeyEKIZHNgInF5Sj4s4kl6pGTvmEudaTfAk3pd2gipVViEjSc/s400/prospect4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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There's so much space on the map which makes should make lettering it an absolute joy compared to most maps. And as far as the overlooks are concerned, a symbol might be more useful and that would obviate the need for a typographic element and three ugly leader lines altogether.<br />
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So...overlook. That tells you something. It means that there's some elevation throughout the park. Yet the map displays no information to warn the casual visitor that there nearly a 100ft elevation gain between Cajon St and the highest point. A vantage point that then allows such beautiful vistas towards the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains (and the San Andreas Fault but I try to ignore that most of the time). OK, but there's a network of nicely paved paths right? They're all shaded grey so they're all the same?<br />
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Imagine you're a wheelchair user or struggle with walking up a moderate incline. You'd not only be frustrated that the map shows no detail of the elevation gain but, worse, many of the trails are nothing more than dirt and gravel making them almost impossible to access for some people.<br />
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By making all the paths the same symbol type the map infers they are the same. Yes, you can drive up to the parking lot at the top via Prospect Drive but you can't take your car anywhere else. You can't similarly access it from the other apparent entrance on Cajon St either. the map might not need detailed contours other other ways to show elevation but showing how elevation changes along the trails would, at the very least, be an extremely helpful piece of information.<br />
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And what of the parking to the left of the map that you can access via Highland Ave? Well, technically, you have to go through the entrance to Kimberly Crest house to get there and that has a gate that is locked at times when the adjacent park is open. Useful information, particularly so you don't get locked inside with no way out. In fact, that car park is not really part of Prospect Park at all. It's the access to Kimberley Crest House and Prospect Court as this OpenStreetMap map helpfully symbolises by specifically not including it in the green that designates the park boundary.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="350" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="https://www.openstreetmap.org/export/embed.html?bbox=-117.17571794986726%2C34.03735102584608%2C-117.16826140880585%2C34.04101835835775&layer=mapnik" style="border: 1px solid black;" width="425"></iframe><br /></div>
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<small><a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=18/34.03918/-117.17199">View Larger Map</a></small>
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Take a look at the OSM map again - it shows one route into the park for cars to get to the central parking lot. It shows clearly how you access it via Prospect Drive. It shows other trails inside the park differently to distinguish their use. But while we're at, it there is an error on this map too. If you access Prospect Drive from Highland Ave you cannot drive through and round the bottom edge of the park and into the Prospect Park lot that way. There's a chain across the road to prevent access. And neither OSM or the new Prospect Park map has the new footpath included between the Kimberley Crest car park and Highland Ave.<br />
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Zoom in to the OSM map. See those water fountains? Redlands can get kinda hot. Water fountains are important for dogs and humans alike. They should be on the map. The Prospect Park map has restrooms (labelled - maybe another case for a symbol?) but not water fountains. Makes the map a little partial with basic information.<br />
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And back to the map's background. At first glance the Prospect Park map appears to be a hand-drawn and painted map. I think it's based off some form of digital data (possibly even just traced off imagery). It looks OK but it could be so much better. Each orange tree gets a uniform symbol. A bit of rotation on each would make the groves look more organic and 'real'. And what about all the other vegetation? There's palms, giant mature specimen trees, a bamboo forest, seating and grassy areas to name a few major parkland types of ground cover. yet pretty much everything other than orange trees and the palms along Cajon St gets the same smudgy fill. This could have been so much more exciting with other tree species canopies or symbology.<br />
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There's also a small creek than runs between the picnic area beside Cajon St and the park beyond. Why wouldn't you mark that? It has 6ft walls despite not always having much water in it. It's hard to miss in reality yet the map makes no mention of it. It's a prominent feature yet all the map has to indicate anything is a bridge label next to a cross-hatched rectangle that is presumably supposed to represent the bridge itself. A bridge over what?<br />
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Possibly a spelling mistake too...lower left 'Orange trees on Terrance'. I think they mean 'terrace' though I can't be absolutely sure. I've never seen Terrance there. I don't know anyone named Terrance.<br />
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The north point thing seems to be a small apology wandering aimlessly in a vast space because there was a space and to cap off the entire map the title and credit lines are in Comic Sans - that font that every map-maker loves to hate. Is this a subtle bit of carto-trolling? Could be. Could just be a pointless use of Comic Sans that makes no sense on a map that otherwise uses Arial. And why on earth would set the title in horizontal letters aligned vertically? Use Comic Sans with purpose. Reserve it for the uses it was designed for (children, comics and, latterly, to support those with dyslexia). It has no place on an information map like this - in the same way Papyrus has no place on restaurant menus.<br />
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So...what to do. Well, I've had a moan. I've justified my thoughts based on what I know about cartography. I tell you what, I'll make another version (for free) and offer it to the <a href="http://www.cityofredlands.org/city-hall/departments/quality_of_life/parks___open_space/" target="_blank">City of Redlands Parks Division.</a> I'll post back when it's done and invite anyone and everyone to critique my map. In the meantime, you'll find me at Caroline Park where I hope they're not planning to update the current map with a similarly weak replacement.Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-5717488596862294532018-03-29T09:50:00.001-07:002018-10-04T07:43:25.743-07:00In praise of insets<a href="https://news.sky.com/story/msp-outlaw-maps-that-put-shetland-in-a-box-11307218" target="_blank">Sky News reports</a> on the Scottish politician Tavish Scott (real name) as he proposes a ban on maps that use an inset to show Shetland. Utter nonsense.<br />
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His reasoning is that the 'islands should be in the right place on the map' and 'to ensure that in future that government publications and documents do reflect the reality of Scotland in terms of its geography, and not something that fits neatly on an A4 sheet of paper.'<br />
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Well let's just break down (sorry, I mean utterly destroy) his preposterous statements. Shetland (The Shetland Isles) is a part of Scotland. It's also part of Great Britain...and the British Isles... and the United Kingdom (and at the time of writing at least, Europe). The following usefully clarifies the terminology:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc_On1XJIaateAzNDEL6HuOHe-j4orLM92Nd6xNGKbXju58-qKZo9IEIjC0B8GiGKlOsn-4wk0zUloZ5KWoz1Mwme0Q0eP0xT8YJKySXK9G-eqMAOfBa7PyrigZHuHFaY3LjILJCq1wv4/s1600/British_Isles_terms.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1079" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc_On1XJIaateAzNDEL6HuOHe-j4orLM92Nd6xNGKbXju58-qKZo9IEIjC0B8GiGKlOsn-4wk0zUloZ5KWoz1Mwme0Q0eP0xT8YJKySXK9G-eqMAOfBa7PyrigZHuHFaY3LjILJCq1wv4/s640/British_Isles_terms.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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So in that sense it has a rightful place on any map of which any of those jurisdictions is the focus.<br />
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If you're not aware of where Shetland is in the world then this should help (map to scale, UK National Grid):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVkvuwU6qRXO7xl9_wlZDYovzEkIoyC_opjTe_llFVc7mkkCm-5Je-gaHsMBAw4GYzV3WvgNKYt3SZcIFzU7GOR703jdZ7o8tetSuvRShCogKCMA6GSqR8YYr7Tk1yjw7RrA1Aw9xnQp4/s1600/shetland1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="767" data-original-width="550" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVkvuwU6qRXO7xl9_wlZDYovzEkIoyC_opjTe_llFVc7mkkCm-5Je-gaHsMBAw4GYzV3WvgNKYt3SZcIFzU7GOR703jdZ7o8tetSuvRShCogKCMA6GSqR8YYr7Tk1yjw7RrA1Aw9xnQp4/s400/shetland1.png" width="286" /></a></div>
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In simple geographical terms Shetland is approximately 130 miles from mainland Scotland though it's also on the same line of latitude as Bergen on the west coast of Norway at a distance of 200 miles. That's where it sits. At a nice northerly 60° 9' 11" N and 1° 8' 58" W. We can argue all you like whether it should be part of Scotland or, perhaps, a bit of waste left over from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slartibartfast" target="_blank">Slartibartfast</a>'s design of the Norwegian coastline but for now, it gets put on maps of Scotland and any other that includes Scotland. And that makes it a pain in the arse for cartographers.<br />
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By the way, did anyone spot I deleted France from the map above? Guess that'd annoy the French too but whatever, I doubt the scots or Scott cares much about that little cartographic editorial decision.<br />
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Anyway, as the scot, Scott, says, many maps are made on A4 (or any A series piece of paper where the length and width are in the same proportion). So here's the above map proportioned as A4:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8v1I6Ao5KFMN6ptO6p6kZlFiBXhBsf7ZpLihsbqAomDThF2eKOe2qID1J2GuBOI97dRIGD3moRWlCGLjuiwUEJWyThCDtotfm2ZTTAF6yi7gOdXObXRwAoPn0o8vVnbCOAq3GAL8K2q4/s1600/shetland2.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="400" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8v1I6Ao5KFMN6ptO6p6kZlFiBXhBsf7ZpLihsbqAomDThF2eKOe2qID1J2GuBOI97dRIGD3moRWlCGLjuiwUEJWyThCDtotfm2ZTTAF6yi7gOdXObXRwAoPn0o8vVnbCOAq3GAL8K2q4/s400/shetland2.tif" width="282" /></a></div>
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The area outside the yellow line is superfluous to the map as the Republic of Ireland is irrelevant on many maps that show thematic data for Great Britain and Northern Ireland (or UK etc). So as a rough estimate the page only uses approximately 60% of its overall space to show the mapped content.<br />
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Put another way, we need a fifth of the entire page (above the green line) just to get Shetland on. That's Shetland, population 22,000. Or, in geographical terms, an island that is 566 sq miles which is 8x larger than the City of Glasgow but which has 27x fewer people. So you're making a decision to allow geography to not only influence the design but take an inordinately exaggerated status simply by virtue of position.<br />
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Now, admittedly there's lots of lovely space for titles and legends and all the other crap we put on a map but, nevertheless, it's wasteful. But that's what you'd have to do if you want Shetland on the map, on that proportion of paper, in its correct geographical position. Alternatively, as Scott bemoans, cartographers will often use an inset and you'd end up with a map like this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvRuqsSHES43gWZcZd28ivjDGgnHwkBLUHlZB6rN4MkTsiEgdt4OTWiHOucv8AYnqqvwoEiNEYyyUi-DhsFmdC7JyKYSgJq0Z0HO8lTqM0DT57q8ZSkvX0QhX5f2IYuotUyTS61vkz4OI/s1600/shetland3.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="400" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvRuqsSHES43gWZcZd28ivjDGgnHwkBLUHlZB6rN4MkTsiEgdt4OTWiHOucv8AYnqqvwoEiNEYyyUi-DhsFmdC7JyKYSgJq0Z0HO8lTqM0DT57q8ZSkvX0QhX5f2IYuotUyTS61vkz4OI/s400/shetland3.tif" width="282" /></a></div>
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This fits the map to the paper (not the paper to the map). And there's far less wasteful space. Far less prominence to unpopulated swathes of water. And yet Shetland gets its own little special place on the map, with the addition of a neat border that clearly demarcates it. Often, Shetland is even exaggerated in scale to make the inset worthwhile. I bet you didn't notice but in the example above Shetland is about 25% bigger than it really is. So, if Scott wants Shetland back in its proper geographical location then he can have it reduced back to its real size too.<br />
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Insets are a neat solution and one that has served print mapping well for centuries. It's also a solution that people understand. You could add a small arrow and distance marker to point to where the inset exists in reality. Many even use a marked graticule to show clearly the lines of latitude and longitude that apply to the inset to make it clear that it differs from that of the main map. Even the Sky News article showed an historical example that clearly uses this technique (and note how exaggerated in size Shetland is on this too):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgzryUbxRiQPrSrmaJhyphenhyphenALuOtumLYNp1MkmE6IHF7Ho9QqDHcnLTi0apuXtPTSMIACdXYQLK4prpxVo-0C-_QdR7fJGNwNbPFb6fEkIv470vCjrKiyjRF9H4X63PlbBoLEfz7UjqTlI74/s1600/skynews-shetland-islands-scotland_4267091.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="616" data-original-width="1096" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgzryUbxRiQPrSrmaJhyphenhyphenALuOtumLYNp1MkmE6IHF7Ho9QqDHcnLTi0apuXtPTSMIACdXYQLK4prpxVo-0C-_QdR7fJGNwNbPFb6fEkIv470vCjrKiyjRF9H4X63PlbBoLEfz7UjqTlI74/s640/skynews-shetland-islands-scotland_4267091.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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There's other considerations...<br />
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Returning to the City of Glasgow. In fact, any relatively populous place. They suffer horrendously on any maps of thematic data because large areas, perhaps relatively uninhabited or sparsely populated take visual prominence. Scotland is a great example. Its total population is around 5.3 million yet 1 million of them live in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Their population densities are far more than the far greater share of Scottish land, including Shetland. So why give such visual prominence to sparsely populated areas?<br />
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Insets are not just used to move geographically awkward places. They are commonly used to create larger scale versions of the map for smaller, yet more densely populated places. Often they are positioned over sparsely populated land to use space wisely. I'm guessing Scott would have an objection to an inset that, to his mind, would exaggerate the geographical importance of Glasgow compared to Shetland. Yet...in population terms it's a place of massively greater importance so one could argue it deserves greater relative visual prominence on the map. Many maps are about people, not geography.<br />
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In addition to moving Shetland south to make better use of map space, you could very well argue that you should use a <a href="http://gistbok.ucgis.org/bok-topics/cartograms" target="_blank">cartogram</a> to give far better relative visual prominence to the places where more people live and work. Now that will utterly delight Scott as it completely distorts geography. Not only could you have Shetland moved, but squished to an almost unrecognisable shape. Here you go Tavish...enjoy this beauty of population totals morphing geography (courtesy: <a href="http://worldmapper.org/">worldmapper.org</a>):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4dRo9doXXyecNDskdL2muuAp49i8xq0OmdhmYUiJGQPJSdbVfif-vsSvOVmTl53M9LWffPhDC1VdOXqqhu05KRFhjULoTy62db1BIPnTA5ulfZ7l5QMpKSefueTM3gZFMdQVcLXCSt3w/s1600/shetland4.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="418" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4dRo9doXXyecNDskdL2muuAp49i8xq0OmdhmYUiJGQPJSdbVfif-vsSvOVmTl53M9LWffPhDC1VdOXqqhu05KRFhjULoTy62db1BIPnTA5ulfZ7l5QMpKSefueTM3gZFMdQVcLXCSt3w/s400/shetland4.tif" width="400" /></a></div>
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Whatever your view of insets (and Scott's is incorrect), there's so many valuable uses for them that counter the problems of geography making it awkward to make maps. Generations of cartographers have come up with novel solutions to many, if not all, of these dilemmas about what to show, where and how. And if the map has an overarching location map showing everything in its correct position then there can be absolutely no confusion whatsoever.<br />
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I would guess Scott would equally be horrified if Shetland was seen poking outside the graticule or neatline on an atlas page too - another common way in which maps break the rules of either geography or design in a creative way to simplify and communicate. He'd be delighted by this classic Times Atlas of the World page showing Shetland in its correct position as part of The British Isles but horrors of horrors...<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall" target="_blank">Rockall</a> (also a part of Scotland so has equal rights on a map based on Scott's nonsense...but ignore the more northerly Faroe Islands, not part of Scotland) slips off the left edge:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKFPn5QHbHM_Iy9nbhQm17we2V1PDi004hI84PqJRfT_jiF2uP9LglgqRLGNeDJWGMjGrx2yElTpKxHHTlQRvnEycd4ObfC7Uet2QOkL99A-n2Ab_0KzQ2mf_Z8IZJSCBCQ0GWZBkr3wg/s1600/rockall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="1184" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKFPn5QHbHM_Iy9nbhQm17we2V1PDi004hI84PqJRfT_jiF2uP9LglgqRLGNeDJWGMjGrx2yElTpKxHHTlQRvnEycd4ObfC7Uet2QOkL99A-n2Ab_0KzQ2mf_Z8IZJSCBCQ0GWZBkr3wg/s640/rockall.jpg" width="492" /></a></div>
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And what of digital maps? Scott seems to be stuck in the age of print cartography because insets are rarely, if ever, a requirement in digital cartography. Everywhere exists where it is. The map is slippy and you can pan and zoom to your heart's content. Want to see a densely populated area? Zoom right on in. In fact, whisper it quietly in case Scott is listening but...if he uses the standard Web Mercator web map he not only gets Shetland in its rightful position AND it's also exaggerated in size compared to the southerly latitudes of mainland England by virtue of the projection. Now isn't that the map he really wants?<br />
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<b>Update 4th October 2018</b><br />
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As <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-45733111" target="_blank">BBC News reports</a> Mr Scott has got his way and a bill has been passed that includes a 'mapping requirement' that Shetland not be placed in a box. Fortunately there's a clause allowing cartographers to use an inset if they have a case to do so...so that's OK then because there's always a case to do so UNLESS you're making a navigational chart where distance, direction and bearings are obviously the paramount need for the map's properties and design to support. But all this really means is time wasted and taxes used up as map-makers submit their case to use an inset for Shetland.<br />
