Week 2

26 January (synchronous class in Zoom)

What is OpenStreetMap (OSM)? How is it different from Google Maps? (1 min)

O’Beirne, What Happened to Google maps? (5 mins) | Google Maps vs Apple (5 mins) and many other short cartographic design essays here.

Live breakout rooms: Choose a place in the world and look at it in at least two of the following: Google Maps, Apple Maps, Bing Maps and in OSM. What are the differences? Select a reporter to communicate your findings back to the class--make sure the reporter is ok with sharing their screen.

Live demo: geocoding using the sheets extension "Geocode by Awesome Table," uploading a dataset Black Lives Matter Cities (Trump et al) to UMap

Homework:

1. Sign up for a session at the Winter Institute in Digital Humanities (except Google Sheets, since we will have that session on 4 Feb in synchronous class). You should attend the entire session (2 hours) and your second blog will be a write up about what you learned. A list of those courses can be found here. If one of the courses is of particular interest, but is full, contact your instructor directly. Alternatively, if you would like to attend one of the NYCDH week courses, you can see their offering (and sign up) here. Your attendance at the WIDH or NYCDH week will be be your only course responsibility during week 4. Please list which course you signed up for here.

2. Watch: Introduction to UMap (2 mins) A Beginner's Guide to Google Maps (2 mins)

Skim: UMap Print Guide

Read: What are the CSV / JSON / geoJSON formats? UMap works with both. What is the KML format?

Before you work with UMap, you should go get an account with OpenStreetMap. It is also possible to log in with a GitHub account or Twitter, but we will be using OSM later anyway.

With your NYU account you are able to use Google MyMaps automatically.

For homework, tonight you are going to make two maps, one in Google Maps and one in UMap. Check out data folder of our shared drive where you can download the sample datasets listed below.

• Awqaf Operated Mosques for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (AD government)

• Early African-American Film (UCLA)

• Barber Shops in Downtown Abu Dhabi (Omole)

• Hotel Apartments for Abu Dhabi (AD government)

• Five Star Hotels in Abu Dhabi (Mokhtar)

• Self-Identifying Artists in the UAE (AlMansoori)

• Bangalore Neighborhoods (Menon) - via Kaggle, link within, requires password

• WPA Directory of Churches in New Orleans (Louisiana) 1941

• Baqalas in Abu Dhabi city (Wrisley)

Important: Use files with the json or geojson extension in UMap, kml in Google MyMaps, and csv in either.

Build: Study the data a bit and the descriptions given in the descriptions above, upload one file to UMap and one to Google MyMaps. Save the map in UMap. Find the share button for both maps and send both links to the Discussion room with few sentences about what you found in visualizing the maps. Do you have a preference for either platform? These map links and few sentences will count as quick writing #3. Please do this by 0600, 28 January.

Extra: If you are a really data curious person, how can we convert a json file into csv? can you find a way of doing it easily?

3. Think about who you would like to work with for the homework assignment this weekend. The work will be done in pairs. If you already know who you would like to work with you can sign up here.

28 January (synchronous class in Zoom)

In class discussion of our datasets, maps and using UMap.

Looking at the Cheap Eats Map and its data.

What do we want to be able to express at the intersection of information and location? What would you like to be able to do more of?

Signing up for video partner here.

Homework:

Below are some examples of contemporary mapping. Choose a partner from the course and let me know that person here. Use the form below to sign up for the presentation. Explore them and decide which one you would like to work on a presentation in pairs. If you are having trouble finding a partner, use the course Chat (random room) to indicate which project one you would like to work on and find a partner.

Las Calles de las Chicas (in Spanish and English) | Al Madaq: A Virtual Tour of Cairo's History | Legacies of Labor | Exchanges on Hamdan Street | Slave Revolt in Jamaica | Mapping Marronage | Palestine Open Maps | Ngāi Tahu Atlas | Oslo World Maps the World | Prison Map | Colonial Frontier Massacre Map | Stories of the Susquehanna | Going to the Show | Queering the Map | Mapping Absence | Trail of Blood | Mapping Paintings | MapBeks | Tenement Housing in Rio | Geography of the Post | MapLesotho | Mapping Emotions in Victorian London | Mapping Shakespeare’s Plays | Listening to the Iraqis in NYC | OpenGulf maps | Slave Maps | Books of Duchesses | LOTR Map | OpenLitterMap | Mapping the Lake District: A Literary GIS | Panorama: An Atlas of US History | Mapping the Mahjar | East India Company Trade Visualization | HarassMap Arab World | HarassMap Mumbai | Finalists 2020 Storytellers of the Year (choose one) | Mozart, Marx and a Dictator | The Social Maps of Port Said | Black Belt Brooklyn

Present the mapping project of your choice in an informal, short video (maximum 5 minutes).

There are multiple ways of doing this. You can use Kaltura capture if you want with screen captures and post it in NYU Stream. Alternatively, you can use Quicktime (Mac) or OBS (Windows) and put the video in our shared class drive. A video of best practices for recording in Kaltura is here. You could use Google slides as your presentation and record a voice over for the presentation. Be sure to preserve social distance in preparing the video. You can divide up the work and then put the two videos together using iMovie. You could also have a zoom together that you record and then share the link.

In your video, you might address some of these questions:

• Why did the makers of the project choose to carry out the project?

• What are the project aims?

• What kind of information does the project connect to location?

• What does the project do that is "more than spatial"?

• What do you think are the most significant achievements of the project (or perhaps where does it stop short of achieving them)?

• Can you tell how many people participated?

• Is the data opening available to work with?

• What is your favorite part of the project?

When you are finished with your presentation of the mapping project, please submit the link in the thread for Quick Writing #4 in the discussion room. One class next week will be devoted to an extended asynchronous chat about the presentations.

This 5 minute video counts as quick writing #4. Please complete this by 0600, 2 February.

Blog 1 (due 0600, 12 February)

Based on the project you and your partner worked on, write an individual written blog posting of in which you explain where the data comes/seems to come from, how the map tells a story, what it achieves and what its shortcomings might be said to be. Highlight both the strengths and shortcomings as you see them. Be sure to include plenty of screenshots. You can link to your short video or jamboard presentation as well.

Create a page in your Site called Blogs. This post should be a sub-page labelled "Blog 1". Posts can be maximum 1000 words and should include at least 3 well-placed and explained visuals and use the affordances of the Sites.

If you would like to see the rubric that I use to assess blog writing, check it out here. Examples of past work can be found here.