October 2016 Summaries

The upcoming month of November presents several opportunities for CARTO users to engage with the company's Location Intelligence platform through various conferences and events. CARTO representatives, including Jaak Laineste and Tyler Bird, will be presenting at conferences in Berlin and Santa Clara, respectively, while Michael Giddens will discuss integrating geospatial maps and big data using CARTO-Ext JS components at SenchaCon 2016. Additionally, Andres Gallardo Albajar from Mobi Lab will demonstrate how CARTO's platform aids in resiliency planning and smart city initiatives at the Smart Cities Expo World Congress in Barcelona.

Widgets Make Numeric Data Manageable and Meaningful for Everyone` Communicating numeric data as meaningful information to an audience without a background in data science can be difficult. CARTO Builder's Dashboard Widgets help make numeric data valuable for everyone by providing interactive visual filters that allow map viewers to target select subsets of data for further exploration. These widgets, including category histogram formula and time-series, interact with numeric datasets, responding dynamically to facilitate deeper engagement with the data. Category widgets visually filter aggregated data columns, while formula widgets filter data based on defined elements within each row, allowing for more nuanced analyses. By using these widgets, viewers can navigate and explore their numeric datasets in a more meaningful way.

CARTO, a geospatial data visualization company, is expanding its operations to Washington, D.C., marking the city's latest addition to its international presence. The new office will be located within Refraction, a curated office community in Reston Town Center, Northern Virginia, offering amenities such as on-site fitness centers and healthy meal options. This expansion is part of CARTO's ongoing growth strategy, which includes hiring efforts for the D.C. branch. The move aims to provide a home for tech startups and other companies within Refraction, while also providing a new location for CARTO team members to work from.

Fon, a leading WiFi provider, leverages CARTO's location and data analysis platform to create a portal that spatially represents millions of stakeholders and their interests to network connectivity. By using this platform, Fon can focus on creating customizable data-driven visualizations that update in real-time, allowing users to better understand WiFi service offerings and make informed decisions. This collaboration enables Fon to add transparency to its network offerings, improving customer services and driving business growth.

We updated specimen collecting information in the AMNH database and created a map that visualizes the route of the Whitney South Sea Expedition through the Solomon Islands. We parsed and standardized 809 redundant locality records into 154, extracted an additional 114 precise localities from the WSSE field journals, and cleaned and georeferenced over 8,000 records of avian specimens. The resulting dataset will be uploaded to the AMNH database and made available online, allowing for future studies on species distribution modeling, environmental impact, and climate change. Our work provides a new level of detail and accuracy in understanding the biodiversity of the Solomon Islands during the early 20th century.

CARTO has partnered with global technology company Pitney Bowes, a leader in location intelligence, to enhance their eCommerce capabilities. Through the partnership, CARTO's self-service design enables Pitney Bowes to integrate data visualization features into their internal systems, providing location value to their data. This allows for more informed assessments of locations and charting trends in different dimensions. The partnership will also enable Pitney Bowes to demonstrate how to easily integrate Location Intelligence into various applications, including mobile and IoT solutions. CARTO and Pitney Bowes are excited about future collaborations that will combine their forces to add data layers to Pitney Bowes' current basemaps.

CARTO's Election Mapping Webinar explores how media outlets can provide viewers with more context on the 2016 U.S. Presidential election through geographical context and interactive visualizations. CARTO Builder adds value to content by allowing users to create their own election maps, including choropleth maps for overview, dasymetric maps for zooming and filtering, and dot density maps for detailed analysis. These visualizations can help shift the focus from journalist-centered news to data journalism, providing a more nuanced understanding of the election's impact at a local level.

CARTO has added several experienced interns to its team, including Mehak Sachdeva from the New York City Economic Development Corporation and Columbia University, Michelle Ho from the New York County District Attorney's Office, Peter Murray specializing in social media content and strategy for the Marketing team, and Christy Sunquist with operations experience at Charity:Water. The new interns will be working across various teams, including Data Research and Sales, to contribute their skills and expertise to the company's growth as a leading location intelligence platform. Mehak is excited about collaborating between technology and research to spatially locate and understand problems, while Michelle aims to bring data to life with the CARTO Data Observatory. Peter will be creating engaging social media content and blog posts, and Christy is looking forward to empowering small businesses and governments around the globe with accessible location intelligence. The interns are eager to learn and contribute to the company's mission of making a positive impact through spatial analysis.

CARTO Builder is a powerful tool that allows users to make data-driven decisions using location data, by employing widgets to visualize information and calculate aggregated values in different ways. Widgets are an integral part of the CARTO Builder experience, enabling users to filter data, update styling, and initiate analysis. Users can customize their apps with CARTO Builder to filter data through various modules, including formula, histogram, category, and time series widgets, which provide insights into numerical values, distribution, context-based questions, and temporal parameters. The auto-style button allows users to apply a new temporary color ramp to widget data, maintaining the visual appeal of the map as it recalculates and renders based on the parameters set with the widgets.

Temporal data representation can be used to communicate information with style and analysis. CARTO Builder offers a new way of aggregating geospatial data for both time and space, allowing users to animate their data based on specific date ranges or columns. This functionality is particularly useful for visualizing temporal trends, such as changes in business expansion or reactions to certain topics. The addition of a histogram chart provides an alternative to the traditional Torque scrub bar, enabling users to better understand the distribution of their data over time.

San Diego's StreetsSD is an interactive data visualization charting road repairs across the city, allowing residents to track progress and access detailed information about streets and road repairs. The system uses a 100-point based system to classify streets as "Good", "Fair", or "Poor" and enables prioritization of repairs over the next five years. This initiative is part of the City of San Diego's efforts to foster the development of smart cities with open data at both local and global levels, joining major cities like New York and London in incorporating deep insights from open data into their management projects. The system updates automatically to provide residents with accurate information about streets in every neighborhood, making it a valuable tool for civic engagement and transparency. CARTO has been committed to democratizing open-data knowledge and supports smart city initiatives, including the Open Cities Summit, where attendees can learn more about how location intelligence can enhance their next initiative.

Hurricane Season 2016: Locating Resiliency in Sandy's Aftermath` CARTO, a location intelligence platform, has collaborated with the Mayor's Office of Recovery and Resiliency (ORR) to create an interactive map that visualizes anticipated changes facing New York City due to climate change. The project aims to prevent a repeat of Hurricane Sandy's destruction by charting a course for resiliency in low-lying coastal regions. ORR has pledged $20 billion to fund recovery and resiliency efforts, which are being promoted through an exploratory dashboard developed by CARTO. The platform allows users to search their addresses to view neighborhood risk of potential flooding and scheduled projects to prevent natural disasters, making climate change more visible and urgent for the public. This collaboration dovetails with CARTO's commitment to democratizing location data across sectors and industries.