Learning Together in 2015
By the Maptime SF & OAK Gang, which crosses over with HQ a lot
Happy new year, Maptime! There’s lots brewing for 2015 already, and we’re excited to get started with all of it. Conferences, mega-organizer meetings, and chapter support are all on the list, but first we must tend to our primary mission: getting our tutorial schedule together so we can get teaching!
This year, we want to try something new: making a schedule that puts tutorials in some kind of order. We hope that doing this will address a couple important challenges:
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Education support for Chapters. If we put things in order, and we do it in advance, then other chapters can join along in the fun. We can also better support each other and answer each others’ questions if we’re doing things together.
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Offer a set of skill-building tutorials. We’ve had lots of newcomers this year attend more advanced topics (like d3) as their first Maptime and tell us they feel lost. