Missing Maps Mapathon hosted at the American Red Cross
Our topic: Mapping disaster areas with the American Red Cross
Beginners are always welcome
Each year, disasters around the world kill nearly 100,000 and affect or displace 200 million people. Many of the places where these disasters occur are literally ‘missing’ from any map and first responders lack the information to make valuable decisions regarding relief efforts. Missing Maps is an open, collaborative project in which you can help to map areas where humanitarian organisations are trying to meet the needs of vulnerable people.
The American Red Cross and Maptime Chicago invite you to learn how you can easily contribute to world’s map to benefit vulnerable communities everywhere. You’ll learn about the history of crowd-sourced mapping as well as how to create your own OpenStreetMap account and begin using the simple map editing tools. We’ll focus on a specific project, somewhere in the world, and contribute to the map collectively.
Even better? Dinner will be provided.
What we will do
- Find places around the world that are prone to disaster areas
- Learn how to use iD editor to add buildings and roads to OpenStreetMap
You will need
- A laptop
- Create an OpenStreetMap account before you come
More resources
- Missing Maps - Figure out where in the world needs mapping and why it’s important
- Humanitarian OpenStreetMap - Start mapping immediately based on where other people say need updated maps
Event Details:
- When: Monday, August 1, 6-9 PM
- Where: American Red Cross - 2200 West Harrison Street, Chicago, IL 60612
- RSVP: Eventbrite
- Contact: Emily Zvolanek or Steven Vance.
QGIS tips and tricks
Our topic: QGIS tips and tricks
Beginners are always welcome
In some ways, learning QGIS from scratch is easier than moving to it from another program - you’re not going to tripped up by what you think you know. We’re going to create a map with multiple points on top of a simple choropleth map - with an eye to a few things that might make you stop and waste time searching for simple answers. Tim Broderick, who works for the Daily Herald, will be leading this event.
What we will do
- Remember projections. In ESRI, if you import a layer with a different projection than the one you currently have, a dialog pops up and it automatically applies the default projection. It’s amazing how I’ve become accustomed to this - QGIS simply places the layers with two different projections and leaves you to figure out why your points aren’t showing up on your map. They’re there, but they’re in Nova Scotia because you didn’t set their projection.
- Exporting from Mac Excel. This one was kind of weird, and I actually got a response from one of the QGIS developers. When you export out data that you want to use in QGIS from Mac Excel, you need to save it as Windows CSV. Otherwise QGIS won’t pick up the values as comma-separated and will import as one long string.
- Creating a CSVT file. Never heard of this before I started with QGIS. But to ensure the data is the right type (string, integer etc) you need to have a CSVT file right next to it.
- Creating a custom color palette. The tutorial series I pointed out is a little out of date regarding this.
- Saving as SVG (for print) with the ability to edit the text. If you’re setting this up to open and edit in Illustrator for print, you need to make sure the text is editable. Especially if you use open source items, because there can be spelling errors or other oddities (like special characters that might not work right depending on the font you use).
You will need
- A laptop
- Download QGIS
Event Details:
- When: Tuesday, June 14, 7:30 PM to 9 PM (come at 6 PM if you want food)
- Where: ChiHackNight, Braintree office, 8th floor, Merchandise Mart
- Contact: Emily Zvolanek or Steven Vance.
Missing Maps - mapping places before disaster strikes
Our topic: Missing Maps
Beginners are always welcome
Maptime headquarters designated May as Missing Maps Month, an opportunity for all Maptime chapters to spend some time editing maps for one of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team’s (HOT) current projects.
The purpose is to map disaster-prone areas before the disaster occurs.
From the Missing Maps website, “Each year, disasters around the world kill nearly 100,000 and affect or displace 200 million people. Many of the places where these disasters occur are literally ‘missing’ from any map and first responders lack the information to make valuable decisions regarding relief efforts.
It’s an open, collaborative project in which you can help to map areas where humanitarian organisations are trying to meet the needs of vulnerable people.”
What we will do
- Quick OpenStreetMap refresher for those who missed Maptime Chicago in March. Get a head start by reviewing this tutorial.
- Add features to a Missing Maps project by digitizing points, lines, and polygons from satellite data.
You will need
- A laptop
- A free OpenStreetMap account (create one now)
Event Details:
- When: Tuesday, May 31, 7:30 PM to 9 PM (come at 6 PM if you want food)
- Where: ChiHackNight, Braintree office, 8th floor, Merchandise Mart
- Contact: Emily Zvolanek or Steven Vance.
Projections - Understanding distortion of flat maps
We are going to learn about projections.
Maptime is always interactive, so don’t forget to bring your laptop! As always, beginners are very welcome.
Resources
Steven’s portion
- West Wing episode clip
- True Size - Because of the projection that most web maps use, the size of countries is extremely distorted.
Emily’s portion
- QGIS - Download and install version 2.14 “Essen” ahead of time to follow the exercise along with Emily. Works on Windows, Linux, and Mac.
- Map of ChiHackNight members - Download the shapefile that contains the number of CHN members per ward (data collected 2 Feb. 2016).
Derek’s portion
Event Details:
- When: Tuesday, April 5, 7:30 PM to 9 PM (come at 6 PM if you want food)
- Where: ChiHackNight, Braintree office, 8th floor, Merchandise Mart
- Contact: Emily Zvolanek or Steven Vance.
OpenStreetMap for Humanitarian Response
UPDATE: Rescheduled to June 24th!
For this month’s installment of Maptime, we’re going to put our OSM skills to work contributing to Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) applies the principles of open source and open data sharing for humanitarian response and economic development. We will:
- Learn about the Humanitarian OpenStreetMapTeam (HOT)
- Get introduced to / do a quick refresher on OpenStreetMap and
- Dive into contributing to a HOT project using the tasking manager.
Maptime is always interactive, so don’t forget to bring your laptop! As always, beginners are very welcome.
Event Details:
- When: Wednesday, May 24th, 6-8pm (rescheduled from May)
- Where: Chicago Community Trust (map) - 225 North Michigan Avenue, #2200. Hosted by Smart Chicago.
- Contact: maptimechi@gmail.com or smarziano@cct.org.