Achieve D.C.

Nov 13, 2008 @ 8:25 PM by Kumiko Yamazaki -- achieve d.c. google maps

Less than 12 hours after submitting my entry for Apps for Democracy, I was notified that I won the bronze!!

Here’s what I’ve worked on the past 3 nights:

It isn’t necessarily an ‘app’, but a visualization tool to do a quick analysis on test scores in D.C.’s public schools. Also, you can toggle between various school levels to see if any patterns emerge whether geographically or by the neighborhood’s poverty rate. I have plans to keep Achieve D.C. an ongoing project and to also use it as a learning experience for something bigger and better.. everyone will need to be patient.

leave a comment


Cartograms for Everyone

Nov 11, 2008 @ 1:08 AM by Kumiko Yamazaki -- apps cartogram:

Trying to update more frequently here, we’ll see how I do.

By now, I’m sure we’ve all seen the election cartograms by Mark Newman. It’s received a lot of press this past week for good reason. He’s done a wonderful job describing how certain maps can look misleading at first glance and what can be done to more accurately display such data.

Fortunately for us mappers, there are a number of ways to create our own cartograms. My favorite is the free one I finally tested a couple days ago — ScapeToad. It uses the Gastner/Newman diffusion-based algorithm we see everywhere and comes with an easy-to-use interface. There is literally a ‘Create Cartogram’ button, can it get any easier??

To the left is an example of the result after less than 5 minutes of work:

The above map is showing the number of Walmarts per 1 million people in each state. (Some of the New England states look more bloated than I expected). Ignore colors here, it’s representing cartogram size error. For stylization, I would suggest exporting as a shapefile and using a separate GIS application.

Enough blogging for the time being. I’ve entered the Apps for Democracy contest and the deadline is this Wednesday.. doh!

leave a comment