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So, where do we go from here? If Alaska and Hawaii find out about this nonsense then it's going to make future US maps rather interesting. And please don't get the Falkland Islands worked up and starting to assert their right to be included on maps of the UK. As a British Overseas Territory, they, along with the rest, may very well start insisting they should be on the map, in the correct location. So, here's your updated map Mr Scott. Shetland is in the right place but you can't see it any more because we've had to include all the British Overseas Terretories as well. Sorry about that but they all have an equal right. I do hope you appreciate it's a useless map for showing important geographies of the UK though. That's what the new 'mapping requirement' law promotes - bloody ridiculous mapping.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-teEzWru5SSGU2WnF5tZ4_aIsCyY6ibkmfFYm-pwiJFD_zQDXw7lRQXcsdsbEvt6HCUzjc6bvB3aZ2G989QcwKSLWaNLTLci70Bw0ya2hDxeqpRL-pB7AM5Lm_NYreTWJcuOj_c4eGyI/s1600/BOTS.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-teEzWru5SSGU2WnF5tZ4_aIsCyY6ibkmfFYm-pwiJFD_zQDXw7lRQXcsdsbEvt6HCUzjc6bvB3aZ2G989QcwKSLWaNLTLci70Bw0ya2hDxeqpRL-pB7AM5Lm_NYreTWJcuOj_c4eGyI/s640/BOTS.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-17508070317756685372018-03-07T07:45:00.004-08:002018-05-01T08:25:51.616-07:00Dotty election mapWell that escalated quickly...<br />
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While I've been working on the forthcoming <a href="http://esripress.esri.com/display/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&websiteID=342&moduleID=0" target="_blank">book</a> and <a href="https://www.esri.com/training/catalog/596e584bb826875993ba4ebf/cartography./" target="_blank">mooc</a> I've been doing some data wrangling in the background at work. For the 2012 Presidential election I made a <a href="http://carto.maps.arcgis.com/apps/PublicGallery/index.html?appid=c8707016b45f44ccb7bb76444e593fba&group=dc95a19e4fa5424e9ea0452106312706" target="_blank">gallery of maps</a> that illustrated diverse styles of cartography along with some comments on the map types. Each map can tell a different story of the election. I've been in the process of updating this with a new <a href="http://carto.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MinimalGallery/index.html?appid=b3d1fe0e8814480993ff5ad8d0c62c32" target="_blank">gallery of the 2016 election</a> results (currently around ten maps but more to come) and I got to the tricky one - the dasymetric dot density map. It requires quite a bit of manipulation of data so here is the map, and in this blog I'll explain a little of the process.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxz-OI-HpUpyf8RHDyRVZmVm1CDzkMIVvKWTCbH3nJ7qtzgVjXTg-00qv4aaCAuQJDl7zeww3PfBhnDenl6zhBo4wL5me5v_ws6g9gRkcD1zw6Fq1V17M8mGa7duJbFOWdJpdys67eH2E/s1600/pic1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="766" height="454" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxz-OI-HpUpyf8RHDyRVZmVm1CDzkMIVvKWTCbH3nJ7qtzgVjXTg-00qv4aaCAuQJDl7zeww3PfBhnDenl6zhBo4wL5me5v_ws6g9gRkcD1zw6Fq1V17M8mGa7duJbFOWdJpdys67eH2E/s640/pic1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Update: There's now a web map which shows the data at 6 scales in much more detail than the screengrab above. Check it out <a href="http://carto.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=8732c91ba7a14d818cd26b776250d2c3" target="_blank">here</a> or below:<br />
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<style>.embed-container {position: relative; padding-bottom: 80%; height: 0; max-width: 100%;} .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container iframe{position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;} small{position: absolute; z-index: 40; bottom: 0; margin-bottom: -15px;}</style><br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="400" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//carto.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Embed/index.html?webmap=4d57a21a7ce8411a8ed81a09eea17d36&extent=-136.9147,16.6804,-58.7754,54.1946&zoom=true&previewImage=false&scale=false&disable_scroll=true&theme=light" title="Dasymetric Dot Density" width="500"></iframe><br />
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In 2012 I made a similar <a href="http://carto.maps.arcgis.com/apps/OnePane/storytelling_basic/index.html?appid=978dac719e794236bf93c4ede7e80eaa" target="_blank">map</a> for the Obama/Romney election. It was a product of the web mapping technology of the time. Made using ArcMap (full disclosure for those who don't know I work for <a href="https://www.esri.com/en-us/home" target="_blank">Esri</a> - who make ArcGIS). At the smallest scale 1 dot = 1,000 votes. At the largest, 1 dot = 10 votes and if you printed the map out it would be as large as a football field. It took 3 months to cajole the largest scale map onto the web!!! I wanted to update the map and the four years that have intervened have brought new software capabilities. For 2012 I had to generate up to 12 million points and position them. Now, using ArcGIS Pro I can use the dot density renderer and let the software take the strain and if I were going all out then why not try and make a map where 1 dot = 1 vote. So, for me, the map is a technical challenge. Part of what I do at work to push the software to see what it is capable of, to test it and to show others what capabilities it affords.<br />
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So how to make the map? Well, it's a product of a number of decisions, each one of which propagates into the map. I'll be doing a proper write-up on the ArcGIS blog in due course but, in summary, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasymetric_map" target="_blank">dasymetric map</a> takes data held at one spatial unit (in this case counties) and reapportions it to different (usually smaller) areas. It uses a technique developed by the late <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldo_R._Tobler" target="_blank">Waldo Tobler</a> called pycnophylactic reallocation modelling<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. </span>Those different areas are, broadly, urban. The point of the map is to show where people live and vote rather than simply painting an entire county with a colour which creates a map that often misleads [Waldo sadly passed away recently and I was running the model when I heard of his death a couple of weeks ago. I met him a few times and his legacy to computational geography and cartography is immense].<br />
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I used the <a href="https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/national-land-cover-database-nlcd-land-cover-collection" target="_blank">National Land Cover Database</a> to extract urban areas. It's a raster dataset at 30m resolution. I used the impervious surface categories and created a polygon dataset with three classes, broadly dense urban, urban, and rural. I then did some data wrangling in ArcGIS Pro (more of that in a different blog) to reapportion the Democrat and Republican total votes at county level into the new polygons. There's some weighting involved so the dense urban polygons get (in total) 50% of the data. The urban get 35% of the data and the rural polygons get 15% of the data. Then I got the dot density renderer in ArcGIS Pro to draw the dots, one for each vote resulting in a map with nearly 130 million dots.<br />
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The result is a map that pushes the data into areas where people actually live. It leaves areas where no-one lives devoid of data. It reveals the structure of the US population surface. Most maps that take a dasymetric approach will all end up like <a href="https://xkcd.com/1138/" target="_blank">this</a> but I think there's value in the approach. To me it presents a better visual comparison of the amount of red and blue that the standard county level map that maps geography, not people, and overemphasises relatively sparsely populated large geographical areas.<br />
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So the map I saw on my desktop late Tuesday afternoon took 35 minutes to draw. Technical challenge achieved. ArcGIS Pro nailed it. This is a map that I couldn't have made in the previous election cycle. I was excited and so I took a quick screengrab, sent out a tweet and went home to walk Wisley the dog.<br />
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And that, I thought, was that. I'd put the map on the backburner and return to doing layout reviews for the book and doing last-minute work on the mooc over the next couple of weeks. But then something unexpected happened. My phone started pinging. Slowly at first but then a little more during the evening as people began to see the map on Twitter and like or re-tweet it. That's nice, I thought. I went to bed. Wednesday morning I woke to a relative avalanche of likes and retweets. I spent the day in Palm Springs at our Developer Summit and my phone never stopped. By the end of the day it had received around 3,000 likes and had been retweeted 2,000 times. I'm writing this Thursday morning and it's currently at 7,000 likes and a little over 3,000 retweets. The side-effect of this 15 minutes of map fame is I've picked up an extra 1,000 followers (25% increase) on my nearly 10 year old Twitter habit.<br />
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But there's a problem. The screengrab was quick and dirty and while there have been many and varied comments on the 'map' it's by no means the finished article. I want to create a hi-res version and also make a web map like the 2012 version. I don't have time to do this in the next couple of weeks but it will happen. But be assured, I am aware of a number of issues. Some have already spotted them and commented.<br />
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The symbols - I chose a very default red and blue. Each dot has 90% transparency so overlapping dots at this scale will undoubtedly coalesce into clumps. The impression will appear to bleed across the map. I need to tweak the colours (less saturated) and adjust the transparency to get a better effect. I will also likely do what I did for the 2012 map and classify the data so that at small scales 1 dot = 100 or 1,000 etc. To remove visual 'noise' at those scales. I'll also check for too many overlaps and overprinting. I actually think there's a problem in some areas with blue dots overprinting red. There should be more mixing and more purple. And no, there's no yellow dots. The map only displays Democrat and Republican votes in what remains, effectively, a binary voting outcome.<br />
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The data - it's county data, reapportioned. Dot maps convey a positioning that is a function of the processing, not where people actually live or vote. Dots are positioned randomly. Some have, quite reasonably, interpreted the map as showing where votes are and this is a fundamental drawback of the approach. No personal information is in the map at all. I also need to double-check a few areas where people have pointed out apparent anomalies in the map, compared to their personal knowledge of the areas. There may be errors. I need to check. That said, it's a function of the way I've used the NLCD so that data is the basis for reapportionment.<br />
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The geography - yes, I hold my hand up. There's no Alaska or Hawaii. I apologise. I'm not sure I'll go back as it requires doing some movement of those states to position them around the lower 48 and put them back in. It's easy but a non-trivial task when you're working in a GIS but I'll think about it. I understand this is unpalatable for some and I accept that criticism.<br />
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The interpretations - many have offered some fascinating insights into the gaps and the patterns through Twitter replies. I'll be going through these more carefully when the hullabaloo dies down and teasing out some. But more than anything I've been blown away by the nice things that have been said about the map. It shows the election result in a different way. It tells a different story. One of my favourite responses was this by <a href="https://twitter.com/TdeBeus" target="_blank">Thomas de Beus</a>...a lovely mashup and play on the classic photo of Trump's preferred view of the data to hang on the wall of the White House by Trey Yingst.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD9R59iPL3nmg6KA0cRugj-1jUSuFZLy36YAnEQY69xei4VuX1Mnom6kt3zh_nicN5tZ7fY0WoJA-PCB9jKUtjUCXmAXEHyES0imc1qE4T3ES1KUI9rVtz11DuMcOHn3Ki5FnitbQcorQ/s1600/pic2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1047" data-original-width="1600" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD9R59iPL3nmg6KA0cRugj-1jUSuFZLy36YAnEQY69xei4VuX1Mnom6kt3zh_nicN5tZ7fY0WoJA-PCB9jKUtjUCXmAXEHyES0imc1qE4T3ES1KUI9rVtz11DuMcOHn3Ki5FnitbQcorQ/s640/pic2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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And this is the point of making a map like this. It presents the SAME data in a different way. It leads to different insights, different interpretations and a different perception. Neither of the above are right or wrong. They are different. Of course, we all have out own view on which serves our needs and which we prefer but that's for us as individuals.</div>
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My only regret is that I excitedly tweeted a rough version. I should have waited until I made the map properly. I'll do that but I suspect this is my one viral 15 minutes of fame and I regret it doesn't reflect the quality I know the final version will exhibit. A finished map likely won't get the same traction but we'll see. At the very least it has ignited a discussion. It brings different cartographic eyes to the dataset. Will it ever be hung in the White House? Unlikely.</div>
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Thanks for your interest and comments thus far!</div>
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Ken</div>
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Hurriedly written from a hotel in Palm Springs during which time the map's had many more likes, 11 more mentions and I've picked up another 86 followers. I can only apologise to them when they realise I tweet just as much about beer and football as I do about maps.</div>
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<br />Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-17655765142184853702017-12-31T13:51:00.000-08:002017-12-31T13:53:24.891-08:00Favourite maps from 2017I've been a little busy writing my book this year so blog posts have been a bit thin on the ground. It was only as I was packing up for a short Christmas vacation that I realised I hadn't even compiled my list of favourite maps from the year. So, with some of the world already embarking on 2018 here's a selection of maps that piqued my interest in 2017...in no particular order.<br />
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<b>Trump's World by Phoebe McLean (age 15)</b><br />
There probably isn't a better summary of the world in 2017 than this lovely hand-drawn map which won an <a href="http://icaci.org/petchenik/" target="_blank">ICA Children's map competition award</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji-nuHvRhBMRXiRugl2xrKCsgZpCag0CWXyw83BjwKost0O4JJTxZ3jwmiZDyg05wPL0hQnbZc6Lf5KWSjdy5hSJiiUyf3IdCsjHC2ruWY8frzGRACEQcce5CZ7EBJWc22WA_K2AgMPIQ/s1600/mclean.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="727" data-original-width="1024" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji-nuHvRhBMRXiRugl2xrKCsgZpCag0CWXyw83BjwKost0O4JJTxZ3jwmiZDyg05wPL0hQnbZc6Lf5KWSjdy5hSJiiUyf3IdCsjHC2ruWY8frzGRACEQcce5CZ7EBJWc22WA_K2AgMPIQ/s640/mclean.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>Planet Brewdog by <a href="http://craigfisherdesign.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Craig Fisher</a></b><br />
It's just a map of Brewdog locations but it's massive and a perfect way to fill up an otherwise plain wall in a modern industrial brewery facility. Here, in the Columbus OH tap room.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOp7SRDN7A31f52QDy0GYRumFOkpL9LuaC2Bp2cNL88yrf-5cmhZ_8Qcf5OIV1oIebQYtUksEGoBlOI601wwRmEHHtF8tGsSWj_34jkmhi3C22CYNzP7DlRTwVsLCrFIcw9fC5WsT1MOs/s1600/fisher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOp7SRDN7A31f52QDy0GYRumFOkpL9LuaC2Bp2cNL88yrf-5cmhZ_8Qcf5OIV1oIebQYtUksEGoBlOI601wwRmEHHtF8tGsSWj_34jkmhi3C22CYNzP7DlRTwVsLCrFIcw9fC5WsT1MOs/s640/fisher.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>Winter Map of Montana by <a href="https://geochristian.com/2017/12/28/a-winter-map-of-montana/" target="_blank">Kevin Nelstead</a></b><br />
I particularly like the halos on the white labels :-)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRrnvMBXSvf7yjU5RQn_SEt4COQvVfZq2_uY4RoG-KptHFbVU4-25weTO4ldts72iNy6WgR9bdKrwQ7NTpUWB7HvGKX8uoIH5T9AWaJimczE5CGG7ouNK26qFcnf2QT4biRE_lG5mRR40/s1600/nelstead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="783" data-original-width="1024" height="488" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRrnvMBXSvf7yjU5RQn_SEt4COQvVfZq2_uY4RoG-KptHFbVU4-25weTO4ldts72iNy6WgR9bdKrwQ7NTpUWB7HvGKX8uoIH5T9AWaJimczE5CGG7ouNK26qFcnf2QT4biRE_lG5mRR40/s640/nelstead.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>Tactile Atlas of Switzerland by <a href="http://www.esri.com/products/maps-we-love/swiss-tactile" target="_blank">Anna Vetter</a></b><br />
Beautifully produced atlas for the blind and partially sighted using raised printing.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbIUxJ2-lBIT0Nn_mDCGA2Gdor-2qsX2RMv4Fgue4wjkCPIyaiKm_plOKtSeSwgJoKs3iu0ftchyeO7I-slkGd2SkFxgXzAJHUjjDku1-TJkucwjSAuNRmojevWRQ7S-ZX2QOXPOuC5ac/s1600/vetter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbIUxJ2-lBIT0Nn_mDCGA2Gdor-2qsX2RMv4Fgue4wjkCPIyaiKm_plOKtSeSwgJoKs3iu0ftchyeO7I-slkGd2SkFxgXzAJHUjjDku1-TJkucwjSAuNRmojevWRQ7S-ZX2QOXPOuC5ac/s640/vetter.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>Cinemaps by <a href="http://www.andrewdegraff.com/moviemaps/" target="_blank">Andrew Degraff</a></b><br />
Stunning axonometric maps of over 30 films charting major plot lines and characters as they move through the film's landscape.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBrb42ivfIZoaLm_clKPywGD2qAN-3r58_6pUJzyKbi_3Pu6Y454EQWdKN4QO2ZohyphenhyphenVYo2dVSvHR0zFYTqZxAE9Td0jxnATetBbEZngIBftpiC_VapIxXypL1CeT2BaP_SW5tp1jJ0zQo/s1600/degraff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="1024" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBrb42ivfIZoaLm_clKPywGD2qAN-3r58_6pUJzyKbi_3Pu6Y454EQWdKN4QO2ZohyphenhyphenVYo2dVSvHR0zFYTqZxAE9Td0jxnATetBbEZngIBftpiC_VapIxXypL1CeT2BaP_SW5tp1jJ0zQo/s640/degraff.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>The new Swiss World Atlas by the <a href="https://schweizerweltatlas.ch/en/" target="_blank">Institute of Cartography and GeoInformation at ETH Zurich</a></b><br />
A stunningly beautiful, rich and detailed atlas for secondary school children...actually, for anyone!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIGBHiGyJJXM0TTBJcFTkFHDmUKn6Gm0rKPbvVD-Z1H3oXqAAYNVIvJWBkyM4lncMHH0I6t3uU2YJM-cfYNZGzHlvspM6CPcAjZeIHgbxGQYDWWA4gDbMFOwR7gHWN3NXP2IXQi6rTjpM/s1600/swiss.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIGBHiGyJJXM0TTBJcFTkFHDmUKn6Gm0rKPbvVD-Z1H3oXqAAYNVIvJWBkyM4lncMHH0I6t3uU2YJM-cfYNZGzHlvspM6CPcAjZeIHgbxGQYDWWA4gDbMFOwR7gHWN3NXP2IXQi6rTjpM/s640/swiss.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>Blue and White Dream by anon (China)</b><br />
Making a map with only a single hue is hard. This is visually stunning, especially set within a large Chinese wall hanging. Apologies, I don't know who created it.<br />
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<b>Where the Animals Go by <a href="http://wheretheanimalsgo.com/" target="_blank">James Cheshire and Oliver Uberti</a></b><br />
