March 2015 Summaries

To combine CartoDB maps with Microsoft SharePoint, users can now share their visualizations on the platform as part of a growing list of features that make CartoDB a fully-featured enterprise geospatial platform. This integration allows organizations to leverage the strengths of both platforms, enhancing collaboration and business operations. With over 100 million users worldwide, SharePoint is a widely-used enterprise software platform with varied functions, including document-sharing and business collaboration. The tutorial on how to share visualizations through SharePoint has been published by CartoDB, providing users with a straightforward way to integrate their maps into their SharePoint sites.

The US is facing a predicted 40% water shortfall by 2030, with over 80,000 dams built in the early 1900s, many of which pose significant environmental risks. The construction of hydropower dams can generate 16% of global electricity production, but also poses hazards to the environment. In recent years, there has been a growing realization that not all dams are necessary, with over 200 dams being removed since 2006. Dams and water flow rates have significant political capital, influencing floods, ecological devastation, and fish and plant species sustainability, while water policy suffers from non-standard auditing and regulation across states. The environmental impact of dam security on wildlife is also a concern, with data available through the Fish Passage Data Archive.

CartoDB has been working to better support its geo-journalists by releasing new curriculum and partnering with professional organizations such as IRE. The organization is also providing new member benefits, including 100MB of additional storage space, private tables, and a 30% discount on account upgrades for IRE members. CartoDB's developers and community advocates are actively creating educational materials and engaging with the community to build partnerships with other organizations building web-based curriculum. CartoDB is planning to host a conference gathering geo-journalists across the Americas in May, and is working towards future partnerships with professional groups supporting its community.

Geo and the Mobile Industry: Thoughts following the Mobile World Congress` The Mobile World Congress saw a surprisingly low focus on geolocation and geo-trends, with discussions centered around devices and new product launches. Despite this, mapping companies presented services rivaling Google's location-based offerings, highlighting the importance of collaboration in data collection and code development. The industry is shifting towards clean, curated, and relevant data to provide context for analysis. New data services are emerging, including social media interactions, satellite imagery, and open data demographics, enabling seamless access to data sources. Trillions of interactions from social media networks and sensors connected to the Internet are generating a wealth of location-aware data, which mapping platforms can use to provide context and ease understanding. The recent acquisition by Uber of deCarta is significant, as it marks a strategic move towards independent location-based services. This may impact other big players relying on third-party services, prompting them to either build their own capabilities or work more closely with new industry actors.

New York City's 311 noise complaint hotline receives hundreds of thousands of complaints every year, with little change since 2010. A choropleth map created from the data shows that individual perceptions of noise are highly personal and influenced by factors such as upbringing and community. To create a spatial representation of noise complaints, the author joined 2010 census population data with 311 noise complaint data using geospatial intersection, normalizing the number of complaints against population figures for each neighborhood. However, public spaces like parks and cemeteries were excluded from the initial mapping due to lack of census data, requiring a separate strategy for these areas. The map was then enhanced by adding a second layer of noise complaint data normalized by the area of each green space.

CartoDB`, a geospatial data visualization platform, integrates seamlessly with `Plotly`, a cloud-based graphing and analytics platform. The combination allows for collaborative work and endless possibilities in creating interactive visualizations. By utilizing `IPython Notebooks`, users can easily import data from `CartoDB` into Python code, generating beautiful plots. This integration enables the embedding of `CartoDB` maps within `IPython Notebooks` due to its rich display system. The collaboration between CartoDB and Plotly teams has resulted in an IPython notebook showcasing the data flow from `CartoDB` SQL API to a Plotly plot, demonstrating the potential for exciting experiments in the future.