Davidson College Mapping – Digital Maps, Space and Place

November 10, 2014

Marauder's Map App

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Using the online host, MapInventor, I created the structure for a mapping application that roughly recreates the magical map from Harry Potter and presents locational information about users around Davidson College. The idea of this app is to be able to see which study spots are going to be busy and which have availability–a purpose that I feel would be a useful to have as finals season approaches.

MapIt_MIT-6.aia

The main page of the app looks like this:

Although the app is unfinished, clicking each button would lead the user to a map: one with places you had tagged, one with popular tags, and a general map that shows where other users have checked in.

Using MapInventor to create this is a simplified process, where the complex code of Xcode is remade into graphic blocks that can be pieced together to create an action. For example, clicking “See Your Study Spots” triggers a reaction that can be seen below.

Sarah questions in her post whether this kind of activity is a form of scholarship, which I would agree is a reasonable question to ask. However, I appreciate how this website brings to the complex jargon of coding into a vernacular that allows for wider range of app makers.

November 3, 2014

Final Project Plan and Schedule: Joseph Martin

These are the basic steps I think are required to create my idea for a Davidson Mapping App. The goal of this app is to provide users with easy access to descriptions of the places around Davidson Campus along with the names and mapped images usually provided.

Step 1: Location Data – (Nov. 3 – 17)

While this step is neither complex or very difficult, it could be very time consuming. Essentially, I will need to write a few sentences or more about every location that is planned to be in the app. While many of the popular buildings can be written up immediately, I will have to do research about the important qualities of the other buildings as well as what important rooms or departments are contained within them. This research will be done by either talking to students and faculty who use the buildings, or by traveling onsite to the respective places to gather the data.

Step 2: Input Button/Screen System – (Nov 15-24)

The essential structure of this app will give users the ability to tap buttons that represent each building/area which will take them to the short description of the area in question. Again, this process will be more tedious than complex, as each button should have almost the same programming, with only differing destinations. The features will also include buttons that take users to screen containing descriptions of features located within or directly related to the area currently being described.

Step 3: Extra Features – (Nov 24-End)

At this point, the basic purpose of the app is complete. Users can get information about the places on the Davidson map simply by tapping the building in question. However, at this stage the app is very bare bones, and so a variety of features are planned to be implemented, given that the project has not varied far off schedule by this point.

Possible Features to be Implemented

Search Function: Allow users to search for descriptions based on name, rather than finding the place on a map. This would be very useful for those who are looking for a place inside another building. That might not be able to be tapped from the map.

Locator: Allow users to choose a place in the description list and be taken to an image where that place is clearly shown on the Davidson map.

User Input System: A much more complicated feature that would allow users to make suggestions about potential additions or changes that the app might need, either from a lack of including it in the first place or to adapt to changed circumstances as time goes on.

September 26, 2014

A College that Grows: 1939 and Now

Link to the geocoded map of Davidson from 1939/1940

I took an image of a map of Davidson College from 1939-1940 and used MapTiler to mark points on this map that corresponded with a current cartographic view of Davidson College similar to what someone would see in Google Maps. While geocoding, I only found it to be a challenge when a building on one side didn’t correspond to a building on the old map of Davidson College. I wasn’t sure if this would skew my results, but it turned out the way that I hoped it would. Overall, the program is very straightforward for the purposes that I was using it.

My geocoded result shows the accuracy of the traditional map as well as change over time (click on the link above and use the slider in the top right to see the differences between the two layers). The map tells the story of a growing college. Like people, the college has changed in certain ways and has remained the same in other ways as time has gone on. An example of accuracy is shown by Main Street (once called U.S Highway No. 21), which lines up almost perfectly with the Main Street in the bottom layer; Concord Road does as well. Differences include additions of dorms, academics buildings, and relocation of certain buildings such as the fraternities (currently in Patterson Court but once in Jackson Court-bottom right of old map). The most noticeable consistency is Chambers (large building in the center) as well as the paths on campus, which we can only see through the top layer since the trees in the bottom layer block our view.

The story that the map is telling isn’t limited to just showing position change of buildings, but we can speculate as to why certain buildings moved. For example, the library used to be far from Chambers (top left building on top layer map), but now it is located right behind Chambers. This position change shows clustering of academic buildings, which the college currently does. The increase of population accounts for additional dormitories, expanding the campus, and possibly moving the fraternities to Patterson Court so that the faculty could have Jackson Court. These two observations lead me to a realization from this ‘story in the form of a map’: necessity brings change, and change is made possible by money (we might even be able to say that potential needs arise when the money is there).

With this information, I could use a map like this in the future to estimate trends of how the campus might evolve. Obviously, Chambers will most likely remain where it is; it is the Sun while other buildings are planets that can enter an orbit from Chamber’s ‘gravitational pull’. Furthermore, people determine what is necessary to change, which means that the layout of Davidson College is very much a social construct. People are predictable, so the evolution of Davidson College should be as well.