OK, so the UK version was published in 2016 but the American version was definitely published in 2017 and therefore qualifies. After the success of London: The Information Capital, James and Oliver hit gold again with this award-winning atlas of over 50 great maps plotting animal movement.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmoNcqs48F0TaP1354xzzua0hPs_1DhJBgG_9jjgFcaqPVG1rbbZfz4yoXA1Ec27MmmrQZHqZvTk3sQeXcBmoxcAVdbI5BbXkziA45QnIl8a-2r0V8x9p_IooU7m0JZLxm72WCkTNzDVQ/s1600/cheshire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="589" data-original-width="1024" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmoNcqs48F0TaP1354xzzua0hPs_1DhJBgG_9jjgFcaqPVG1rbbZfz4yoXA1Ec27MmmrQZHqZvTk3sQeXcBmoxcAVdbI5BbXkziA45QnIl8a-2r0V8x9p_IooU7m0JZLxm72WCkTNzDVQ/s640/cheshire.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>San Diego Emoji map by <a href="https://www.europa.uk.com/emoji-map-wins-esri-award/" target="_blank">Warren Vick and Europa Technologies</a></b><br />
Using gridded emoji is a great idea for a one-off map.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzYojpmij52ZoyEh7uAgoJjhar6M3F1-Zph3x7Nmild706zBIWXZazXXX8WOXGtvhGe_sLEqV7eM7L9gXYFrsyXKlyC7JGEt-7IJL-3QEKbi1iDEXjgRhEpZkjm0ZtwswkKaHqB0CXWuI/s1600/emoji.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1073" data-original-width="1200" height="572" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzYojpmij52ZoyEh7uAgoJjhar6M3F1-Zph3x7Nmild706zBIWXZazXXX8WOXGtvhGe_sLEqV7eM7L9gXYFrsyXKlyC7JGEt-7IJL-3QEKbi1iDEXjgRhEpZkjm0ZtwswkKaHqB0CXWuI/s640/emoji.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>Fifty years of cyclone paths inside the Philippines by <a href="https://www.mapmakerdavid.com/" target="_blank">David Garcia</a></b><br />
Just the lines drawn by the data but revealing the shape of the islands and, with it, the scale of the phenomena.<br />
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<b>World Happiness by <a href="http://press.nationalgeographic.com/2017/10/18/national-geographic-magazine-november-2017/" target="_blank">National Geographic Magazine</a></b><br />
I'm a sucker for a multivariate Dorling cartogram Chernoff Face combo.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgURl487dUkr6B8xgthyphenhyphenHQeMAQFmro8shxkZ2HrnIE8ROGGfk50A4O3AKp_dOdCZulqObpE6hH0zlotmZVfKZa4DTVTiPd890LRHeY7aFSstgp-IFmB02JtCmcCVe38nRLUyAxmTBfb0F8/s1600/smileyface.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgURl487dUkr6B8xgthyphenhyphenHQeMAQFmro8shxkZ2HrnIE8ROGGfk50A4O3AKp_dOdCZulqObpE6hH0zlotmZVfKZa4DTVTiPd890LRHeY7aFSstgp-IFmB02JtCmcCVe38nRLUyAxmTBfb0F8/s640/smileyface.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>Lights On and Lights Out by <a href="https://adventuresinmapping.com/2017/04/18/lights-on-lights-out/" target="_blank">John Nelson</a></b><br />
Simple idea mapping the difference between NASA's 2012 and 2017 Earth at Night imagery. Exquisitely rendered.<br />
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<b>The best places to see the eclipse by<a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=90729" target="_blank"> Josh Stevens and NASA</a></b><br />
The use of clouds to show, err, the likelihood of cloudcover (and the inverse, clear skies) for the 2017 Solar Eclipse. Simple. Effective.<br />
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<b>The Melting of Antarctica by <a href="https://laurenctierney.com/antarctica/" target="_blank">Lauren Tierney</a></b><br />
Stunning spread in National Geographic. Great composition and use of angle and projection to tell this story.<br />
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<b>U.S. Airport ID requirements by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/real-ids/?utm_term=.040f93ef1a89" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a></b><br />
Neat, interactive use of the gridded cartogram<br />
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<b>Dirk's Lego World map by <a href="http://dirks-blog.tumblr.com/LEGO-world-map" target="_blank">Dirk</a></b><br />
Because...maps AND Lego!!!<br />
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<b>Hand-stitched London Underground by Tasha Wade</b><br />
Gifted to me. Unique. One-of-a-kind. Thank you :-)<br />
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<b>Trump's Ties by <a href="http://cartonerd.blogspot.com/2017/03/trumps-ties.html" target="_blank">Kenneth Field</a></b><br />
It's my list so here's my effort...I still quite like it. Won the Society of Cartographers Wallis Award too :-)<br />
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<br />Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-55046800545281231002017-09-11T10:11:00.003-07:002017-09-11T10:11:49.715-07:00Pointilist cartographyThe Washington Post have published an article that explores alternative methods for mapping elections. "<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/09/08/toward-a-more-perfect-2016-presidential-election-results-map" target="_blank">Toward a more perfect 2016 presidential election results map</a>" does an excellent job of establishing the problem of mapping totals in massively different geographical units. They don't really explain you have to normalize the totals but, instead, leap to the population-equalizing density cartogram as one alternative before quickly dismissing it as hard to read.<br />
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They then offer a map that takes precinct level data and scales the results by number of votes.<br />
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What they seem to have done is created a proportional symbol map with very small circular symbols that have been scaled across a ridiculously small size range. They've used a lot of transparency to allow overlapping symbols to build a composite patch of more opaque colour in areas with a lot of small geographical areas.<br />
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This is pointilist cartography (note, I said pointilist, not pointless). Proportional symbol maps are not new. Neither are dot density maps. This version isn't particularly innovative but it does do a very good job of mitigating the perceptual problems of widely varying geographical areas. Each place gets the same symbology treatment and, so, the map provides a well balanced mix of red and blue with a lot of white space in between. They used a symbol treatment that goes from red through white to blue with the intermediate colours reserved for marginal precincts. I like this approach. It avoids the unusual purple often used for areas that are finely balanced. It means the map brings focus to those areas that are more partisan. Of course, with a shift in the symbology you could bring focus to marginal areas if that was the map you wanted to show.<br />
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A similar approach is to use solid fills for small areas and then show larger areas as small circular symbols. Mixing the techniques on a single map can be useful and also mitigates the visual impact of large areas. Here's an illustration using the technique that I recently made for my forthcoming book. The top is a standard choropleth with a diverging colour scheme. The bottom is the pointilist version.<br />
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So, overall I really like this kind of approach to deal with perceptual issues. But the article does hide a more interesting problem. The opening paragraph is at pains to say we've been over this ground before. We have - ad nauseam. Yet so many prefer the standard choropleth and, worse, sometimes with totals. But when they suggest it's a problem for the 'designer' that's where the real problem lies. Everyone these days is a bloody 'designer'. But everything is designed. I always balk when someone tells me they're a designer. A designer of what precisely? Furniture? Buildings? UI? Maps? A cartographer knows how to map election data. They know the problems and they know the solutions that best deal with particular visual issues to get to a map that matches a particular narrative. Far too many 'designers' are busy scrambling to try and figure out how to overcome problems that have already been figured out.<br />
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Talk to a cartographer. That's their job. They know what they're doing and likely have a good solution. Pointilist cartography isn't new. I'm pleased to see articles like the one I note here picking up these techniques. I just hope they get used a little more rather than being marginalized by 'designers' who default to the standard choropleth.Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-45322351876542783482017-08-28T08:50:00.005-07:002017-08-29T09:49:49.625-07:00Too much rain for a rainbowNational Weather Service today updated its rainbow colour scheme because of the unprecedented deluge caused by Hurricane Harvey in Texas.<br />
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Harvey?src=hash">#Harvey</a> in perspective. So much rain has fallen, we've had to update the color charts on our graphics in order to effectively map it. <a href="https://t.co/Su7x2K1uuz">pic.twitter.com/Su7x2K1uuz</a></div>
— NWS (@NWS) <a href="https://twitter.com/NWS/status/902174274571689984">August 28, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
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Bravo for NWS in modifying its cartographic approach given a change in the phenomena it's mapping. Except they didn't do a very good job.<br />
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The previous classification had 13 classes. the new one simply adds two more at the top end to deal with larger rain totals. In fact, all they've done is added detail to the 'greater than 15 inches' class and sub-divided it into three classes '15-20', '20-30' and 'greater than 30'. It'd be pedantic of me to note they still have overlapping classes (they do) but the bigger problem is they retained the same rainbow colour scheme and then added two more colours...a brighter indigo and then a pale pink.<br />
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Does that light pink area in the new map above look more to you? Or perhaps a haven of relative stillness and tranquility amongst the utter chaos of the disaster? Yes, the colours are nested and so we can induce increases and decreases simply through the natural pattern - but the light pink could just as easily be seen as a nested low set of values than the more it is supposed to represent.<br />
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For a colour scheme that is trying to convey magnitude...more rain...more more more, you need a scheme that people perceive as more, more, more too. Different hues do not, perceptually, do that. Light pink does not suggest hideous amounts of rain compared to the dark purples it is supposed to extend.<br />
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We see light as less and dark as more. Going through a rainbow scheme where lightness changes throughout (the mid light yellow at '1.5-2.0' inches is a particular problem) isn't an effective method. Simply adding colours to the end of an already poor colour scheme and then making the class representing the largest magnitude the very lightest colour is weak symbology. But then , they've already used all the colours of the rainbow so they're out of options!<br />
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The very least they should have done is re-calibrated the classes to make the largest class encompass the new, out-of-all-known-range range. You can't simply add more classes when you're already maxed-out of options for effective symbolisation.<br />
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Better still, look around and learn how it should be done. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/harvey-impact/?utm_term=.cba32aed171d" target="_blank">The Washington Post </a>has made a terrific map using a colour scheme that does have a subtle hue shift but whose main perceptual feature is the shift in lightness values. So we see more, more more as the colour scheme gets darker. It's simple. it really is.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9QPFyhMSIw_ixPFvWOHTMWOG0jGpm4ARL_tK2_9eg6jhRliH8yAdkjwzwkYvD0OUL_Usqv2sqMylcpCavGfq2eTyi7mkGVi4bbwN-S5jFs6Fr9Ywdbr7lYPhjflLUkSqUjeejbZ-oyl4/s1600/wapo_rain.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="981" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9QPFyhMSIw_ixPFvWOHTMWOG0jGpm4ARL_tK2_9eg6jhRliH8yAdkjwzwkYvD0OUL_Usqv2sqMylcpCavGfq2eTyi7mkGVi4bbwN-S5jFs6Fr9Ywdbr7lYPhjflLUkSqUjeejbZ-oyl4/s640/wapo_rain.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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The scientific community continues to use poor colour schemes and poor cartography to communicate to the general public. At least the mainstream media is doing a much better job.<br />
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[Update 29.8.2017 to include the New York Times piece]<br />
<br />
New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/hurricane-harvey-texas.html" target="_blank">today published</a> one of the best maps I have seen in a long while. I mean 'best maps' of anything, not just the continuing deluge in Texas. Its simplicity belies its complexity and that's the trick with good cartography. Here's a pretty lo-res grab but <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/hurricane-harvey-texas.html" target="_blank">go to the site</a> and take a look.<br />
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They've got the colours spot on, A slight hue shift to emphasize light to dark but cleverly hooking into the way in which we 'see' deeper water as darker blue. Of course, it isn't really deeper blue but the way light is reflected, refracted and absorbed by water gives us that illusion. So, it acts as a visual anchor that we can relate to.<br />
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There's other symbology too - small gridded proportional circles that show the heaviest rainfall in each hour. The map is an animation so this gives a terrific sense of the pulsing nature of the movement of successive waves of rain (literally, waves!). The colours morph towards the higher end as the animation plays to build a cumulative total. This also has the effect of countering the natural change blindness we see when we're trying to recall the proportional symbols.<br />
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The two symbols work in harmony. And then, for those who want detail a hover gets you a graph showing the per hour total over the last few days.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMI7aGghQVBoXsYvHjnKPYIw9sSxWLKa1U_-c2o9l3AIHbkyWPQ_o8KWoyKO4J1YpXAB-J_Gjn08imXUb2oDq0YGayAU5YfYVG-RcMvV3UGXO_Gkr9DAeNwKU6WvmQakQTbLEQtQJDJIM/s1600/rainfall.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="569" data-original-width="933" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMI7aGghQVBoXsYvHjnKPYIw9sSxWLKa1U_-c2o9l3AIHbkyWPQ_o8KWoyKO4J1YpXAB-J_Gjn08imXUb2oDq0YGayAU5YfYVG-RcMvV3UGXO_Gkr9DAeNwKU6WvmQakQTbLEQtQJDJIM/s640/rainfall.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
These aren't the only maps in the NYT piece. The article is full of them. Each one carefully designed to explore a specific aspect of the disaster: the history of storms, reports, evacuations etc.<br />
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It's maps like those from The Washington Post and New York Times that prove that good cartography does exist and it matters. We really don't deserve the sort of maps that NWS pumps out. They're just really awful to look at, fail on a cognitive level and prove they haven't the first clue about how to effectively communicate their own science and data.<br />
<br />
The irony is that the NYT map uses the NWS data of the rainfall data to make their own version and prove that it's perfectly possible to make terrific maps that communicate and which once again give us more reasons to #endtherainbow. Well played.<br />
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#endtherainbow<br />
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<br />Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-11009014784699279372017-08-24T09:56:00.004-07:002017-08-24T09:56:38.429-07:00GIS mapsThere's no such thing as <i>GIS maps</i>. GIS is a Geographical Information System (by the way, it's not a GIS system). It's also the acronym for Geographical Information Science. You can do a lot by combining GI Systems with GI Science. One function of which is to make maps. But they're not a special breed. They're just maps, much like you'd make a map using many other tools.<br />
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Making maps (part of cartography) has always been a combination of art, science and technology. Get that magic recipe right and you'll make a pretty good map. If any of the three pillars drops short on quality or because of your ability to control them then you'll likely end up with a substandard map. GIS, then, is a core technology that supports cartography. It also does a lot more through its multitude of geospatial functionality. Of course, many people make maps using GIS because it's a core output. The map communicates results of analysis, illustrates natural and human conditions and tells stories. There's many different mediums of map that a GIS can support - web, animated, 3D, print, atlas etc. These are the maps. They're not <i>GIS maps</i>.<br />
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I can't recall a time during my career when I ever called one of my maps a pen map, photo-mechanical map, scribed map, MS Paint map, Coreldraw map, Aldus Freehand map, Adobe Illustrator map, Flash map, Javascript map, Silverlight map, HTML map, <i>GIS map</i> <i>et al.</i>. Maps have always been made using different technologies. They continue to be made by different technologies. Your choice of tools is underpinned by multiple influences but you don't strive to make a <i>GIS map</i>. Hopefully you strive to harness the opportunities of your chosen tools and go beyond the defaults to make a map that cannot be defined by your tool of production. Of course, no map-making software is perfect and we all work within limitations but that's always been the case with any map design and production technology.<br />
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It's true that many maps made using GIS have a similar appearance but that's the fault of the person making them because they do not go beyond the defaults. It's why you can often spot a map made using GIS because the defaults can be like a fingerprint. If not modified, line weights, styles, colours and fonts all scream of your chosen map-making software. We therefore end up with what <i>I think</i> people mean when they refer to <i>GIS maps</i> - a data dump that lacks design and has common styling characteristics and a particular visual aesthetic. I'd simply call those crap maps rather than blame the software.<br />
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Defaults are a necessity in any mouse-driven maps (see what I did there?). They give people a starting point in the software and, over time, they really have improved tremendously. But you're still expected (advised?) to then apply some art and science to make something fit for purpose because, although defaults iterate and improve, it's pretty much impossible for a piece of software to know your precise requirements. Sure, sometimes a default is fine but becoming a smarter mapmaker demands that you critically evaluate what the software gave you and adjust if necessary.<br />
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All so-called <i>GIS maps</i> are not the same. I see plenty of pretty crap maps made by people using GIS. I also see some absolutely exquisite maps. I might also say the same about maps I see by people who use Illustrator or Javascript yet no-one pigeonholes those maps by their technology de choix. It therefore strikes me as a little unreasonable to paint maps made by GIS as a special case. A map is a map.<br />
