review – Digital Maps, Space and Place

November 21, 2014

Simplicity of Form

Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126

Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127

One of the biggest challenges that Digital Studies as a whole faces is how abstract and complex its fundamental products are. There is often a high threshold for complexity leaving many creators and users confused because they lack specific knowledge of the particular processes of the Digital Studies. In the realm of Digital Mapping, the various coordinate systems, terms, and file types prevent creators from going as far beyond traditional mapping ideas as they could and keeps the layman away from using the products, as only those immersed in the study of Digital Mapping can understand the scope of the complexity of some of the projects. They may be able to see the big picture, but unlike text files or images, very few understand the mechanics of the processes. With the Digital Map App of Davidson College, I hope to create a simple linking of the ideas of geospatial data that serves as both a practical tool for navigation as well as a simple example of how geospatial data can be approached by an average user.

Stephen Ramsay and Rockwell’s “Developing Things: Notes toward an Epistemology of Building in the Digital Humanities” offers a clear and concise summation of the general issues surrounding digital studies as a whole. Ramsay and Rockwell argue that the abstract nature of Digital Studies as a whole has left many within the community questioning and arguing about what the definition is. This is in part due to the wide range of complex ideas that are a part of different segments of the Digital Humanities, how “but their work is all about XML, XSLT, GIS, R, CSS, and C” (Ramsay, Rockwell). While many average users of computers understand how text can be bolded or italicized and at least know that JPEG and PNG files refer to images, for most people the aforementioned file types are simply gibberish. In addition, in Ramsay and Rockwell’s discussion, there is no uniformity in the use of these file types across even the subsections of the Digital Humanities. Not every map is made with GIS, and not every program is run by C. This complexity is part of why it seems Ramsay and Rockwell have left out discussion of the Digital Humanities for the common man, the only noticeable omission in the article. While I would have liked the discussion there, if the Digital Humanities departments cannot define themselves, then it would be difficult for a layman to have any idea where to start.

There are many attempts to explain the concept of geospatial data, a important concept to the subject of digital mapping, to the layman with mixed results. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) attempts to define geospatial data for those wishing to keep records, but their definitions and procedure reveal the outdated approaches that those working outside the Digital Humanities often take, whether out of ease or necessity. While offering advice on how to store records, the EPA states that “Geospatial data records are often in special formats (e.g., oversized paper maps or data sets). Therefore, it is especially important to identify the geospatial data records with appropriate metadata, so the records can be easily accessed and retrieved with other, related records” (Environmental Protection Agency, Frequent Questions about Geospatial Data and Records). Rather than believe the EPA is ignorant to the more condensed ways of storing geospatial data, it rather seems that they must suggest less compact ways of storing data by the virtue that they are simpler for the user in the face of the overwhelming complexity that shapefiles and raster layers may bring to the uninitiated record keeper. While the FAQ may not be a good robust description of the idea of geospatial data, it must limit itself to inefficient simplicity in order to explain itself to users.

However, even without the need to focus on practical applications like record keeping, the definition of geospatial data can remain elusive. Even the handbook of geospatial data, a “user manual” for those who are trying to understand geospatial servers, must resort to relating text and webpages into its language in order to convey just what geospatial data is. While the guide book makes the claim that “Soon a search for spatial data will be as easy as a Google search for a web page (OpenPlans, GeoServer 2.6.x User Manual) they also bring up “browser” based systems and offer very few concrete examples that truly explain what geospatial data is supposed to be. The handbook tries to argue that geospatial data is fundamentally different from other types of data, yet only describes it using comparisons.

However, to understand geospatial data one only needs to look as far as the concept of spaces and places in people minds, commonly referred to as a “mental map.” Ozkul and Gauntlett’s “Locative Media in the City: Drawing Maps and Telling Stories” in Mobile Stories, serves as both an easy to comprehend discussion of what mental maps are as well as how people view geospatial data within their own minds. In their study, users were asked to “draw a map of London showing ‘frequently visited places’” (Ozkul Gauntlett 114). What surfaced did not take the form of raster layers, CSS code, or shapefiles placed by a complex coordinate system. Rather, people drew pictures and words in order to explain how geospatial data related to the real world. They also discussed concepts outloud that described how they viewed geospatial data, though they might not have personally called their ideas as such (114). This thorough discussion highlights one of the key difficulties that surrounds the abstract nature of many discussions on digital humanities. Text, pictures, and other common forms of data are not separate entities from geospatial data but rather simply another lense with which to view the various types of data that make up the world as a whole.

