August 2015 Summaries

The event was a kickoff to a workshop series called CartoCamps, which aims to provide thematic bootcamps that train common mapping concerns. Real-time data mapping is a common request among cartographers and data journalists, and CartoDB's sync tables as a service can help address this need. The inaugural event was hosted by 140Journos, a group of developers, reporters, designers, and hackers who leverage social media platforms to build a network of producers creating "counter-media". The discussion focused on how CartoDB's Import API, Sync Tables, and existing use cases for various mapping applications can be used to augment citizen-driven data journalism. The workshop script compiled from the event will provide common real-time mapping solutions, and future events will tackle similar topics with exciting project partners, including educators building syllabi around mapping projects for the upcoming fall semester.

CartoDB is a data visualization tool used by over 80 media channels worldwide, including The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times, to create stunning visualizations that capture readers' attention. The platform offers various features such as infowindows density overlays and animated maps, allowing journalists to bring their stories to life. CartoDB has partnered with The Telegraph to offer a free webinar for journalists with beginner to intermediate map-making skills, covering topics like map design, data preparation, and creating insightful text legends and infowindows. No coding skills are required, but the session will touch on advanced CartoCSS and basic HTML.

The Insight: A Data and Design Competition, hosted by CartoDB, is a call for submissions of innovative mapping projects that combine data analysis with design. The competition aims to inspire creativity and showcase the best in map making. Participants have been submitting their projects, which are being featured at an exhibit in New York City, Measure a Storefront for Art and Architecture. The submissions include interactive maps, such as Invisible Neighborhoods, which uses crowdsourced data to render boundaries and stories from community members, and Internaut Explorer, which visualizes millions of pages from the open-content directory DMOZ.org on an interactive map. Other notable projects include Time Zones & Cities Map of the World, Instagramming the High Line, and I Move, which explores the idea of mapping one's life based on location data. The competition deadline is August 31st, and CartoDB encourages participants to submit their projects, with resources available for both new and seasoned map-makers.

CartoDB at SXSW 2016 - Vote for us! The worlds of tech and music converge at South by Southwest, a popular festival that receives over 3,500 entries annually. CartoDB announces three submitted panels for SXSW Interactive PanelPicker, with topics including the impact of big data on human behavior, how data design is shaping our world, and exploring time-sensitive maps to understand past and future events. To hear these panelists in Austin, Texas next March, users must vote by clicking the "thumbs up" button on CartoDB's panels through their SXSW account until September 4, 2015.

I recently took a trip from Beijing, China to St. Petersburg, Russia and wanted to create a map of my journey using the geo-tagged images I took on my phone. To accomplish this, I wrote a Python script that extracts GPS data from each image, pushes it to an Amazon Web Services S3 bucket, inserts it into a CSV table, and then uses CartoDB's Import API to visualize the data. The resulting map features multiple layers, including the train line, GPS data, and markers representing the location of photos taken during the trip. I also configured hover effects for the image layer using Mustache template notation to display additional information associated with each marker.