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So, just a heads up - if you tell me you've made a <i>GIS map</i> I'll immediately think it's an ill-designed data dump. If you tell me you've made a stick chart for navigating the oceans then you've just made the exception to the rule because that genuinely is a chart made of sticks (ht to Craig Williams for that!). I guess hand-drawn maps might also be a special case though, of course, pretty much all maps are made by hand, mediated by particular instruments.Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-61001657814336088332017-08-14T15:31:00.000-07:002017-08-14T15:31:04.079-07:00Map Mediocrity<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">I often get
accused of holding maps and map makers to too high a standard. I can live with that. The people who make such accusations generally demonstrate low cartographic standards and tend to use them as an excuse for their lack of taste in cartographic decency or the standard of their own maps. It's a very easy accusation for people to make to justify their own lack of standards.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">In a few weeks I'm presenting at the <a href="https://soc.org.uk/" target="_blank">Society of Cartographers</a>/<a href="http://cartonerd.blogspot.com/2017/03/uk-cartography-and-failing-british.html" target="_blank">British Cartographic Society</a> <a href="http://www.soc-archive.org.uk/mapreality/index.html" target="_blank">Maps for Changing Reality</a> conference in Durham in the UK and then, a short time after, the TOSCA 25th anniversary celebration conference on <a href="http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/whatson/whats-on/upcoming-events/2017/sep/enlightening-maps" target="_blank">Enlightening Maps</a> in Oxford. Both talks are loosely based on the idea of fake maps so I've been mulling over this idea of map mediocrity and why it is that there's a general malaise. Sure, we see some terrific maps but where are our standard bearers? What are we comparing maps to and what is the baseline of quality that we should seek?</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">I spent some time recently leafing through some beautiful maps from the 1950s and 1960s. Maps made over half a century ago by people who had nothing more than pens, rulers, scribecoat and so on. Now, granted, the collection is obviously heavily slanted towards a set of high quality work so there weren't many duds but my word, the maps were just simply beautiful. They were intricate, clear, made with a meticulous eye for detail and just superb works of art. This isn't to say fake maps never existed. They did and they came in many guises. And I'm not trying to yearn for a glorious golden age of cartography to resurface. What I hope to do is persuade people that we can up our modern game by simply taking on board some of the ethos of our cartographers of yesteryear or, at the very least, properly promote true quality in both maps and the cartographers that make them in our contemporary mapping landscape.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">So many
modern maps are fêted and held up as 'great maps' or they go viral or they're liked a gazzilion times but compare them to maps made 50+ yrs ago by likes of Hal
Shelton and you'll see them for what they are. They are mediocre at best. People's general standards are at an all time low and despite many attempts to improve people's level of expectation it seems to be against a huge tidal swell of populist, pointless and poorly made maps.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Part of the presentation in Durham will be Steve Chilton and I sharing our list of #cartofail maps ahead of the 2017 Society of Cartographer's Gromit award. And there's dozens of contenders. This will be the fourth or fifth annual award. It doesn't matter much - it's just a bit of fun really; but there is an important subtext. The need to change people's expectations and reset them to something better has to take hold at some point else we'll forever be looking at rainbow colour scales, incorrectly projected data, non-normalized choropleths, glitzy animations (and sometimes all of these on one map!) and, worse, people constantly saying how a particular map is great, or trending, as if that actually matters.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">What matters is that these people who clearly don't know the difference between a good and bad map need to stop. They need to give up the rhetoric, stop trying to sell shit and spend a little more time being considerate about cartography. Not every map is made equally. We should reserve our praise for those maps that really do offer something both functionally and visually. We should help people learn the difference and if they don't want to then they should be politely be invited to go find something else to comment on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Mediocrity breeds mediocrity. It should
embarrass people that their map, made with modern tech that supports so much gets nowhere near what
someone with a pen could do decades ago. Yet it so often doesn't. I know people who brazenly showcase maps and talk about them as if they are something genuinely new, innovative, creative and beautiful when they are anything but. The sadness is they likely aren't aware they don't know the difference. I've tried talking to some of these types of people but it's intriguing that the old accusation of holding too high a standard resurfaces. It seems that the idea that if you say it, it must be true, is the only mantra they believe because these sort of people don't care anyway. But if we held maps to a higher standard and had more quality with which to challenge their mediocrity they would eventually have to step up or move on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">We live in
an era where a lack of thinking, awareness and time spent on map design is
accepted. Study old maps. Explore the craft. See how modern gems evidence lineage and show a development in the craft. As Bruce Lee said "Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Add what is uniquely your own". But to be able to make a decent map you must first know a little about what makes one and, importantly, what makes a poor one.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Far too
many people just make noise with their daily claims of another 'great map'. Hold it
up to scrutiny. Hold them up to scrutiny. Beware hyperbole and don't give mediocrity a place in the cartographic canon. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">I don't
have particularly high standards. But I do compare work across the ages and
wonder how we became satisfied with mediocrity. I simply think if a job is worth doing it's worth doing right and that's really what I hold my own work accountable to. Mediocrity leads to fake maps or, put another way, a load of maps that ought to be considered fakes. They are dressed up but they all too often mislead the innocent.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">We should
be making maps that are so much better. A few are. Far too many fool themselves
with their own acceptance of mediocrity and they consequently translate that to their readers. We can all do better. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">I'll be
talking about this at #mapreality & #TOSCA25. Don't forget to share your examples for the 2017 #Gromit award by tweeting your favourite #cartofail maps to either me @kennethfield or Steve Chilton @steev8. If you're coming to either event then bring something to wipe that eye - you'll either be laughing or crying or both!</span></div>
Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-36241142910625866692017-06-27T09:42:00.000-07:002017-06-27T09:52:30.094-07:00Keep the user in mind<br />
I nearly splurged my Corn Flakes all over the breakfast table this morning as I saw various people begin lauding the merits of a new map tool called 'cartogram'. As an avid fan of most forms of cartogram I was immediately interested. Cartograms are hard to make...hard to make well. Was there a new tool to help?<br />
<br />
Imagine my surprise when I launched the <a href="https://www.mapbox.com/cartogram/" target="_blank">tool</a> to find it has absolutely sweet FA to do with cartograms. You take a picture, or use one and the map gets 'styled' according to colours in the picture.<br />
<br />
Cartogram?<br />
<br />
That word cartogram already has a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartogram" target="_blank">meaning</a> - a map on which statistical information is shown in diagrammatic form That surely couldn't have been too hard to find? Except Mapbox have re-appropriated the noun as a product that allows you to 'make a map style by dropping an image on the map'.<br />
<br />
It doesn't even do that. Style is so much more than just getting an algorithm to take colours from an image and then re-colour basic elements of the map. It allows you to re-colour land, buildings, water, roads and labels. Look, here's a Mona Lisa map style I made:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5AyBSjbixI4u_9IGlYcEhY1h9J3tVORKdadZ726m4-l0Jf9yFyx40VQWVCZN-w2xXBVuwZIBCtH7Hb9JFj6LgEj_Zy6nJQvsBapMmEG1PErv8_cbJezhNdZ25xfIl_u4jSBodOBL464/s1600/monalisamap.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="975" data-original-width="1433" height="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5AyBSjbixI4u_9IGlYcEhY1h9J3tVORKdadZ726m4-l0Jf9yFyx40VQWVCZN-w2xXBVuwZIBCtH7Hb9JFj6LgEj_Zy6nJQvsBapMmEG1PErv8_cbJezhNdZ25xfIl_u4jSBodOBL464/s640/monalisamap.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
And this is what happened when I tried to style my map like Google's map:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigS6G6j_qpathRsF7UAUFTr6EAfEmhF_oTnlmiT58LzwGjAVELeMoKS-q2najtGOnUA4JoVM880DwD-D0gAeYUHTNZ2PMCd6ngnV2FBkbBb-EaXJ9V-0vyXfL5CYXhukGZtk83lP1UCLs/s1600/googlemapmapbox.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="975" data-original-width="1433" height="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigS6G6j_qpathRsF7UAUFTr6EAfEmhF_oTnlmiT58LzwGjAVELeMoKS-q2najtGOnUA4JoVM880DwD-D0gAeYUHTNZ2PMCd6ngnV2FBkbBb-EaXJ9V-0vyXfL5CYXhukGZtk83lP1UCLs/s640/googlemapmapbox.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<span id="goog_130558414"></span><span id="goog_130558415"></span><br />
<span id="goog_130558414">But my point about it not really being a styling tool is evident when you do want to have some control. This is as close as I could get to Google's Map...and it isn't very close.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnd8LsmYNPCG-M-EpFtRfwvgRXiJPaYUzxcO-BIZQyNV06m4FY_Wu2Wr1IArgEVoOPBBRzyhooN5zS1hKBq9H0GnNooEXmk201vAS-J1jHVfElGc7TsgC7YFou_77W-P_fq5Umf6BT0Fc/s1600/googlemapmapbox2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="975" data-original-width="1433" height="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnd8LsmYNPCG-M-EpFtRfwvgRXiJPaYUzxcO-BIZQyNV06m4FY_Wu2Wr1IArgEVoOPBBRzyhooN5zS1hKBq9H0GnNooEXmk201vAS-J1jHVfElGc7TsgC7YFou_77W-P_fq5Umf6BT0Fc/s640/googlemapmapbox2.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Here's my final effort before I got bored...look, it's the Ron Jeremy map:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimNjEPXY-Qk_c-yemV17immNKQfW2DuR_SbsxISEbHOVGZ1dTLoJnbUrtK5XfjCeSNeRnLRyIwtEbMPDAVDcxAl4AGYESxh4bYBeCgHjWfZeKVrat542m8S9kMHws5wvgoC7RWLc7EoIo/s1600/ronjeremybox.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="975" data-original-width="1433" height="435" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimNjEPXY-Qk_c-yemV17immNKQfW2DuR_SbsxISEbHOVGZ1dTLoJnbUrtK5XfjCeSNeRnLRyIwtEbMPDAVDcxAl4AGYESxh4bYBeCgHjWfZeKVrat542m8S9kMHws5wvgoC7RWLc7EoIo/s640/ronjeremybox.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I'm sure others can be more inventive....<br />
<br />
Like I said, style is so much more than basic colouring in by numbers. It's about working with consistent denotation, about placement and typographic control. It's about careful generalization - selection, omission, simplification etc. It's about composition and the human act of making choices to reflect a particular look and feel; a certain aesthetic that ties in with the map's purpose and your desires for the map.<br />
<br />
Look, don't get me wrong. It's fun. It's click bait to get you to want to save your map and sign up. I get it. But why can't the thing have a different name. Something that neither sullies a word already in very clear mainstream cartographic use AND something that actually says what the thing does. This isn't the first time there's been a lack of invention in cartographic circles. It wasn't long ago that we saw an entire company decide to truncate its name to an abbreviated form of the word cartography itself. We use the term carto every day, but not to refer to a company.<br />
<br />
For my money it's just lazy. It's a lazy choice of name and it's mistakenly suggesting this is what map styling is all about. Come up with a decent name and sell what it is, not what you think you can get away with by corrupting a term that already exists and is well understood. Think of something original. Don't constantly look to take something and try and turn it into some sort of game.<br />
<br />
As cartographers are always told, you need to keep the user in mind. With more and more of this sort of bastardization of nomenclature all we do as an industry is confuse the hell out of people.<br />
<br />
Just to avoid confusion, here's the entry on cartograms for my forthcoming book. I am not going to change it but I'd recommend it as reading for those who just killed a little piece of cartography with their poor choice of marketing BS. By the way, the book is called Cartography. Because that's what it's about. I also wrote the entry on cartograms for the forthcoming v2.0 of the GIS&T Body of Knowledge. I'm not changing that either.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWuYv4OnJhE3lucewSHzx5iihl5jHVq114JcvZNDYf9uRE6_mLMiMFmvj3fo2C_svpfonjvihyphenhyphenx7tTQ_VVGz3deWqXm0RFf1jFdylRu3r2lZOWRKfoo4r9jJJN9UueCgAsfF2Q-AqwTEQ/s1600/cartogrampage1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="650" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWuYv4OnJhE3lucewSHzx5iihl5jHVq114JcvZNDYf9uRE6_mLMiMFmvj3fo2C_svpfonjvihyphenhyphenx7tTQ_VVGz3deWqXm0RFf1jFdylRu3r2lZOWRKfoo4r9jJJN9UueCgAsfF2Q-AqwTEQ/s1600/cartogrampage1.png" /></a></div>
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<br />Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-41208844867598534932017-03-29T13:24:00.004-07:002017-03-31T08:38:23.237-07:00UK cartography (and the failing British Cartographic Society)<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 18px;"><b>Setting the scene</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Cartography has and continues to change dramatically. Societies
that represent rapidly changing disciplines or communities of practice must also
keep pace. In my view the British Cartographic Society has not kept pace and in what follows I set out why I
hold this view and what I believe is a way forward.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">In the interests of transparency I feel it's
best to do this openly. I have expressed many of these opinions and
observations to key people so it should be no surprise to them in particular.
Making these issues public seems the only way to prompt a serious debate about the UK cartographic community and the
purpose, form and function of BCS in particular.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I've
become increasingly frustrated with the BCS because I see a failing society and one that is simply limping along. I am not alone in these
thoughts but maybe spending a few years in the U.S. makes me a little less
'British' and reserved about voicing these issues. A society that
represents those invested in it should be capable of impartially listening to
the views of its members. My thoughts stem from a passion for cartography, the people
involved, the need for a thriving community of cartographers and map-makers and
a relatively lengthy association with BCS.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I’m not alone in my thinking. Many people have privately voiced their deep concerns at how the society is shaping up and working, some expressing their view that it is going backwards and many encouraging me to speak out and convey a widely shared view of reality. I'm not going to implicate individuals because they have their own reasons for speaking out or not. This is very much my view of the society but I know I am not alone. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">It is a very long read though. It's a dissertation. It's been gestating for a few months and I'm indebted to the few people I have shown drafts to for their comments and wise words.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The crux of the matter<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">BCS is failing. Let's ask the hard questions that need asking and make the Society
actually mean and offer something going forward for UK cartography....or reconsider the very
purpose of the society and seek an alternative. I’d like to see profound change
in what is offered; a society that makes me want to belong and which is the place
I go to for my daily cartographic shot. I want to go beyond the scant reward of
a re-branded society who think newly monogrammed pencils, pens and rulers will
keep me interested. At the moment I see an error-strewn and content-less web
site, a late Journal which is getting thinner, a conference that is costly and
not particularly interesting and a rhetoric that says everything is rosy and dynamic.
It really isn’t. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">My fundamental pitch is that I'm convinced BCS is on its last legs. We (as in the community of cartographers and map-makers) should look
towards forming a new society. The best approach in my mind is one that merges BCS with the other cartography society - the Society of Cartographers.
BCS and SoC need to get round the table, cast aside personality and work
towards a solution for the betterment of cartography as a whole. Form a
brand new society that brings everyone together and starts afresh with a blank
piece of paper rather than everyone’s well-worn prejudices. Deal pragmatically
with the contested issues.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>
Cartography has changed so much that the question has to be asked why shouldn't
the professional organisations that are clinging to some desire for relevance
just disband, reform and go again? What about the Royal Society of Cartography?
We've got a geographer Prime Minister and a geographer future King. Maybe it
needs a bold step to shake off the shackles of the current and move forward
with something new and daring to which more might feel a sense of commitment, belonging,
value and purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Cartography is burgeoning. There are thousands of new people
making maps, some good, some bad and some ugly but all with something to
contribute and learn from. Make a society that reflects this and gives them a
reason to want to belong. The North American Cartographic Information Society
are managing to keep pace. They have faced many of the same sort of issues over
the last decade but my word they are thriving. Fresh. Dynamic. And I mean that
in a genuine sense rather than just words on a web site. They're on the front
foot. BCS really should look more closely at their model and while not
everything will necessarily translate there are so many great ideas that could
be harnessed. Their annual conference is a fantastic opportunity and
generates so many ideas and relationships. Currently, BCS and NACIS are the
antithesis of each other and, frankly, I hate that when I go to a NACIS event I
genuinely get excited and am challenged and when I go to BCS it's really just
to have a beer with some old friends. NACIS used to call itself a drinking club
with a mapping problem. That's an image they have rapidly shed. BCS has become
a drinking club with a drinking problem because it spends its time drowning its
sorrows in the bars of obscure country retreats. It no longer lives in the real world and is
seriously struggling for identity. It exists to exist and until someone starts
shaking things up it will continue to limp along with a whimper. Re-branding
papers some wide cracks but that's all it does.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">In short, BCS is failing because it is no longer relevant. What does it actually do?