Data is not nearly as sectioned off into buckets of categories with no overlap as those who are obsessed with the quantitative over the qualitative might want you to think. Images like photographs can easily contain text, from a photo of a book to a simple captioned image. Text can be used to create images such as ASCII[1] art or emoticons[2]. The tools we use to create these are the same at their base as well. Webpages are made up of pixels which create both text and images, all of which are founded in the same code. There are different tools that produce similar results, but it is not the intrinsic makeup of these types of data that defines what they are but rather how we as people choose to interpret them. Likewise, geospatial data doesn’t need to be made up of completely different types of components from webpages or any other medium. What geospatial data does is combine the same elements that we use daily to produce other types of data in a way that people interpret as having to do with the space and place around them. This simplicity is something I hope to achieve with the Davidson Mapping App I am creating with the MIT aiAppInventor software[3].

Rather than trying to keep a purity of only geospatial data, the Davidson Mapping App attempts to look at text and image data through a geospatial lense. The current Davidson map[4] uses shapes and symbols as primary indicators of space, yet often that is confusing since people don’t tend to think in terms of those particular symbols but rather in terms of descriptions and mental pictures (Ozkul, Gauntlett). Therefore, the Mapping App adds textual descriptions and identifiable images to the available data to give users the best sense of where these spaces are, what they look like, and what they contain. Practically speaking, the text gives the buildings a sense of what they are commonly used for and the specific areas inside them, such as Hance Auditorium on the fourth floor of Chambers, which according to several Davidson students, was a very difficult place to locate the first time. The images help give the users’ mental maps a better foundation than the symbols; rather than simplistic shapefiles to go off of, users can have an image of the building or space in their minds that matches up very closely to what they will see when they approach the space. However, the app serves a purpose in getting users familiar with geospatial data itself as well.

MIT’s aiAppInventor is a program built around simplicity and therefore is a perfect medium to try to convey geospatial data in a clear and simple manner. The apps are programmed using predetermined blocks of code, which keeps the interface simple for both creators and users. While at first this design may seem limiting, it helps to streamline the application of use. One cannot incorporate GIS files or Excel data spreadsheets into this tool. Therefore, the cartographer and the layman are on common ground and data does not need to be translated from a complicated form back into simplistic terms. The app inventor does not work well for complicated projects, but is a great tool for understanding basic components of data and for presenting those components to a user.

In order to get definition at the higher levels of digital studies, we must first people to explain ourselves on simple terms to the average person. While there will always be an important place for discussion at the higher level of the subject, it’s important to make the Digital Humanities to be as accessible as possible for the common person as basic math, science, language or art is. Tools that appeal to our interpretation of geospatial data rather than the semantics about it will help us better understand what the essence of Digital Mapping within the Digital Humanities really is.

[1] ASCII art is made up of pictures using only the 128 characters from American Standard Code for Information Interchange.

[2] Emoticons use the characters on a keyboard to denote certain facial expressions or emotions.

[3] http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/

[4]http://www.davidson.edu/Documents/About/Visit/Campus%20Map/Campus-Map-8-5×11-2013.pdf

Citations

Didem Ozkul and David Gauntlett. “Locative Media in the City: Drawing Maps and Telling Stories” in Mobile Stories

“Frequent Questions: Records Management.” U.S Environmental Protection Agency. August 3, 2012. Accessed November 20, 2014. http://www.epa.gov/records/faqs/geospatial.html

Stephen Ramsay and Geoffrey Rockwell. “Developing Things: Notes Towards an Epistemology of Building in the Digital Humanities” in Debates in the Digital Humanities

OpenPlans, 2014 GeoServer 2.6.x User Manual, accessed November 20, 2014, http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/introduction/history.html

November 21, 2014

Serving Up GeoServer

First, what does GeoServer do? GeoServer is a tool that links geospatial data with user interfaces. The analogy of Geoserver as a bartender that serves and mixes the things that the user has stored on the shelves of the bar is an accurate depiction of how the server grabs georeferenced images and imports them into exhibits like Neatline. However, just as those who have never mixed drinks before might find it hard to achieve a good blend, those who do not have background in computers may find GeoServer an inaccessible tool. Below is a graphic that explains more and is hyperlinked to detailed instructions on using GeoServer:

Second, how do you use GeoServer? A vector file converted to a GeoTIFF can be uploaded to the online server and then accessed through the server and inserted as a layer into a mapping application. The benefit of this process is that vector files can be converted into vector data or styled maps.

