Author: Jack Dougherty

Update for community partners

Posted on Author Jack Dougherty

Dear community partners,

Thank you for hosting a Trinity intern from our Data Visualization seminar this semester. My students are just beginning to learn how to design and create interactive charts and maps that fit your organization’s needs, and I’m delighted that you’re participating in this learning experience.

At the link below, you can read more about our seminar and the other community partners. Guests are welcome to sit-in on any of our Monday 12-1pm sessions (I bring a light lunch meal to share), or to follow our work online at: http://commons.trincoll.edu/dataviz/

Currently, Trinity interns are prioritizing their partner’s data visualization needs and sources, and writing up a public post about the early stages of their projects. Also, I’ve instructed our interns to discuss our public-private policy with you. We design our work for the open web, but we also understand cases where individual-level data must be confidential or works-in-progress must be hidden from public view until approved by the organization. Read more at: http://commons.trincoll.edu/dataviz/public-private/

While you’re welcome to contact me at any time with questions, I’ll be sending you a mid-semester online intern evaluation on March 10th, and a final one in late April. Finally, I hope that you can attend ONE of our public presentations: Mon April 21st at 12 noon OR Wed Apr 23rd at 5:30pm, with details on our site.

regards,

Jack Dougherty, Trinity College
http://commons.trincoll.edu/jackdougherty

Comparing BatchGeo vs Google Fusion Table with template

Posted on Author Jack Dougherty

For free and user-friendly tools to display a spreadsheet of locations on an interactive map with pop-up info tooltips, and group them by named types using color-coded markers, compare demonstrations of two tools using the same data:

BatchGeo  full-view demo

Google Fusion Table searchable map template with checkboxes (by Derek Eder) full-view demo

BatchGeo
– easy upload of up to 250 rows of addresses and multiple types
– editor can control several settings (but not marker color)
– with each revision, owner receives auto-email with editing link and embed code
– freely hosted on BatchGeo freemium service (pay for more features)
– BUT in practice, data must be stored in an external spreadsheet and manually re-loaded for updates
– overall, a quick mapping solution, but limited control over process and output

Sample BatchGeo embed:

View Early Care Providers & Preschools in West Hartford in a full screen map

Google Fusion Table searchable map template with checkboxes (open-source code by Derek Eder)
-easy upload of thousands of rows of addresses and columns of other data from any spreadsheet to Google Fusion Tables, where owner can grant privileges for anyone to view or edit collaboratively
-initial setup requires following code instructions in template, and novices may require help
-greater control over searchable map controls (such as checkboxes, marker colors) and web page (your own text, images, links)
-option to display same data in other formats (such as a list view) on the same page
-after setup, several code files need to be hosted on a live site (see free web hosting on Google Drive to keep code near the Google Fusion Table data)
-would be better with Google Spreadsheet automatic sync to Google Fusion Tables (in-progress, I hear)
– view sample embed below (layout can be reorganized or resized) OR click to open GFT Searchable Map demo in a new tab/window (full view, mobile-friendly)