What does it <i>really</i> offer me as a Fellow? What does it <i>really</i>
offer to individual members or, conversely, how do they support what BCS does? What do
corporate members <i>really</i> get from
their support of BCS and what can a knowledge of corporate members do for the
individual? What is <i>really</i> there to attract new people to the society? The answers are strikingly simple. At whatever level of membership
you get The Cartographic Journal and Maplines (the magazine). Corporate members
get multiple copies of publications. It’s questionable whether any other
‘benefit’ is really a benefit at all - I mean a <i>real</i> benefit. A listing on a web site and a discount on Ordnance
Survey products is a nice but marginal perk and they do not constitute a strong
motivator for joining the BCS. Corporate members get very little, if any, <i>real</i> promotion of their products<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Because in real terms members get so little, I see major issues
and failings of the society. My concerns have been forming for over a decade,
during a period of almost immeasurable change not only in cartography in terms
of the technology in particular, but also more generally with developments in
web technologies and new forms of communication and collaboration. If we take a
single disruptive change like Google Maps just think about how far everything
we do in cartography has been modified by that company in only the last 12
years. Then we look at BCS and assess
how it has responded and adapted to reflect such massive change that directly
impacts our discipline and practice and I for one see a society overtaken by
reality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I am hugely privileged in that my job means I get to travel the
world to see and share the excitement and vigor which cartography is enjoying
in many contexts. I see hardly any of that reflected in the work of BCS or when
I return to the UK for the annual symposium. The society is treading water,
relying on outmoded ideas and appearing to be rudderless. I've spoken out about various BCS issues in
the past in the hope of encouraging change but very little of real substance
ever happens. There’s a stagnant sense of familiarity about what BCS does and
it concerns me that will only lead to a slow demise as other mechanisms for
sharing, networking and learning among the community of cartography overtakes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I accept this is not just an issue for BCS because many societies
are feeling the effects of the changing world. How many companies have cancelled
or reduced their membership of societies in recent years? How many individuals of societies let their
membership lapse? I do not have access to the BCS membership database but according
to the financial report for the year ending June 2016, even with new members
joining (130 new members in 2016) there’s also a large number who resign or
fail to renew (88 in 2016). Up to this point, 2015/2016 saw a net gain in
membership but why do so many leave? In fact, are these numbers even accurate
since the minutes of the September 2016 Council meeting state that membership was
down 14% from September 2015. It doesn’t add up and you have to question what
reality is versus what published reports contain. Either way, without members a society is
nothing. Without the ability to change and attract new members who may be new
to mapmaking, but who are massively important in the wider community, a society becomes irrelevant. Yet
most of the events that BCS associates itself with are simply to staff a booth
to attract and recruit new members. To what? Without a real reason to become a
member I can’t see anything other than a decline in membership over the coming
years. Over 10% of the membership left in 2016 and more should be done to
encourage people to stay and to give them <i>real</i>
benefits rather than simply trying to find ways of ensuring the turnover of
members doesn’t result in too much net attrition year on year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">A proliferation of societies<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I've long held the opinion that BCS and SoC should merge and I
pretty much led this piece with that clear statement of a sensible way ahead. There simply aren’t
enough people involved in cartography to sustain two societies in their old image any more. In
2007, then Chief Executive of Ordnance Survey Vanessa Lawrence gave the Helen
Wallis lecture at the Annual BCS Symposium in Chester. About a minute into her
talk she stopped, looked around and asked the audience why there was a British
Cartographic Society and also a Society of Cartographers. She urged the two
societies to look at ways of coming together more often and mentioned that
elephant in the room - merger, because there simply wasn't the capacity for two
societies. Vanessa was, of course, right. There was much mumbling among stalwarts of both societies and despite occasional ‘discussions’ one side
invariably accuses the other of being intransigent. We all know why there
remain two societies. They were borne out of very different places in the 1960s
and they have survived, largely unchanged, and in the image of waves of key
members ever since. I might even go so far as suggesting it’s become a badge of
honour to remain apart during the last decade or so at least and
personalities have perhaps become a hurdle too far to overcome the differences.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I sense, in some quarters at least, that a merger is not as improbable as it perhaps has been though there remains a deep-seated discomfort. While it has been really progressive and pleasing that in both 2015 and 2016
(and now 2017) the two societies have shared a conference it has been
noticeably through gritted teeth for many. That’s provided a tangible
discomfort at the events as styles have clearly clashed but I am encouraged
that we’ve come together for three consecutive conferences which has at the
very least avoided two lots of expense and time away from our day jobs. On a
personal level I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity of seeing the two groups
of people I wish to connect with in the same place at the same time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The merged conference should be where we genuinely act as a group
of like-minded people who share one passion, albeit in different forms. Maybe
the fact that BCS seem to hold the cards in terms of the overall management of the
conference has led to some of the problems. There’s no doubt SoC are seemingly
rolled into a BCS event rather than it being a truly merged, joint event.
Perhaps BCS could relax a little and be a little more genuine in supporting a
joint event. SoC has many bright minds but the society is in peril as a
separate entity because the pot of people willing to pay for membership and
attendance at a separate event has dipped below the viable threshold. Shared
conferences are good and should continue in my view but start with a blank
piece of paper and make them genuinely shared - not simply trying to dovetail
some SoC involvement into what remains a very BCS leaning event. Do away with
the BCS/SoC branding of discrete elements and just host a mapping conference.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">There are two main societies for cartography in the UK - BCS and
also the Society of Cartographers (SoC). And that's before you add in various
other niche societies like the Charles Close Society or the larger umbrella
organisation the Association for Geographic Information. Without unique selling
points and a large reservoir of potential members a proliferation of societies
dilutes the membership of each. It’s certainly the case that at an individual
level many people have paid to be members of multiple societies. At a corporate
level, many organisations have simply felt obliged to be seen to be members
because it’s just the done thing. This situation cannot continue unless each
organization offers something markedly different. But they don’t, which is why
we see the same people and the same organisations at multiple events.
Interestingly, it seems people spend so much time and money attending national
events that you rarely see anyone from the UK at international events and so
the insular nature of UK cartography becomes self-organising.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">To me, SoC is the more progressive, agile and modern of the two
societies but it struggles with very low membership and that has implications
for the amount of work and events they can stage. BCS is arguably the more
secure of the two in terms of membership but falls back heavily on trying to
appeal to corporate cartography - whatever that actually is any more! SoC tends
to be more relaxed. BCS more formal. SoC tends to encourage more academic and
practitioner focused discourse and presentations at its events. BCS has
certainly lent more towards the business side of cartography more recently.
Academics have become a rare breed at the BCS annual symposium partly because
they need to focus their work elsewhere (where it counts) and partly because
the relatively high cost of attending symposium precludes purposeful participation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">There’s always a lot of grumbling behind the scenes and between
cohorts who align themselves more with one society over the other. Awards
dinners and ceremonies have led to grumbling. "too formal", "too
many awards". "too stuffy", alongside "we're professional
and not bunking up in student digs". "we don't do pub quizzes"
etc. People enjoy cartography and the world of mapping yet it seems that when
they come together both societies feel the need to complain about one another.
It’s tedious, particularly for those who enjoy aspects of each society and who
have been members of both for years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">For years, many have had to juggle the financial implications of
attending multiple BCS and SoC events, either trying to justify 2 separate
conferences that had much in common or, worse, trying to be in two places at
once. And what about corporate members? It’s unreasonable to ask companies to
sponsor different events and hard for them to justify doing so. It drains
resources to go to both (and more) but leads to a perception of support for one
over another if they make a choice. Asking people to give up time from their company
jobs to attend multiple events with similar content is simply too demanding and
leads to people and organisations to seriously question the relevance and worth
of attending or supporting. And so, when societies do come together, it
shouldn't be too difficult just to accept each other's idiosyncrasies because
the whole really is so much better than the sum of the parts. Maybe that's the
problem - people are simply too entrenched in the style of the society they prefer
and become tribal about their distaste for how the other's prefer their
society. But we're all one cartography - surely we're already in a small enough
club to be able to develop a society that meets the needs of all of us?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">BCS Council and composition<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">In the face of massive change in cartography, for BCS, there
exists an unhealthy old school club mentality that largely stems from the
structure it maintains and the (lack of) turnover of key people. You can call
it a Council but in truth it’s better framed as a club that key members have
shaped over many years. They seem to like it the way it is and change, or the
suggestion of change, is not met favourably, if at all. Maybe it’s just become
too easy to roll out the same formulae year on year. Members of Council are
familiar with many of the same people having been involved for many years. Empires
have been built and cliques formed. In some respects this is inevitable because
you form close working relationships, get on with some people and perhaps not
so well with others. But let’s not forget this is a volunteer organization and it’s
not healthy that if you aren't in the club you struggle to find a place in the
club.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Why don't new people come to the fore more? Partly because Council
has become the closed shop I’m speaking about. It's become an echo chamber and
people can all too easily see that they don't belong or cannot have a genuine
and meaningful purpose for getting involved. The rhetoric may be one of
welcoming all to take part but the reality is that people are nominated and
seconded and then elected by a very small, inward looking set of people. It's become
incestuous and has been getting worse for several years. Of course, the counter
argument is the society would fold without these key individuals and to an
extent that's a valid observation. But I hear a lot from inside BCS about how
so many simply don't have the time to do things for the society because the
effort of overcoming the hurdles at Council level becomes too time-consuming in
itself. It’s understandable given the number of competing events as well as
heavy workloads people inevitably carry but it’s important that if people are
going to step up they have proper support and a defined role. At the moment,
people get elected and then can end up doing very little, or simply repeating
what they already know from their small circle of people in the industry. It's
not a good model for developing a society and bringing on board new people and
new ideas to reflect the changes we see more generally. It also leads to those
who do try their hardest to become disillusioned through a lack of others
pulling their weight or renaging on agreements. In a small community everyone
needs to contribute else it becomes a society with small initiatives that come
and go rapidly as people’s energy rapidly depletes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The lack of rotation on Council is a reflection of BCS not
offering much more generally so new people don’t have any real reason to want
to get involved. Discounts at Stanfords
and for OS maps are the latest ‘benefits’ but anyone can buy offerings from
both places cheaper elsewhere so in real terms the benefits are worthless. The
perception of what constitutes a benefit is irrelevant at the level of the
individual. It does little to encourage membership and why would focusing
energy on working on a Council that seeks these deals be seen as something
worth giving up valuable time for? Many of Council’s other work is a huge
time-sink as well because the work is largely done by a few core individuals. The same people are seen everywhere which
becomes the image of the society. Take Restless
Earth as an example of something useful that BCS does. It’s a good initiative
in many respects but let’s be frank - it doesn’t support members, it won’t
attract new members, it is expensive and money could be diverted elsewhere to
make a bigger difference to members or to more people who might consider being
members. This in turn could help to revitalize the society and bring new people
and ideas to Council.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">So some of the bodies on Council change a little but what new
initiatives have come about in, say, the last 5 years? I've been privy to the
minutes of Council meetings for the best part of a decade or more and they are little
more than repetitive talking shops. It's mostly about house-keeping and
deciding on really rather petty stuff to support the function of Council itself.
There's so little real discussion about genuine ideas but instead, just the
stuff that keeps the status quo ticking over. Action items are routinely held
over as ongoing or written off as complete but there's no real evidence and no
real need for an outcome anyway. Many people’s attendance at Council has been
sparse though it could be argued that Council is probably too large anyway.
It's also become very autocratic with much being decided at Presidential level
through email with a few key people. Sometimes this ends up being tabled at
Council as a fait accompli or decisions are simply implemented. It’s
understandable because this can be a way of subverting the tedium of a Council
meeting to get things done but if Council and the committee structure no longer
supports the need for more agile thinking and action then change the
structure. It just makes Council weak
and a relic of a former structure that no longer meets the needs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Even if a Council is retained it also needs to modernize. Spending
money getting everyone to London four times a year for meetings seems
profligate when it's already a challenge keeping a relatively small society
running. Technology supports very good conference calling these days. Think how
much money BCS would save on travel and subsistence just by doing this twice a
year instead of convening in London four times a year. Telephone and video
conferencing is a fundamental part of modern communication. It’s how the world
has modernized. Distance is no barrier to communication and the UK isn’t that
big anyway and I would strongly argue that at least 90% of Council’s business
could be done remotely. This would minimize the impact on individuals,
notionally giving them back time that could be used more productively.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The expenses policy for BCS Council members is archaic and also
needs modernizing. As a fee-paying
Fellow I find it quite objectionable that part of my fees go towards supporting
Council member’s hotels, travel, meals and wine. I do think officers of the
Society should be entitled to some financial support but as part of a policy
that works to benefit the society. BCS should not have to spend what it does on
travel and subsistence. This is money that can be spent elsewhere and be of
benefit to the society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">BCS events and activities<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">For a society to function properly, it needs to offer events and
functions. It needs to give people a reason to belong. It needs online
discussion forums and meetups. It needs to support genuine networking and
collaborative opportunities. Take this last year for instance. There's
certainly been activity on the Restless Earth workshops, Restless Earth
certainly gives good PR and the schools and children get great value but it’s
really just become a vanity project. And
is it really offering insight into the world of cartography? Even Restless
Earth needs modernizing. Exploring paper maps on tables is great in many
respects but the exercises should have been using web-based materials for at
least the last 5 years. Why haven't the paper maps been augmented with cutting
edge web mapping? It's not because offers to re-shape the programme into a
web-offering haven't been forthcoming. They have. They're just met with
scepticism and apathy and so the offers of help are not taken up and so
progress is painfully slow. Cartographic education at whatever level has
moved on tremendously in the last decade but it’s gone beyond what we might
have once called ‘cartography’. GIS is absolutely vital and Restless Earth
could so easily support analytics or web mapping. My own feeling is that too
many of those who have supported Restless Earth are not sufficiently skilled in
modern practice to deliver the required content. Yes, they give of their time
and that is a credit to them as individuals, but showcasing a cartography of
the past perpetuates the myth that cartography is an old art. These are
children growing up in the age of the Internet of Things, X-box realism and so
forth. Showing them a few paper maps just does not cut it anymore. I know many
hark back to the ‘good old days’ but that is not how to run a society equipped
for the modern day. As a society, BCS needs to be at the fore with their events
and the people that run them...not offering glimpses into the past. And why
would schools want to become members? What's on offer? Where's the next level
for these schools and children? While a lot of effort goes into the
Restless Earth initiative perhaps it's too much because it does not benefit the
vast majority of members of the society. And why have I focused heavily on
Restless Earth? Because there is precious little else. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The Fellows evenings and autumn lectures have often taken the form
of a speaker and a reception over recent years. For understandable reasons (one
of our members can secure the venue) use has been made of the RAF Club in
Piccadilly but I’m afraid this doesn’t present the society in a way that
resonates with many. Having to ensure you’re attired according to the rules of
the club and submit your name beforehand is not welcoming. It’s another example
of the perception of many that BCS represents a bygone era of cartography. Last
year’s autumn lecture was held in mid-afternoon and that’s just not helpful for
people to be able to attend. BCS is
simply out of step with what it deems attractive to members or Fellows in this
respect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The Better Mapping series has become tired as well. In 2016 there
were numerous cancellations to Better Mapping seminars. It's unsurprising given
attendees were being charged to attend the day long sessions. Low uptake is
inevitable. Ten years ago this model worked but these days people (anyone, not
just members) can get far more tuition via the internet so shelling out to
attend a course needs to have more than a few people (that many are likely
never to have heard of) showing PowerPoints. Times have moved on and while we
might privately agree that a day with experts is better than whatever you can
scrape from the internet it's an incredibly tough sell. People get their
education from many other places these days. Even Universities and companies
are giving away tuition as pump primers or simply to provide them with
visibility. Look at the incredibly successful Penn State University MOOC on the
Geospatial Revolution for instance – 70,000 people have taken that course for
free. The payback is that dozens have enrolled for their fee-paying MSc course
and so the cost of developing the MOOC yields very real benefits. And what of
the Maptime initiative which has spread from the idea of a few friends to over
70 separate Chapters globally in 2016.
Maptime could have been a BCS idea except it wasn’t. It was created by
people searching for a place or ‘club’ to meet, network and share ideas about
mapping. They shunned mainstream societies because they didn’t offer anything
and, instead, went out on their own to make something that inspired them.
Companies are also building their own materials to support the wider community
of cartography. Mapbox have all manner of tutorials. Individuals created
content such as MapSchool, Adventures in Mapping and other great material. Among a range of outreach activities, at Esri
we build MOOCs too and there’s cartography news on the horizon too. It could so
easily have been a BCS initiative but it isn’t and that opportunity has now
also slipped. I raised the idea of a cartography MOOC with the President a year
ago but there were simply too many barriers to getting the work done and doing
it under the BCS banner. When I suggested it in an email to BCS a year ago I
was invited to put it together on my own. That simply wasn’t helpful. When I
proposed the idea at work it immediately got traction, we held meetings to plan
and put in place strategies and resources to get the thing done. Until BCS can
properly support ideas from members then successive initiatives will pass the
society by.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Better Mapping still has a place but it simply has to be free to
attend. The content also needs an overhaul. Make it useful, relevant and get
some big names to deliver key talks. It needs big names, and I mean big. It
needs people that others are really wanting to see and hear from to attract
people...not just whomever volunteers from BCS Council. Yes, we might
know who our close network of people are and what their cartographic chops are
but most others have never heard of us.
Beyond the personel, again, look at other meetup models like Maptime –
it genuinely works and encourages participation. Sponsorship comes in the form
of free pizza supplied by CARTO for the evening. It’s informal and
practice-focused. It’s led by people who are keen and want to learn as well as
share ideas. Many other meetups offer free beer. There are many people
providing online courses or meetups like Maptime these days and hardly any are
BCS members. If BCS wants to be relevant in this area of offering professional
guidance, tuition and seminars it needs investment to make it top class, to
make it compelling and to make people really want to attend. It’s simply not sufficient
to claim to be an authority if there is no mechanism to evidence that to those
who we seek to help or influence. Alternatively, why don’t BCS turn these
meetups into opportunities to sponsor – e.g. Maptime, sponsored by BCS. If the
new mapmakers aren’t coming to BCS then swallow your pride, dig into your
pocket and go to them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Even when events do get people through the door BCS does hardly
anything to encourage them to stay. At Symposium in 2016 I offered a one-day
free workshop on Better Mapping with ArcGIS. It got over 60 people in
attendance. I did it to give something back to cartography, Of course, I get to
showcase the tech of my employer and I get to share workflows and ideas which
provides me with a business case to do what I do for free at the point of
delivery. Crucially though, it was on topic and based on something people
wanted and all of the data, maps and resources were freely given to attendees. And
it was free to attend with a lunch provided for by Esri UK through sponsorship.