Similar to Jeff McClurken who suggests in his article about Omeka that using the tool may be overkill for simple projects, GeoServer is a technology-heavy tool that might not be appropriate for all projects. However, for projects that require a large amount of data like the thick mapping in HyperCities or projects that require more styling, GeoServer may be a good option.

In conclusion, for those who are adept at computers or are certain that their project would benefit from GeoServer, enjoy the full selection at the bar. For those who are less certain, however, perhaps, instead of a bartender that can only serve a few select drinks if properly asked, it would be better to have a website that functioned as a butler and assisted the user more in achieving the goals of their project.

October 15, 2014

Burning Down Davidson

In this exhibit, I use Heganoo, which advertises itself as a “personalized interactive mobile map” to create a story about the fires that have occurred on Davidson College’s campus. Although Heganoo is limited in terms of overlaying historical images and maps on to current day scenes and creating a data-thick map, it is a useful tool to provide spatial context to a story that has an ordered plot. As can been seen below, the basic Heganoo event map provides numbered locations for a storyline:

Screen Shot 2014-10-15 at 7.18.56 PM — Heganoo Basic Event Map

I think that story lines are Heganoos speciality. Some of the alternatives to Heganoo are Neatline, which specializes in compiling information and allowing the user to explore independently, and History Pin, which makes historical comparisons easy by overlaying historical images onto Google Maps. Heganoo does not incorporate ambiguity or allow user interaction, which Bethany Nowviskie considers to be important attributes of Neatline. Instead, similar to Charles Cunningham’s “21 Steps,” Heganoo guides the user along a constructed story path and compartmentalizes information in order for it to be easily understood.

Not only could the stories of Davidson fires be told using another mapping tool, they could also have been told without maps altogether. However, as Farman argues in his article, “Site-Specificity, Pervasive Computing and the Reading Interface,” there is an importance in site-specificity and including the locations of the fires adds another dimension to the experience of the stories. In my exhibit, in addition to learning the details of each fire and some specifics about each building, knowing the location of each building allows the user to get a better sense of campus. For example, the location of older fires allows the user to get a sense of the old campus and the newer fire in Belk informs the user about how the college expanded down the hill. Additionally, the map enables the user to locate other buildings on campus, such as the church from which people ran to save the burning Watts dormitory.

In conclusion, I feel that Heganoo is the best application for presenting project similar to the exhibit I created that features the locations and stories about burning down Davidson College.

September 26, 2014

Map Tiler Review + Davidson 60's Map Overlay

Map Folder

Map Tiler’s Interface is very user friendly at the beginning. The addition of points to match up with the given map is very intuitive. However, the map result can encounter noticeable problems if the map picture is not entirely to scale. For example, many of the buildings on Davidson campus to not match up with their counterparts on the two maps in relation to the streets. In addition, if a map is fairly un-detailed in a certain area, or simply lacks easily identifiable points for detail, the map will generally be very skewed, even if there are many points in a clustered area. Roads are the best point of reference, I’ve found, as they often have very clear intersections. They are also much less subject to distortion than buildings, which can have very many differences in scale between the two maps.

The other issue with the program is the fact that the output system can be a little confusing. It seems one has to devote an entire separate folder to the rendering files or the program will become confused. I would have rather the system create a folder in the destination file rather than just simply putting each file in the folder (or on the desktop) individually.

However, once one gets accustomed to the quirks, Map Tiler is very straightforward and simple to use. It gives a very good product for very little effort and can be easily taught to just about any level of user with minimal guidance.

September 12, 2014

Sound of Street View Review

My first thought was: limited scope. There is a limited view of the park, and the sounds replay. This is more of a technological issue. However, I will say that this can easily be enhanced by adding an element of time. Because public spaces like the Buckingham Fountain can be used by a variety of people throughout the day, the types of sounds will change. The noises that are highlighted will changebecause the fountain’s visitors change. I think that people discredit the amount of change even a park bench can go through in one day due to the diversity of its users. The scale could be a little larger in order to place the view in perspective for the viewer. I really only use street view to visualize where I am going, not to explore one space. Street view to me is a tool for the directionaly-impared like myself who need visuals to know where they’re going. To just see a park with a fountain gives me no context about its location in the city, the size of the park or the different features of the park. I essentially am clicking right or left like a guess-and-check game where I’m not sure where I am going or where I am.

