THE PROJECT
Project Guide
About Project
Working Notes/Blog
Convert Census Files to SVG Maps
DEVELOPMENT ZONE
Utility Goals & Downloads
Cancer Alley
U.S Poverty: 1999
Census Tract Animation
SVG
Download SVG Viewer
SVG Collaboration
SVG on the Web
Download Directly
Conversion Utility 4/1/03
Utility code 4/1/03
Cancer Alley JavaScript 7/11/02
US Poverty JavaScript 1/1/03
Project update:
We received a message entitled "Still there?" from someone recently. Yes the Citizen Mapmakers and Data Artists project is still very much here. The silence in recent times has been due to the fact that the early morning and midnight efforts that have fueled the project to date have been diverted to writing a project funding proposal. Once the proposal is completed, more time for the project will be freed up - and, if we succeed, at raising some cash, then we will be able to afford reduced time on our fulltime jobs and will be able to give the project the time it deserves. Here are some excerpts from the working draft of the proposal:
Citizen Mapmakers & Data Artists is a pioneering effort to promote web-based issue visualization through collaborative, open source graphics development in the nonprofit research and advocacy community. The project aims to promulgate tools and skills that enable nonprofits to cheaply and effectively employ maps and data visuals needed for public issue education campaigns as well as internal management purposes. In particular, the project aims to enable groups to use open source tools to dynamically-generate such visuals on their websites at a fraction of the costs incurred when using current proprietary tools. In the process, we will also initiate collaborative graphics development efforts among advocacy groups, benefiting from and contributing to broader efforts already underway to make diverse SVG graphics resources freely accessible on the Internet. Citizen Mapmakers & Data Artists will introduce and nurture a distinctly civic component to these efforts. In particular we aim to make a tangible contribution to public policy discourse on the Internet and elsewhere regarding effective political representation on matters of inequity, civil liberties and civil rights.
Citizen Mapmakers & Data Artists will build an organizational structure that enables online open source development of issue visualization products, outreach to potential collaborators, communications with ongoing collaborators and the production and dissemination of instructional materials. This includes developing a website with an online resource center enabling website visitors to learn about and download SVG development utilities, source code, demos, templates and tutorials. Through ongoing research, we will incorporate state-of-the-art techniques into our demonstration products.
Site Update:
A few modifications and additions:
Site redesign:
After burning a lot of midnight and pre-dawn oil, a redesigned site
is ready to roll out. The main goal of the new design is to accomodate
growth easily. While the day job has slowed the pace of development here, the new
structure will make it easier to build one brick at a time. (M.M.)
Project update: Except for a handful of people
and the attendees of the Zurich conference (see July 17, 2002 note below), we
have not publicized the existence of Citizen Mapmakers. Before
inviting the general public in, we would like to include other
features, notably some instructional information and a downloadable
utility that will enable site visitors quickly to get a handle on
SVG mapmaking.
Among the few people we have notified about the site are Paul Orum
of the Working Group on the Community Right-to-Know and Gary Bass of
the Right-to-Know Network. Since the 1980s, they have made an
invaluable contribution to American democracy through their work to
create, defend and promote the community right-to-know about toxic
releases. Subsequently, we have heard from Barbara Koeppel, author
of the excellent piece in The Nation about Cancer Alley. She is
enthused about the effort to put Cancer Alley on the map, saying
that "no one, to date, has done anything like this anywhere in the
US". I am consulting with her about ways to provide more in-depth
information about Cancer Alley.
Also, Darryl Malek-Wiley e-mailed, noting that Richard Miller of the
Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers shares credit for coining the term
"Cancer Alley". They came up with the term during a labor lock-out
at a BASF facility in the 1980s. At the time, Darryl was chair of
the Deltat Chapter of the Sierra Club. Darryl also noted that the
Louisiana Environmental Action Network has posted these maps on
their web site.
As time permits, I am concentrating on the following tasks:
Citizen Mapmakers at SVG Open: On July 17th, I made a
presentation at SVG Open, the first ever SVG developers conference.
Sponsored by Carto.Net (see their SVG mapmaking tutorial site!) and
the World Wide Web Consortium, the conference brought together about
250 people from 25 countries in Zurich, Switzerland. My talk focused
on ways that developers can help assure SVG's success as a graphics
standard. As an example of how SVG may be able to serve citizen
advocacy campaigns, I demoed the Louisiana Toxics Release map. The
full text of my remarks is posted here on the conference
site.