A simple but effective way of reducing barriers for people who just wanted to
come along and learn and not worry about the impact on their wallet or their
need to bid for company support for a paid-for event. I know BCS saw it as an opportunity to
encourage people to stay on for the full conference (which is part of the
reason pre-cons are hosted) but I believe only around 10 people stayed on –
many of whom would have come for the main conference anyway – which was not a
good rate of conversion by any stretch. What that told me was something very
clear. People were happy to come to Cheltenham for a day to join in with the
free day but they were neither willing to spend on the over-priced
accommodation to stay longer or sufficiently motivated by the programme to
warrant staying. The evidence is there...give people what they want at a price
they want to pay (often free) and that helps people. I got some great feedback
from that pre-con but where was the effort by BCS to capitalize on those people
and to get them to stay for the conference or get them to join the society? There
were so many ways in which participants could have been given incentives to
stay but it was another opportunity missed. Those who came had a good time and,
I hear, left impressed with what I shared with them. It would certainly have
been nice to have seen BCS stalwarts try to capitalize on it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">A Better Mapping with QGIS event was also held in November at
Ordnance Survey but here's the killer - it was 40 GBP for BCS members and over
80 GBP for non-members. Why? If you want to give back to the community...give
back. It was hugely ironic that a day’s event on mapping based on the use of a
proprietary product was free yet the event based on the open-source product
incurred a fee to join in. There
certainly weren't 60 people in attendance but even at 30 people and a modest
estimated income of 2000 GBP I fail to see what charges needed covering?
Accommodation was presumably not charged for by Ordnance Survey (if it was,
they should have gone elsewhere). Did speakers get travel and subsistence? I
don’t know but my feeling is that they shouldn't. I didn’t claim anything for the pre-con in
Cheltenham but maybe there’s an assumption my employer can support my
participation because of who they are – that’s certainly been an assumption
I’ve heard in the past. The sort of assumption that particular companies can
soak up costs only goes so far and the will runs out eventually. Again, maybe a
decade ago the model was different but BCS simply cannot be a society who
appear to have to charge for events such as this. Find a way to offer the same
or better for free to many more people. There are surplus funds in the BCS
coffers so it becomes rather invidious to be seen to be charging a fee. That
said, if BCS continue to shed reserves at the same rate as in 2016 (a 17,000
GBP loss) then a root and branch assessment of the finances certainly needs to
take into account how events are managed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">When you look at the events BCS puts on it doesn’t extend much
beyond the symposium anyway. Each of the President’s bulletins ends with a list
of events of interest to the community and most have the * Not Organised by the
BCS strapline. When a member’s bulletin does little more than advertise other
events you need to question what the society actually puts on itself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">My sense is these sort of on-site professional seminars have had
their day and others are doing them far better and much cheaper. A better
option might be for BCS members to spend time making high quality materials in
the form of web content, datasets, maps, presentations, videos, how-tos and
then to send them to people around the country to host free local events. A
network of mini BCS club nights or joining with others to sponsor their events.
It’s the Maptime model but done properly it works, is far less in terms of
expense and encourages local participation. It also massively reduces the need
for the same people to traipse around the country on expenses. Start with a few
key players and then roll it out across more places. There could even be remote participation by a
‘visiting expert’ via Skype or similar.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">BCS re-branding, products
and communications<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">We also saw a re-branding exercise in 2016. An inordinate amount
of time, energy and cost has gone into the re-branding and for what? Gone is
the classic logo and Galliard typeface. In its place a blocky logo and Gotham
typeface selected after a hurried and somewhat limited consultation phase.
Gotham. That most American of fonts which was commissioned by GQ magazine and
came to prominence in the Obama Presidential campaign. No typeface screams
'American' more than Gotham. This is the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>British</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Cartographic Society. The Cartographic
Journal has taken on the appearance of the Bulletin of the Society of
Cartographers with its new cover design but it retains the same internal layout
in what is now a horrible mismatch. The Pantone blue of the new society colour
scheme is likely the very same as SoC too. And the web site...the very<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>shouty</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>web site with overtly large fonts.
Let's be clear...this is a society about cartography and the design, look and
feel should reflect the professionalism. What we now have is a generic web
site, a generic font and a somewhat generic look and feel. There is nothing
that's really distinctive. Nothing that really sets BCS apart or invites
people's curiosity. And you know the trap has been well and truly fallen into
when you read that the society is 'exciting' and 'dynamic'. The web site is chock-full
of this sort of rhetoric but woefully short on real substance and content.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying for one minute that a
little sprucing up wasn't needed. The web site needed seriously updating and
The Journal may as well be part of the overhaul but...at what cost? The web
site is nothing more than a skinned WordPress site. And it cost a lot of money
(I'm led to believe in the order of 8000 GBP and that’s without factoring in
on-costs such as hosting). Couldn't this have been done by a member on Council
or even offered to members as a project? We skin WordPress sites for ICA web
sites. It takes a matter of hours. It's not difficult and somewhere in the BCS
membership someone should have been up to it. This is another example of the
people on Council making decisions without necessarily possessing the necessary
skills to take BCS forward by knuckling down and doing the work themselves. And
while changing the colours and typeface are, to an extent, a matter of taste,
all they've done is papered over the very obvious cracks underneath. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">A crucial question when reviewing the quality of a web site is to
reflect on how often you visit and for what? Go on – ask yourself. My answer is
virtually never. Where is the content? What need do I have to go to the web
site at all? It offers very little and with all of the other social media and
web-based content that gets delivered direct to me there's no need to visit the
web site to get any news or other information. I even took time when it was
first released to go through and de-bug. I found copious broken links and pages
that lacked content. I even managed to log in to the administrator page where I
could have done untold damage but even Russian spies can’t be bothered as
there’s nothing in there to change. I just checked – I can still get to the
administration page…crazy! [update: as of checking on 30th March I can no longer access the admin page]. Some bugs have been fixed, many were not but the
bigger problem with the web site is that up-to-date and frequently posted content
is sorely lacking. Other societies have daily or weekly posts or blogs. Many
have professional discussion forums and live job postings and other crucial
information. Not the BCS site. It remains horribly static and even hides
publications like Maplines in a members-only area. Members get the print copy. Why not give the
world a digital copy to show what BCS is doing? Hiding content helps no-one.
The BCS social media presence is also lacking. Who does it actually speak to
any more?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Frankly, Google provides a far more useful site to find out about
cartography, the people involved in cartography, the companies they work for
and so on. I go to the Cartotalk forum for daily discussions. Why doesn’t BCS
build a similar discussion forum for the UK/European contingent of
cartographers. Why doesn't the web site have a featured map section or a
featured cartographer? Where are the interviews with award winners? Where is
the daily feed of interesting carto-nuggets? There are so many opportunities
for sections and content but the reason it's bereft of up-to-date content is
that it relies on people doing stuff. That's why the web site is fairly static
and that's why Maplines has historically always struggled to get copy in on
time - although hilariously early in 2016 they had to jettison the piece on the
award winners due to having too much content. Priorities! And in 2016 we get a
randomly sent President's bulletin as a PDF. Really? The contents are hardly
worth downloading the latest version of Adobe Reader. A general blurb about how
vibrant the society is and what events a few key people are attending to man a
booth followed by a few nuggets culled from one or two social media feeds
(including my blog). Granted, not everyone uses social media as a way to stay
informed and there's a place for other modes of communication but we're
proliferating communication conduits: Journal. Web Site. Maplines. President's
Bulletin...the semi-abandoned blog; intermittent Twitter and Facebook posts.
Under the last President, Pete Jones kept a really rather nice monthly
President's blog of interesting comment and it's a shame that wasn't built
upon. Web sites that invite people to return and see value require investment
in time and effort. A redesign does not do the job of attracting or keeping
people. Content does that. Even at its basic level content is out of date or
erroneous. Even today as I write in early 2017 it includes details of the
forthcoming conference at Cheltenham as well as multiple other pieces of
misinformation, broken content and pages not found.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">What of the little Cartography book? It was/is a fantastic piece
of work but without a wider distribution it's just not on people's radar. It
was a ridiculous decision not to allow a third party publisher the rights to
reprint and distribute. It's been in high demand and it's shooting the society
in the foot being so precious about it. By now it should be a downloadable PDF
or, better still, a series of web pages with exercises that schools and
interested individuals can tackle. It could even have how-tos and examples up
there on the web site and act as a basis for people (e.g. members) to add to
with their own workflows and content – practical tips etc. The web is the
perfect place for this sort of content but alas all we’re told is that there’s an
updated edition in the pipeline.
Printing this sort of material and selling it is no longer a suitable
mechanism for the sort of simple, basic content it communicates. Augmenting it
with short videos showing how we work, or reviews of great maps pointing out
why they are considered great. The opportunities to build upon the little book
are massive. It’s been nearly ten years since it was published and I’m afraid
BCS has once again failed to capitalize on the idea and the product. What about
a BCS YouTube account with a series of videos based on the book’s content?
Actually have people show, share and teach the ideas. I love that little book
but times move on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Let me turn to The Cartographic Journal with which I have had most
input regarding my own personal contribution to BCS. I was Editor for 9 years
and I was largely left to do the job because nobody stopped me. In the end I
called time when I decided I had had enough because it’s a tiring and
time-consuming (volunteer) job. My involvement with the Publications Committee
and Council was virtually non-existent and so The Journal was produced with
very little input from Council. I left the Journal in a good place with many
papers through review and lined up. There was no great search for a new Editor
and despite my suggestion that the post should be at least advertised there was
a quiet succession to the then Assistant Editor with whom I switched places to
assist a period of transition. And then, to the surprise of everyone on
the Journal's Editorial Board, news of a change in publisher to Taylor and
Francis, as part of their takeover of Maney Publishing, emerged. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Let me be clear - at no time were members of the Editorial Board properly
consulted on the ramifications of this change. It seemed a perfect time
to reconsider many aspects of the Journal but a decision was made to just fall
under the T&F umbrella because it was the path of least resistance. During
the last two years we've faced the pitiful situation of every issue being late.
It's simply not good enough and despite claims to the contrary it is not entirely
the fault of T&F. Of course there would be teething problems but
having got the Journal back on schedule I know how much work it takes to keep
it on schedule. It is painful and time consuming but it falls on the Editor and
the team to ensure content is lined up and ready to go. This clearly hasn’t
happened. I know many on the Editorial Board have not been asked to do any
Journal work during the last couple of years which strikes me as astonishing. BCS
received compensation to the tune of over 4,000 GBP from T&F for their part
in the Journal being late but what has been done with this money? Have members
been compensated? Perhaps the money has gone to fund a special project? Or has
it just gone into the coffers to shore up the loss from 2016?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">There are other issues with the Journal too. During my time as
Editor I often raised the issue of considering moving it to become an open
publication. At a time when many
publications are considering going open or moving to online it seemed sensible
to find ways of moving our respected but niche publication to engage more
readers and build its reputation. Instead, BCS chose to allow T&F to just
add it to their stable which also includes The Journal of Maps and the new
International Journal of Cartgoraphy as well as a plethora of GIS and Remote
Sensing titles. Despite persistent claims to the contrary, The Journal has
never been considered a member benefit by the majority of members. How many
members read it? How many members even want it? It’s an academic journal and
supports academic discourse. That it was launched out of the BCS in 1964 is of
great credit and pride for the society but it needs to be cut loose and not
seen as something that speaks directly to members. It needs a much wider readership than it
currently enjoys. At the moment I can’t be bothered to read half of the
articles because they are published so late and I’ve often seen the work
elsewhere on the internet anyway. I just
read an article published on a blog with the statement that it had been
submitted to The Cartographic Journal. I’d wager that it doesn’t get published
until at least 2018. T&F need to be doing more to find ways of making The
Cartographic Journal independently viable. It builds a financial surplus for
BCS but it needs to be doing something different for the community more
generally and certainly for members. Cartographic Perspectives is free, thriving
and enjoying a much wider distribution. The new International Journal of
Cartography can expect to take some papers away from The Cartographic Journal
over the next few years. The Cartographic Journal is not thriving. It is doing
OK but it needs to stabilize and then explore how it could do so much more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Of course, the BCS President took over the Editorship from me and
he knew of the immense time commitment that came with the role. When he subsequently
became President of BCS I suggested he hand over The Journal to someone else to
ensure it got the time and attention it required. I (and others) doubted he
could do both jobs. I don't see how one person (any person) can be President of
a Society, Editor of the flagship Journal, as well as doing his own job and
having involvement elsewhere in other societies and professional bodies. The
work needs sharing else every job gets short-shrift. I make no apologies for
sharing the advice I gave the President on this count. It still stands and I
feel that it would help The journal to be handed to someone who has the time to
give it the attention it needs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I’ve covered the existing major titles in the BCS stable but we
shouldn’t stop there. So many other societies are evaluating their mechanisms
for engagement. I’ve mentioned that ICA have their new International Journal of
Cartography and that other journals are being made open access to meet changing
needs. Others, still, are experimenting very successfully with other forms of
output. For instance, NACIS are now in their third volume of their hugely
impressive Atlas of Design and have announced Editors for a fourth edition.
This is an atlas of submitted work which is sifted, curated and then built into
a beautiful atlas by a team of committed members of the society. It’s such a
simple idea. Why haven’t BCS come up with something similar? Yes, we had the
Anniversary book which was terrific but build on it – take the idea of curated
sets of maps forward with new ideas. We had the Landmarks in Mapping book to celebrate
the 50<sup>th</sup> Anniversary of The Cartographic Journal but it remains
missing from the web site as a BCS publication so even when people do make
effort there’s precious little ongoing effort made to promote. If that’s the
sort of encouragement people see for spending time on getting ideas into print
I see why BCS members don’t want to commit more time but in truth there should
be no lack of ability to build a UK version of the Atlas of Design. I’m quite
sure there are other ideas too that showcase cartography and which could be badged
as BCS. There’s the small book on cartography. But what about a big book too?
Another void that will soon be filled by others where BCS could have found
opportunity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">BCS, UKCC and ICA<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Inevitably this section is going to veer into territory that may
seem more personal but I feel compelled to share these experiences as a way of
shedding light on the way the society is run.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Were it not for a trip to a bar on Friday 28th August 2015 in Rio
de Janeiro where the incumbent President and I chatted I may well have become
President of BCS. On that evening, three days before the deadline for
nominations, I was the sole nominee for President and Alex was the sole nominee
for Vice-President. By the time ballot
papers were distributed there were two nominees for President and none for
Vice-President. That’s politics! More alarming is that year on year the process
for nominating members to Council or for various posts passes with barely a
whimper. The voting is even worse with less than a 10% turnout more than a
common occurrence (i.e. maybe 70 or fewer people actually vote). So the cycle
continues and the same faces are voted onto Council. When you see the nominations document it’s
clear that nominations come from those largely on Council who nominate those
who’ve already been on Council or who are close friends. I lost by a relatively
narrow margin but I was unsurprised not to win. The model and the process
in place supports the continuation of the status quo. But it could be
different. What about getting students involved and giving them a voice on
Council (a very successful approach used by other societies)? What about a
clear process for succession so a V-P always becomes the next President, has 2
or 3 years then has to step down to Past-President with very specific roles
identified (e.g. symposium management)? There are just many ways to find a way
to elect people and this ought to be considered going forward, particularly
when the normal turnout is almost so low it’s barely worth holding an election.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">There are roles on Council but they are diluted among a range of
sub-committees with numerous people sitting across numerous committees. It
really just needs one committee and dedicated responsibilities assigned to
people who have the clear time and commitment to carry them out. In a
volunteer organisation there is no time or place for people to sit on Council
as a vanity project. The reality is that many people get onto Council and then
either opt out of doing the required work or find that the demands of the role
are more than they are able to commit to. Conversely, the busy people find they
get even busier and have to say no to taking yet more roles. People also get
elected when it's clear they actually do not have the skills to offer the
society but posts need filling. Yes, many of them are decent people and I count
a good number as friends but you need much more to run a society than a
collection of mates, nominated and voted onto Council by mates. I can
understand why it becomes easier to run the society as an autocracy given the
numerous sub-committees and demands but it's really no way to govern. I've been
aware of some really messy issues during the last year which really could have
been handled much better. Accusations, counter accusations, ignored or 'lost'
emails and miscommunication are really no way to run a steady ship but when
personalities begin to come to the fore, the cliques clash and there are
casualties. It’s bound to happen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">BCS is awash with committees with perhaps the oddest being the UK
Cartographic Committee. This is a largely self-organising group of people who
are supposed to represent the depth and breadth of the UK cartographic
industry. Except it’s really a sub-committee of BCS and, so, cannot ever be fully
independent. It has become a largely
irrelevant quango. It supposedly acts as an interface between BCS and the International
Cartographic Association (ICA). Again, it’s populated by many of the same
people over the same years and doesn’t achieve very much. Actually, I can’t
recall a time when the composition of the committee changed so one has to
question its impartiality as it does seem to be set up to serve its own needs,
whatever they actually are. Even in the
most recent Maplines (Winter 2016) the report from UKCC was that they didn’t
meet because there was no business to discuss and while they spun the argument
as saving money for the society (largely through notclaiming travel and
subsistence expenses) the committee shouldn’t be a drain on BCS anyway. How
many members even know that BCS funds this committee along with monies to
support people’s attendance at ICC every two years? Even if UKCC is designed to
be the UK’s reporting structure to ICA the least you’d expect is it did those
jobs properly. It doesn’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">One of the roles is to compile a National Report to submit to the
ICA General Assembly every four years. Instead of the committee being in a
position to author this, a weak trawl for contributions is made and a thin
report formed out of what responses are received. Hardly comprehensive or,
indeed, a solid reference point for UK Cartography. It’s partial at best and
the defense to that criticism is a 'lack of response' to calls for content. But
where is the real engagement and effort? It takes more than an email or two so
we end up getting National Reports reflecting the work of people, you guessed
it, on BCS Council or who are vaguely active members of BCS. As the National
Report is published as an issue of The Cartographic Journal we also end up with
a very thin issue which does two things. Firstly it uses up an issue of an
academic journal for bland copy and, secondly, because it’s thin it leaves the
Editor with the unenviable task of balancing the year’s page budget (96pp per
issue, 384 pp per annual volume) by ensuring a fat issue elsewhere. As Editor,
I suggested over 6 years ago that the 2011 National Report should either be
digital or an additional issue in the years it’s needed. The suggestion received
scant attention and was rejected. 2019
will see the next National Report. Make it an insert, a digital only issue, a
pen drive distributed to national delegates at ICC. Anything! Just don’t waste
an issue of an academic journal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">UKCC is also charged with organising entries to the ICC Barbara
Petchenik map competition. This is routinely embarrassing as the UK has had
either none or very few entries. It’s truly astonishing that we can't get a
load of schoolkids to draw some maps. UKCC hides behind excuses for this as
well with claims of it being difficult to organize etc. No, it’s not. You
compel people in BCS or UK Cartography more generally to get their own children
to draw a map. You get those schools who are BCS members to take a lead and
generate content. You engage the schools who’ve been involved with Restless
Earth to organize their own competitions to generate content. You organize a
British map competition for school kids and take the very best to the ICC. You
use social media to capture the attention of people. The US are doing it. And
doing it successfully. BCS could generate a huge amount of exposure as a
society that gets our children to participate. Instead, every time the
Petchenik competition gallery is displayed at ICC we see multiple submissions
across multiple age groups from many countries and, at best, a handful of UK
entries. Frankly it’s embarrassing. I agree it’s hardly the most important aspect
of the working of BCS or UKCC but it’s an indicator. It’s an easy way to get
exposure on the world stage and to encourage our children to get into some
mapping but we routinely miss the opportunity. I was pleased to see recently
that Ordnance Survey were promoting it via their own blog but it didn’t appear
on the BCS web site until 3<sup>rd</sup> March – only one month before the
deadline. It’ll be interesting to see what entries these two rather paltry
efforts at garnering interest actually receive. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">So UKCC needs its own shake-up or perhaps just get rid of it
altogether as an unnecessary committee, save the money and get people to do the
work as a role on BCS Council instead. If, as seems to be the case, the UK
seems not to want to bid to host an ICC any time soon then there seems little
point having UKCC anyway. And why don't we want to host an ICC? Maybe it's that
problem of 'too much effort required' again? Yes, the finances may be a
challenge but there's no reason it couldn't work and it's a disgrace that the
UK feels unable or unwilling to want to bid to host an ICC. Every now and then
it gets raised but immediately disregarded and that’s more an indictment on
those who run and sit on this committee and BCS Council than anything else.
