February 2023 Summaries

During February, Black History Month is being celebrated by collaborating with the Black community, with a focus on the geoSTEM field, through a partnership between Mapbox and NorthStar of GIS. This collaboration included a discussion event titled "Empowerment Through Mapping," featuring organizations like Black & Abroad and the American Public Health Association (APHA), which explored innovative uses of geospatial data. NorthStar of GIS, led by founder Clinton Johnson, aims to create a racially just world by empowering marginalized communities with access to geoSTEM resources and fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion. The organization supports the community through education, advocacy, and action, connecting Black geoSTEM professionals with opportunities and resources to drive social transformation. Future initiatives include a social media campaign to highlight Black leaders in geoSTEM, the Black@GeoConferences to enhance community belonging, and an annual symposium named Homecoming, focusing on Black geographers and the themes of resistance and resilience. NorthStar encourages community engagement through participation in campaigns, joining their Melanated & Mapping Community, and attending events like Homecoming.

Mapbox celebrated Black History Month by highlighting Black culture's impact through various events and conversations with employees, allies, and customers, emphasizing diversity and inclusion. The festivities included a fireside chat on allyship with Sherika Ekpo, CEO of SEE Enterprises, and discussions on leadership development featuring Mapbox leaders. They also hosted a trivia event on Black culture and launched a donation matching campaign with organizations like Black Girls Code to support Black communities. Partnering with NorthStar of GIS, Mapbox held a discussion titled "Empowerment through Mapping" to explore how mapping can drive positive change, featuring contributions from customers such as the American Public Health Association and Black & Abroad. The event showcased projects like the Ending Racism map and the Black Elevation Map, highlighting the role of mapping in civic engagement and policy-making. Mapbox remains committed to promoting diversity and inclusion beyond February, aiming to continue these efforts within the company and the broader mapping and navigation industries.

Mapbox partnered with its Black Employees @ Mapbox (BE@M) Employee Resource Group to celebrate Black History Month by highlighting the impact of Black culture and Black excellence through various conversations and events. A key collaboration was with the American Public Health Association (APHA), which uses Mapbox's interactive web maps to address racism as a public health emergency. These maps allow APHA to track and showcase state and local government declarations on racism, facilitating peer-to-peer learning and resource sharing among jurisdictions. Tia Taylor Williams and Lawrence Haynes from APHA discussed how Mapbox's tools have made it easier to visualize and promote health equity by enabling local communities to see and understand the efforts to mitigate racism's health impacts. The interactive maps are a crucial resource for both awareness and actionable change, helping APHA provide necessary resources for equitable health policies. Moving forward, APHA plans to expand its storytelling map to include more jurisdictions, further detailing their progress in racial equity and justice initiatives in collaboration with Mapbox.

Mapbox Studio provides designers with tools to create customized maps that are not only visually stunning but also tailored to the specific needs of their audience, enhancing the understanding of the data displayed. By using Style Components in Mapbox Studio, designers can focus on legibility and aesthetics, choosing the right base map style from five core options suited for various applications like navigation, fitness, or real estate. Typeface selection, road network adjustments, texture addition, and color choice are crucial elements in designing a map that effectively communicates the intended information while complementing the use case. Mapbox Studio offers over 45 built-in typefaces and allows custom font uploads, while tools simplify road network modifications and provide options for adding texture to enhance depth. The platform encourages the selection of harmonious colors after finalizing other design elements, and designers can experiment with palette pickers for optimal color choices. Mapbox invites users to explore its Studio for free to create personalized maps and share their creations on social media using the hashtag #builtwithmapbox.

Creating personalized greeting cards using custom maps is an innovative way to commemorate special places and occasions, such as Valentine's Day or a memorable first date. Utilizing Mapbox Studio, users can design unique map styles by either starting from a template or creating one from scratch, and they have the option to add custom labels or icons through the Dataset editor. Once the desired map style is achieved, it can be exported as a high-resolution image file for digital sharing or printing on cards, with the requirement to include Mapbox attribution if used for commercial purposes. For a more engaging experience, the map can be made interactive by incorporating chronological events or storytelling elements.