December 2016 Summaries

The Cajamar Group, a Spanish financial institution with over 1,200 branches and four million clients, has leveraged location intelligence to boost productivity across its organization. By utilizing data visualizations, particularly CARTO, the Business Analytics Team was able to develop intuitive dashboards that facilitated collaboration among colleagues from various departments. This improvement in productivity has been attributed to CARTO's easy-to-integrate software, which enabled non-GIS-trained individuals to access and analyze geodata. Additionally, Cajamar's Data Lab has collaborated with external entities, such as the Python Hack competition, where participants were tasked with visualizing large datasets using CARTO to represent consumption patterns across a region.

The Petrol App, developed by Solid GEAR in collaboration with CARTO, is an iOS application that helps users save money on gas prices. The app uses geodata to calculate a user's distance from fuel stations and gasoline prices, providing recommendations for the most cost-effective route. With its Mobile SDK, the app enables users to filter data by brand, rank nearby stations based on price and travel cost, and compare gas prices region-by-region across Spain. The app also incorporates daily data sync with Spain's Ministry of Energy for up-to-date gasoline prices, allowing users to make informed decisions about their fueling stops.

The development community has enlisted CARTO's location intelligence services to better understand and predict the spread of Zika in Brazil. The virus, which can cause neurological complications, presents significant public health challenges globally. CARTO's services are being used to analyze data on Zika cases, with a focus on identifying transmission routes and prioritizing resource allocation to vulnerable populations. A recent hackathon organized by the Inter-American Development Bank brought together experts from various fields to leverage location intelligence and analytics tools to derive new insights about Zika's impact on communities in Rio de Janeiro. The collaboration aims to predict future transmission routes and prepare communities for potential outbreaks, with a focus on containing the spread of the disease. By incorporating census and demographic data into the analysis, the team hopes to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the spatial implications of Zika and inform policy decisions.

Situm, a start-up known as the "GPS for indoor", analyzes indoor traffic using location intelligence and multi-sensor data fusion algorithm to provide insights on foot-traffic flow, strategic store planning, management, and security. The core technology behind Situm is based on seven years of research and development in mobile robotics using state-of-the-art AI techniques. With Situm's positioning service available for a free trial, users can visualize indoor positioning data through the enhancement of location intelligence, enabling businesses to offer optimum analysis on traditionally unseen patterns and trends.

The Harvard Technology and Entrepreneurship Center organized a Strategic Innovation Symposium on digital prosperity in Latin American cities, bringing together academics, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders to discuss opportunities and challenges. The symposium highlighted the importance of location intelligence and data visualizations in creating successful city initiatives, with solutions like CARTO helping to solve challenges and create better societies through technology. By enabling governments, businesses, and citizens to use open data, cities can increase transparency, accountability, and livability, and drive policies that promote digital prosperity for global cities.

CARTOColors is a collection of intelligent color schemes designed to transform raw data into actionable insights, fostering exploration and highlighting important stories in data. This tool utilizes best practices established by well-known standards like ColorBrewer, creating custom color schemes optimized for web-based maps and thematic maps made with Builder. CARTOColors are categorized into sequential and diverging schemes for numeric and non-numeric data, respectively, and can be applied to various map types, including those displaying categories, amounts, or density. By using CARTOColors in conjunction with Builder, users can quickly reveal patterns in their data, leading to faster insights and more effective decision-making. The tool is available now and will undergo further development, exploring design methodologies and additional features.

Spotify has created an interactive data visualization called Musical Cities, which uses distinctive playlists to represent music preferences in over 1,000 cities across 59 countries. The playlist is based on 23 billion listener/track relationships and features unique songs that are popular in each city but not elsewhere. This map provides insights into international music tastes and can be used for travel planning, business purposes, or personal exploration of local sounds. Spotify's collaboration with CARTO has expanded the meaning of location intelligence by transforming data on aural behaviors into visual information, redefining what it means to understand "where" through music. The Musical Cities map also features a playlist called CARTO Tunes, which showcases songs with lyrics related to maps and geography.