Yes, of course organizing a major conference takes a lot of time, effort and
funding (though this last bit can be mitigated through careful planning and
sponsorship). But it smacks of a lack of real energy that people don’t want to
actually bother putting the effort in. Of Course, it may also be the case that
these people actually prefer the opportunity to visit far flung places rather
than stay at home and do the hard work themselves. It is hard work organizing a
conference of that there is no doubt but the UK should want to be a destination
for others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The ICA is not exactly immune to politics either and I’ve often
suggested it runs like a combination of the IOC and FIFA rolled into one. It’s
fascinating seeing how dozens of nations come together every couple of years
yet keeping the peace amongst all their differences is a phenomenal challenge.
The last year or so has me scratching my head once more. Every four years,
Chairs of ICA Commissions have to be re-nominated by their host country.
As a UK citizen this means I go through the UK Cartographic Committee to
seek nomination and it is up to UKCC whether to support the nomination. Of
course, questions were raised when re-nominations were due in 2015 given I'd
recently moved to the US. Where I actually live and work is irrelevant as I’m a
UK citizen. Representing the UK as a Chair of an ICA Commission is something I
place great importance upon but it was uncomfortable having to listen to people
question my involvement. More recently, contributing my maps to the UK
submission for the ICC International Map Exhibition has also been questioned. It’s
hard when you want to continue to support your own country to be told your work
can likely not be considered because of politics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The conflict between politics and personality is a persistent
problem though. I was asked by several members of the incumbent ICA Executive
to put my name forward to the UKCC stand for ICA V-P back in 2014. It was an
honour to be asked so I completed the relevant forms and submitted them to the
Chair of the UKCC as required. Again, it’s up to the UKCC to support a
nomination as they are the body responsible for putting forward UK candidates
for any ICA post. I then subsequently learnt that the Chair of the UKCC was
also putting his name forward. This is, of course, his right but there’s a
clear conflict of interests when the Chair is able to see other nominations
before drafting his or her own. A
sub-group of three people were appointed by the Chair to appear to remain
impartial in deciding whether his or my nomination (or anyone else – I do not
know how many others submitted nominations) was put forward as the UK's nominee
for V-P. It really came as no real surprise that the Chair of UKCC became the
UK nominee for ICA V-P and, as the National Delegate with voting rights at the
ICC General Assembly then became an ICA Vice-President at the Rio ICC.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">It really doesn’t matter that these stories are borne out of
personal experience. It's just shabby politics whomever is involved. Having
become an ICA V-P, how the same person can also find time to remain as UKCC
Chair or sit on Council of BCS is questionable...it's a question of time
commitment once again but the same people get the same advantage across the
various BCS committees. I was told that ‘my time would come’ which was a little
patronizing. An ICA V-P can seek two terms – so 8 years. Currently I have the
time, skills and passion for such a role and I was encouraged to seek
nomination from those within ICA who wanted to get a younger group of people
involved. I’ll be in my mid-fifties when the opportunity is likely to next come
around and, frankly, no-one knows what the world of cartography will even look
like then. It’s a shame that the mechanisms are as they are and that it’s so
easy for internal politics to play such a prominent role in these nominations.
And what value have we had from our ICA Executive V-P since he was appointed?
I’ll just leave that one for consideration but if the point of having UK
involvement in the ICA is to benefit the UK cartographic scene then it needs to
be visible. Maybe such posts shouldn’t be markers of age or time-served and,
instead, should be put to the vote of a proper representation of UK
cartography. At least that would avoid the inevitable accusation of cronyism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I was reappointed as Chair of the ICA Commission for Map Design. A
number of others were also nominated to lead ICA Commissions which reflects
well on the UK because it’s a clear demonstration of visible commitment. ICA requires us to commit and to deliver a
programme that is clearly set out at the start of each four-year period. We are
accountable to ICA but we should also be accountable to BCS, the UKCC and UK
cartography more generally as they are the supporting bodies. Those of us
who are Chairs or Vice Chairs should be made to present at the BCS Symposium on
a topic allied to the Commission. Indeed, this has long been voiced by the
Chair of UKCC but there has never been any requirement. We should be required
to demonstrate what we're doing and what progress we're making against our
promises. The very least BCS should expect is to see what these people
are doing on the world stage, otherwise what is the benefit to BCS or UK
cartography? I have always sought to submit papers to present at the annual BCS
conference allied to the work of the Commission on Map Design. I did so again
for the 2017 conference but the paper was rejected. So now even the work of Commissions
that BCS support through UKCC is being marginalized from our own events. I
would bet few in BCS even know about the ICA Commissions, what they represent
and what they are or aren’t doing. Commissions also have to do something. The current
President of BCS also became Chair of a new ICA Commission on Topographic
Mapping in 2015 but it’s done virtually nothing since being formed. UKCC cannot
continue to support already busy individuals becoming even more over-committed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">BCS Awards<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Any awards conferred by a society are done so for two reasons.
They convene merit on an individual or organization through the judgement of
peers which is rewarding for the recipient for sure. But let’s be honest –
awards are mostly a form of advertising for a society because they are an easy
way to shine a light on the society through the work of others. It provides
quick and easy copy and for cartography, a load of free-to-reuse graphics and
maps of a significant quality. You only have to look at the BCS web site home
pages and the cover and leading copy for the Winter edition of Maplines to see
how much the awards are used as a way to promote BCS. For years the BCS awards were
in the doldrums. They garnered relatively few entries and the ceremony at the
Symposium gala dinner became laughable because the same people continuously won
the same awards. I know. I'm one of them. The truth is that the awards were so
poorly promoted that only people on Council or those in the know ever bothered
entering – so the same people inevitably won.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">It does the society no good whatsoever to be in a situation that
their awards are on rotation with the same members - sometimes the same members
of Council - constantly winning the top awards. This has improved over the last
couple of years and that was largely down to the commitment of the person who
took on the role of Awards Officer. It’s a clear example of what happens when
the right person is in a role that they can fully commit to. The number of
entries increased and are increasingly of a consistently high quality. There’s
actually been a good array of maps on show at Symposium recently. This
certainly demonstrates the health as well as the breadth and depth of UK cartography!
The awards ceremony was fantastic in 2014 and 2015 - a real highlight of the
Symposium with a professional polish. 2016 was a little less polished but it
transpired that behind the scenes there had been difficulties and a clash of
personalities. Whatever the truth of the situation (and there’s inevitably two
sides to every story depending on whom you speak to), such difficulties are
inevitable and need to be handled in a way that doesn’t impact the awards or
their presentation. My own view is that if something is running well, give the
person enough latitude to do the job. Do not micro-manage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Whatever the role within BCS, a volunteer organization needs
energetic and enthusiastic people. When difficulties arise they need dealing
with quickly. I've seen communications from different parties involved in the
2016 awards season and individuals did not handle the situation at all well. Even
before the 2016 awards, sponsors had threatened to withdraw support and have
been actively reconsidering their involvement. I can understand them re-evaluating
their involvement. What do sponsors get any more? The Presidential PDF after
the 2016 awards didn't mention them. The March 2016 issue of Maplines 'ran out
of space' for noting the 2015 winners. There’s little value in having their
company name as a sponsor when the handling of the awards descends into
in-fighting between Council members. I understand at merged conferences in
order to acquiesce to the sensitivities of SoC there was a desire to downplay
the presentations. Just because BCS has around 6 awards plus a load of
commended and highly commended and SoC only has one main award that’s life.
Deal with it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I enter the maps to support the awards...not to try and win
anything. In the past I entered to
ensure the gallery at Symposium actually had some content. These days it’s more
just habit and I get more out of the process by engaging in a public critique
of my work with friends and colleagues. Of course, it's nice to win but having
done so, BCS really needs to get things sorted so that winners get the
recognition that BCS claim is due. I have broad enough shoulders to not
be too concerned about missing certificates and suchlike but for others this
could be a career-changing moment. They have a huge opportunity to capitalize
on their success and it should be a really proud moment. It seems that for all
the clamour to use the awards as a cheap form of marketing the sponsors and the
winners are largely ignored. You win, then that’s just about it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">And my, didn’t everyone get in a muddle last year!!! I was
privileged and fortunate enough to win the BCS trophy for ‘Pitch Perfect’ in
2016. I was awarded it on the night of
the Symposium dinner. Pictures were taken (and subsequently emblazoned
everywhere). I bought everyone a drink
and celebrated and then returned the trophy to my hotel room in Cheltenham.
It was a good night and it was a huge honour to win the big prize. I was given the big bowl to keep for a year. At no time did anyone talk to me about my
responsibilities for safe-keeping of the trophy that evening or during the
following day of the symposium. It came in virtually non-existent
packaging so knowing I had to fly it back to the USA with me I went to a local
DIY store in Cheltenham (opposite GCHQ as it happened!) and purchased new
packaging and spent the evening in a hotel room at Heathrow making a parcel to
ensure it would transport undamaged. I paid 160 GBP for excess baggage to get
it back to the USA. I take good care of it and know I have to return it next
year for the next recipient but in the meantime I want to showcase the trophy
because why wouldn’t you want to have some fun?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The trophy has spent some time at work because it’s a trophy won
off the back of the effort of many people at Esri. Normally it sits on a map cabinet at home but
I decided to take pictures of it in various situations (a bit like someone
taking a teddy bear round the world and sending postcards). My intent was to
help promote BCS through sharing pictures and promoting the awards. Giving the trophy some exposure seemed like a
simple way to give something back and to encourage others to perhaps enter next
year and have a chance of winning it. There's no point it just sitting on
a mantelpiece (or map cabinet in my case). So I started taking pictures
and posting them on my twitter account. Some of the photos are serious. Some
showing a modicum of irreverence - just for fun. These photos have
garnered lots of good feedback but late last year I started receiving emails
and then a phone call noting the displeasure of people in BCS regarding the
photos. Perplexed, I tried to get to the bottom of the problem and I eventually
received an email from the President asking for the trophy to be returned to
the UK because it shouldn't have been removed anyway...and noting that I need
to have it insured. Frankly, this issue shows me exactly what’s wrong
with BCS. Becoming embroiled in a spat about one of their awards instead of
focusing on proper objectives says it all.
The trophy could have come in a proper box. It could have come with a
set of notes about the rules and regulations. It could have included the
insurable value. It could have had properly signed certificates. Anyone on BCS Council
had every opportunity to tell me it shouldn't leave the UK before I had little
choice. It’s not as if people don’t know I live outside the UK. If BCS treasure
the object more than those who win it then treat it like The Ashes and don’t
actually present it. Otherwise, accept that it becomes the possession of each
year’s winner and trust them to do with it what they will and return it in the
condition they received it. I’m afraid this has rather dampened the joy of
winning the big bowl and I hope others don’t face the same issues in future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">While BCS should rightly be proud to host awards it needs to do
more to showcase the winners and to make their win a clear benefit to the
society. Features in Maplines? How-tos and interviews on the web site? Make a
proper gallery or a publication comprised of the entries every year? Just something,
anything other than just reporting that winners won! Frankly no-one needs to
see a picture of me with an award but there were 8 pictures of me in the Winter
2016 Maplines including 6 of me in my daft map suit. It’s overkill and lazy
just to keep showing pictures. A lack of other content? Possibly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">If BCS is to continue to boast of prestigious awards then it needs
to have strong mechanisms to govern them, make clear the rules and regulations
and encourage a much wider range of entries else it all gets rather awkward and
prone to criticism. I’ve long held the opinion that judging criteria should be
published for each award. I also subscribe to the view that each award should
have a winner presented every year. At times in recent history some award
categories only present ‘Commended’ or ‘Highly Commended’ awards rather than a
‘winner’ with the claim that some overarching criteria precludes a winner in a
given year when the quality is not deemed to have reached a sufficient
threshold. In most map competitions, entries are simply judged against those
entered during that year and so it’s reasonable that the winner simply has to
be selected from the best of that year’s crop. Holding entries up against a
higher standard might be perceived as being elitist and certainly
discourages entries. Yes, the society needs to assure itself of professional
standards but each award has different criteria and are judged by different
groups of people and it creates a lack of continuity, certainly when the actual
detailed criteria for how the awards are judged are not made public.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Anyone who has entered BCS awards before knows how time-consuming
the entry forms are to complete. I am quite sure they are very off-putting for
many and I’d question what purpose they actually serve. Why not just get rid of
them since they're an unnecessary barrier? The same goes for some of the
out-dated requirements for submissions. For instance, supplying an electronic
map on a CD with accompanying static images or a movie made to show the
functionality of a web map is ridiculous these days. Supplying a URL should be
sufficient. I'm simply suggesting that the awards need to keep pace with the
times, reflect what needs rewarding in the map-making world and then keep the
entry requirements as simple as possible to avoid putting people off
submitting. Just allow people to submit their work as a PDF or URL online,
assign them space (which could be limited depending on the venue) and have them
bring the work themselves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Judging can easily take place at the event. This is common – ICA
do it. IMIA do it. SoC do it. Esri’s map gallery does it and FOSS4G do it to
name but a few mapping conferences with galleries and awards. Awards can be
presented on the awards night but engraved and forwarded – or actually, just
present awards that don’t necessarily include the name of the recipient.
Instead just ‘2017 Stanfords award winner’ or similar. It’s sufficient. The
process BCS use is archaic. Requiring work to be physically sent to various parts
of the UK sometimes 4 months ahead of the Symposium itself is not helpful to
individuals. It also means people have to be thinking about submitting work so
far ahead of the event that the maps and the work have often already piqued
interest long before the symposium delegates see it. Encourage more entries and
get people involved by reducing the barriers to entry. The display at symposium
also needs to somehow better handle digital entries. A large screen or a laptop
and projector could help. A screen was used in 2016 and this improved things.
It just takes some effort to manage but every year I see some magnificent work
across the internet that I never see at the Symposium. Ask people to submit
posters of digital content with URLs or even QR codes so we can wander round
with our smartphones and link to the digital content.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">It's a shame that there’s so many hurdles to submitting work for
the map gallery at symposium. If winning is something people aspire to, then
beating several dozen or more other maps becomes a real badge of honour.