When I tried to make sense of how to improve this map-style using the guidelines of Monmonier I was even more confused. Monmonier states that if you are highlighting differences in climate a projection with straight, parallel lines is needed. If however, you are highlighting time of day, straight line meridians are important instead. I think that both a comparative look of the space during different seasons and different times of day would be helpful to a viewer. What is this park like during a summer day? What is like during a fall night? It doesn’t have to be specific like ‘what is this park like during Christmastime’ although, that would be interesting to see as well. This is all to say, how does the cartographer construct these meanings in a digital, interactive, map while still looking on to the principles of Monmonier?

The best part of this sound map is that the visual is enhanced by hearing sounds that an average viewer would here on any given day. It is relatively user-friendly by enabling familiar street-view icons that someone might recognize from Google. Ahhh Google: the all-knowing,all-powerful mapper. It is clear from “Mapping the Empire” that some maps (*cough* Google) have the power to essentially eliminate the thought of human existence wherever they so please, I don’t think the lack of information that I am critical of with Sounds of Street View is born out of the same agenda. I think there is a clear oversight into the amount of fluidity a public space can have at any given moment. When we limit the view to only the sunny daytime in Chicago, where you see and hear, cheerful noises, you leave the rest to the imagination of the viewer. When you have no pictures or streetviews for a township in South Africa with families and human lives you send a message to the reader that the place is desolate and not worth imagining.

September 12, 2014

Digital Cartography Review: Critical Habitat

In their project, “Critical Habitat: A Spatial History of Extinction and Reintroduction”, Jon Christensen and Gabriel Shields-Estrada address the environmental changes overtime in a small a California Grassland. They specifically examine the failed conservation strategies for a species of butterfly and map the historical conservation efforts that, despite their good intentions, ended up hurting the butterfly population and driving it towards extinction. In line with Guldi’s argument on Spatial Turn, Christensen and Shields-Estrada use digital maps as a new tool for addressing an old question – “re-examine the 20th century narrative of the transformation of California’s grasslands and how that history shaped modern conservation” (Christensen and Shields Estrada).

Christensen and Shields-Estrada visually take the reader through a population history of the area. By combining interactive maps and graphical figures, they place their work in conversation with LeFevre’s argument about the objectivity of maps. LeFevre argues that maps can not be completely objective, and this project demonstrates that although these maps seem to be depicting biological facts (somewhat objective), the juxtaposition of map and graph (below), presents a strong subjective argument.

http://web.stanford.edu/group/spatialhistory/cgi-bin/site/pub.php?id=21&project_id=

This image depicts the authors argument that as grazing lands decrease, more butterfly extinctions occur. This type of mapping represents a new spin on thick-mapping explained in Hypercities. While Christensen and Shields only provide two layers on their actual map (area and extinction status), coupling the map with an interactive graph allows for even more layers – time, land status, and a land-status/extinction rate relationship. The two interactive map/graph figures in this project provide the most substance and the strongest arguments. They are visually pleasing, easy to use and understand, and digital for a reason. They further the authors arguments that physical changes in the landscape, especially the introduction of parks, protected areas, and new developments, is correlated with the demise in butterfly populations. While this argument may or may not be correct, the authors use maps to present it in a clear way.

While Jon Christensen and Gabriel Shields-Estrada present a clear and significant case for the importance of environmental mapping when examining previous population trends, their final product lacks in several areas. In their introduction, the authors stated that they would use “18th and 19th century data sources to re-examine the 20th century narrative of the transformation of California’s grasslands and how that history shaped modern conservation”, but none of their final products present any data before 1960. In terms of graphing, the two impressive visualizations are bold and influential, but they lack in interactiveness. A reader simply presses play and watches history unfold. If there was a way to zoom in on a particular place, the authors would introduce a new level of scale that would make their maps more interactive and engaging. Additionally they graph the changes in land use, but including this on a map would allow for their argument on the interconnectedness of land use change and population status to visually thrive.

Overall Christensen and Shields-Estrada use maps to examine a previous phenomena that will aid in future conservation decisions. Their use of maps to answer historical questions as well as provide future solutions is refreshing and strong, and brings justification to Geographic Representation as an area of study.