Winning by default because there’s hardly any entries does neither the society
or the individual much good. Taking part is, for me, the fun part and I’d
strongly encourage BCS finding ways to support far more people sharing their
work and taking part. The symposium and, ultimately, the awards, will be so
much richer for it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">BCS Symposium/Conference<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Let me turn to the Symposium more generally. A tricky one this
because it's usually the one time in the year people come together and that's a
real benefit to having such an event. Except it isn't the only time people meet
any more and symposium has become bland because it runs on virtually the same
model every year. Same structure, same comfy country pile. Same exhibitors who
already know each other because they go to all the other geo-expos in the UK. A
little opulence to charge to the company and a golf tournament to boot (which
gets about 4 entries per year). In 2016 the pre-con workshop was scheduled
against the golf tournament which seems absolutely ludicrous. Why don’t our
National Mapping agency sponsor the symposium at the top level? That seems to
be a ridiculous situation and the fact they don’t has to be a source of concern.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The exhibition continues to showcase the same companies every
year. The cost of exhibiting obviously goes some way to generating income to
support the event but these are costs that exhibitors are questioning. People
do not need to see a company in an exhibition any more. We get the information
from the internet. Seeing and meeting people goes on anyway because the event
is relatively small. Hosting teas and coffees elsewhere during breaks doesn’t
help with any sort of through-put of people who actually try their hardest to
avoid the exhibition during the event. Many stands in 2016 weren’t even manned
though being a corporate member includes a stand at Symposium so putting up a
banner and having a desk with flyers becomes a default.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">There's so many formats that could be used to reinvigorate the
symposium but the key thing for me is I want to go to an event to listen to new
and emerging cartographies and the people that are involved. I want to use it
as a genuine networking opportunity and not just an excuse to catch up with old
friends - that's a bonus. I want to have to actually think about my
presentation and step up rather than knowing I'll likely be sandwiched between
a couple of commercial pitches and stock powerpoint presentations. I go to a
large number of events across the globe and there are so many more interesting
conferences, meetings and formats used. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I have a theory that, quite simply, it's largely the same people
who go to BCS Symposium and they're just bored of cartography which is
reflected in a lack of effort that goes into the programme or the presentations.
And they likely don’t go to many other cartographic conferences so they never
see what great work and formats is on offer elsewhere. In a world that has so
many new opportunities to meet, the symposium needs to work much harder to
offer something genuinely worth attending. It’s also up to individuals to
really put effort into a compelling presentation. Most attendees meet regularly at GeoData
events or at monthly meetups, GISRUK, RGS events, RSPSoc, Maptime, #geomob, Esri
UK Conference, AGI events etc etc. Meeting at Symposium has simply become a
mark on the calendar rather than something to get hugely excited about and we
likely already know what presenters might say. Sometimes we’ve even seen the
same presentation elsewhere. It’s why many younger people new to the industry
seek other, more genuinely interesting conferences to spend their hard earned
conference budget and time on. The nature of conferences has changed in the
last decade because of the transformative ways in which the internet has
impacted. We can easily meet virtually every day and we often already know what
people’s output is. Symposium really needs to find a key differentiator to
encourage growth and engagement, presentations that are exciting and
informative and a more varied diet. Become a conference where people present
new work and try out new presentations rather than a conference where they
throw a well-worn presentation into the mix to justify attendance and get a
free day’s registration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The fact I live in the USA has had no impact on my relationships
with friends and colleagues in the UK. I'd even suggest I have more contact
despite the ground distance between us increasing. In monetary terms I probably
spend more than any attendee on symposium simply due to the airfare and for
each of the 6 symposia I've attended since living in the US all but one has
been paid for out of my own pocket. I do so because I am committed to
supporting a strong cartographic community in the UK and to, hopefully, share a
little of what I see and learn on my own travels. But increasingly I get little
in return. As someone who has supported symposium through attendance and
participation it should be a concern that people like me are considering not
attending. Exhibitors are already talking about not exhibiting. Sponsors of
awards have actively talked about withdrawing support. This all adds up to a
symposium in rapid decline and one which needs transforming to encourage a
reversal in fortunes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Presentations have always been hugely variable in quality and with
a single track I find it hard to believe it's difficult to fill 2 days of
conference. Indeed - last year I offered a pre-con, an individual presentation,
a joint presentation and a workshop. Too much Ken? Yes, of course there was but
where is everyone else? There are far too many people attend who you never see
present. Is it because they have nothing to share? Crucially, there's far too
many excellent people who never attend at all and that's the real worry.
Capturing these people to reinvigorate Symposium is crucial. And you don't do
so by repeating the same tired format year after year. The involvement of SoC
has undoubtedly helped bring different people to a shared event but if
membership of BCS is around 700, the symposium attracts maybe 120 people (these
are guestimates)? It's not a good return for a small island. It offers very
little for the cost of attendance. I had a paper rejected for 2017 on a topic that
is brand new, pertinent to the theme and off the back of ICA Commission work.
Of course, no-one has a right to have presentations accepted and if there are
genuinely a huge range of other, strong submissions then a year without me
presenting is no bad thing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">My strong steer is for BCS to look at different models and learn
how others have adapted. In a world of MOOCS, meetups, online collaboratories
and multiple opportunities to meet virtually and in real life, the symposium
must look to be different and give people a genuine reason to attend. The idea
of a pseudo-posh hotel is not attractive to many people. Indeed, the sort of
venues that BCS have used in recent years have all been a little shabby. They purport
to offer something they don’t. Whether it’s poor internet connection or the
builders and decorators are in, there always seems to be a problem with the
venue. None are particularly set up for a high quality conference yet the cost
to attend is relatively high due to the accommodation being falsely rated as
higher than it truly deserves. Forcing delegates to the faux-grandeur of a
hotel set in pleasant grounds does nothing to encourage people to part with
their money. In some respects, it gives
people false expectations of what they’re going to experience. And what of the locations chosen? It’s always
a challenge to move locations because inevitably some people will have to
travel further but I have a bigger issue with the moving of locations and that
stems from the fact that BCS hardly ever uses the actual location. Why even
move the conference around the country if it's always to a venue where the
majority never leave the confines of the presentation room and hotel bar itself?
There used to be visits to nearby cartographic places of interest but these
seem to have died out. There isn't even a trip to a local pub any more which,
given Cheltenham had a CAMRA pub of the year a mile away was almost
unbelievable. And in 2017 we’re in the midel of nowhere. Literally. I know a
good number of people for whom it’s a deciding factor not to go.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I’ve noticed a trend recently that many of the faces I used to see
at symposium just don’t attend any more.
I’ve asked a number why this is the case and they simply say they don’t
get anything out of it and it is too costly.
I’ve asked myself why I still attend. Partly because I still hold on to
some sense that I feel it's important to put your money where your mouth is and
play an active part. I certainly can't write this without being someone who
tries to play an active part in the community and I hope to influence change by
being involved. But I inevitably compare the events I go to. The week before last year’s symposium I was
in New Zealand at their conference called GeoCart. The contrast between GeoCart
and the BCS symposium was stark. One was vibrant and forward looking, relaxed
and friendly. The other was stuffy with people keeping closed ranks, a
programme littered with commercial pitches, and a commercial exhibition that
everyone's seen before. Everyone is too comfy with one another. Everyone sees
each other with increasing regularity. They know what people are going to say,
what they represent etc. Symposium, for many, is just one event in a busy year
of many events and has lost that sense of identity and uniqueness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Programme committee might ask themselves why there's been such a
decline in research-based academic talks? Where do these people go instead and
why? The answer is simple - cost/benefit. There's no benefit to an academic
going to symposium to present their work. The cost puts it out of reach. There
are far more useful venues for people to present new and interesting
cartographic work. So we end up with a fairly weak programme bar a few
notable highlights. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Of course, sponsorship remains important but other events manage
without it so why not change the model. If the model of venue is too costly
then change it. Even consider going to a standard venue in London or
alternating between, say London and Edinburgh. What about University
facilities with proper lecture theatres? How many people make genuine business
connections at Symposium? Really...proper business connections? How many even
bother leaving their hotel room with the flyers they get in the ubiquitous conference
pack?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">There's so much that could be reconsidered to reinvigorate the
symposium but here's a funny thing - after the 2016 conference BCS members were
sent a survey. Then the 2017 venue is announced, then a reminder to complete
the survey is sent. So the survey has very little hope of informing 2017 which
we learn is in a remote country hotel. We need modern venues, good
gallery space, strong and consistent wifi, a proper social media presence, top
invited speakers and a more varied and inclusive programme. For instance – un-conference
sessions...student presentations...lightning talks...people talking about the
maps in the gallery...tips and tricks…proper hands-on sessions…hosted lunches
off-site…external visits and trips…ICA sessions etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">What about the Special Interest Groups? The Map Curator's Group
seem active but then again they mostly operate outside BCS and don't really
venture into the mainstream symposium so who would know? Historical Military
Mapping Group again seem relatively active but with little integration with the
main conference. The Design SIG has done hardly anything except a few workshops
at Symposium. This, in my view, doesn't exactly constitute a Special Interest
Group. It's lazy to have your 'event' at Symposium and more effort needs to be
put into supporting the outreach of these SIGs or again, cut them and just use
BCS as the central vehicle. The GIS SIG is also guilty of this. Should there
even be one any more? Should there be any SIGs? I would streamline the society
by getting rid of them. They don't offer enough for them to be viable
sub-entities and there certainly aren’t enough people to keep them going. My
general point here is, as with Council, the SIGs give an air of fragmentation.
If necessary, just have sessions at the conference where there's a focus on
these or other equally valid sub-groups for people. Get everyone together, not
send them in different ways all the time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">With all this in mind do I really want to go to Durham in
September? What is the single compelling reason I should make it a highlight of
my year’s travels? Should I consider submitting work to share or just become
another of the mass of passive attendees? I’m not exactly sure what I’ll do
this year. Maybe it’s time for a break or maybe I do just want to say hi to
people I rarely see. Currently I’m not enthused but hopefully as another joint
conference the programme may have moved a little further towards a style that
is at least a little more progressive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Concluding remarks<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">OK, I’ve raised an awful lot. It’s taken a good while to write and
I know that in a world with increasing attention-deficit this has been a hell
of a read so I thank you if you've got this far and for giving it your attention. All I seek to do is cut through the crap and
despite it being a very personal view, put out in the open what many more than
me are also thinking and saying to each other in private.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I am quite sure I'll be castigated in some quarters for expressing my views in this manner, or at all (I know which quarters they will be and I am ready for it). I accept that this will ruffle some people’s feathers but
just sit back and ask yourself precisely what you get for being an individual member, Corporate Member or
Fellow of BCS. Further, if you're involved directly...what do you actually do?
And if you're not involved then why not? Societies need active members. If you're not a member but have read this then what sort of society do
you want (if at all?). What would make you want to join? I can guarantee one
thing...in this day and age it's way more than a new Pantone blue and American typeface.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Before you think this is all going to be news to the current people on Council, I wrote a brief summarised version of many of the substantive points I have explored here to the new BCS President in late November 2015. I
was thanked and told that he and the Vice-President would get back to me with
thoughts. They never did. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I'll likely see you all in Durham for a pint and would be more than open to discussing these issues further whether you agree or not.
Cheers.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><b>Postscript</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Inevitably, some are wondering why I chose March 29th to publish this blog. It coincided with two events - the triggering of Article 50 for Brexit and also the day when decisions on paper acceptances for the 2017 BCS/SoC conference were delivered. I had one paper accepted and one rejected. It's odd which was rejected and which was accepted but that's not my decision. After 12 years of straight acceptances I was due a rejection but some have put two and two together and assumed I'm just bitter about being rejected. Not true. What I did do is wait until a decision on submissions had been made because I didn't want this blog to colour their judgement. Personality and prejudice should not come into play. But it inevitably does.</span></div>
Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123225361504762353.post-58994632920377129412017-03-06T12:20:00.000-08:002017-03-27T09:50:18.795-07:00Trump's TiesLike many people (and pretty much everyone I know) the shift in politics in 2016/17 has me at times hopping mad and, on a good day, just plain baffled. As a Brit living in the U.S. I watched Brexit from afar, safe in the knowledge that having seen the UK take one for the team, the American voting population wouldn't make the same mistake. Alas, that hasn't happened and day by day we're subjected to lies, chaos, tweetstorms and utter bullshit from the Trump Presidency. Can anything good come of this situation?<br />
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Well yes...it prompted me to pick up my pencils, pens and paints for the first time in many many years. I work every day with computers to make maps. I haven't drawn for so long but I've been getting restless to give it another go. Chatting to <a href="https://twitter.com/williamscraigm" target="_blank">Craig Williams</a> at work one day we thought a little about some classic map satire and this sketch on my whiteboard plotted the way ahead.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbxNUZbOVEf_Y4w4WtovIkz6jQuC-r1H-264ogQlW-N6cwTUJw2bf4el71qmv1jZ6wTXPin3lhV6Q8gbRLAN8m1D8TRrqICj1IHzmuE7XHwEcg15Rggwch_F0hK7n6iNC7gkg1JkVXOvs/s1600/IMG_20170217_095933%257E2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbxNUZbOVEf_Y4w4WtovIkz6jQuC-r1H-264ogQlW-N6cwTUJw2bf4el71qmv1jZ6wTXPin3lhV6Q8gbRLAN8m1D8TRrqICj1IHzmuE7XHwEcg15Rggwch_F0hK7n6iNC7gkg1JkVXOvs/s320/IMG_20170217_095933%257E2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I sourced a load of reference material and relied on the way proper, talented artists handled the caricatures then I began sketching an ensemble piece. Here's what happened...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgehj1TZ6q3-qA3kwX3W_BoQWpegPuS4OTWecwv7Volxrb8GfcOntkddRYPT2ewX5c6EhO7hfcuNokK-da5mglrFdOXbp0-mz2pUQrdZk1Iny1LuxA45iI_uFQY3YPrkjdHInCA5YmWQOA/s1600/TrumpsTiesTimeline.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgehj1TZ6q3-qA3kwX3W_BoQWpegPuS4OTWecwv7Volxrb8GfcOntkddRYPT2ewX5c6EhO7hfcuNokK-da5mglrFdOXbp0-mz2pUQrdZk1Iny1LuxA45iI_uFQY3YPrkjdHInCA5YmWQOA/s1600/TrumpsTiesTimeline.gif" /></a></div>
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50 hours later and here's the finished result...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHGRDFf6-Wa6C-KnqnoUIZ-QGNglRe2Y7riejWGgA63xWwPEF5upT-tZQehkYYVyCfC592bXOSv-fBONo3P08ITK2zqnaOfbAdLDYQBHUiYdTt9imkqtWuaIHaOiGrktrnW6d5Mh2wbzk/s1600/Trump_Ties_LoRes.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHGRDFf6-Wa6C-KnqnoUIZ-QGNglRe2Y7riejWGgA63xWwPEF5upT-tZQehkYYVyCfC592bXOSv-fBONo3P08ITK2zqnaOfbAdLDYQBHUiYdTt9imkqtWuaIHaOiGrktrnW6d5Mh2wbzk/s640/Trump_Ties_LoRes.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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You're seeing a lo-res watermarked version of Trump's Ties. You can see a medium resolution version <a href="http://extrazoom.com/image-80714.html" target="_blank">here</a>. It's a 15 by 11 inch serio-comic map following the long-established approach of many cartographic satirists through history. Most notable among those is Fred W Rose who drew many in the late 1800s. Perhaps most famous for his <a href="http://mapdesign.icaci.org/2014/04/mapcarte-104365-angling-in-troubled-waters-a-serio-comic-map-of-europe-by-fred-w-rose-1899/" target="_blank">Angling in Troubled Waters</a> he also drew many maps with the tentacles of an octopus stretching out across Europe. I also like the work of Robert Dighton whose caricatures are wonderful, here in his series <a href="http://mapdesign.icaci.org/2014/02/mapcarte-43365-geography-bewitched-by-robert-dighton-1795/" target="_blank">Geography Bewitched</a>.<br />
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With apologies to Rose, Trump's Ties uses the famously scotch-taped red neck tie as the tentacles of the metaphorical octopus spreading across the globe. The first month of Trump's Presidency has provided an obscene amount of obscene material and there was no problem filling in the map. Thanks also to <a href="https://twitter.com/lindabeale" target="_blank">Linda Beale</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/epunt" target="_blank">Edie Punt</a> for some great ideas for content. No space for sea monsters or dragons on this map.<br />
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I enjoyed this process. Getting back to drawing was cathartic. There's something very fulfilling about the creative process and, also, the method of crafting something unique by hand. My computer allows me to iterate out all the mistakes I can find on my digital maps. This was far more challenging because it had to be built and there was no room for error once the ink and paint started to be applied. And I had an immense amount of fun trying to cram all sorts of visuals in. There's even a cartographic homage to Ortelius but Kellyanne on a couch, Pence's own personal email server and travel ban Mk II will have to wait until the next one because I ran out of room. That's amusing in its own right...the map is already out of date as the list of banned countries has changed.<br />
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Most maps I make I give away. This is a little different. I had thought of producing a limited edition but after careful thought I've decided to make it available via Imagekind (who handle all of the printing and shipping logistics). It's $20.88 for a 15" x 11" print on enhanced matte paper. I make a small royalty on each which will be donated to the <a href="https://action.aclu.org/secure/make-tax-deductible-gift-aclu-foundation" target="_blank">ACLU Foundation</a>. You can purchase a print <a href="http://cartonerd.imagekind.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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I hope to make a few more but it would be nice if it didn't become a monthly series of Trump inspired pieces. Frankly, the visuals would be a lot funnier if they weren't so true.Kenneth Fieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738467752479352030noreply@blogger.com0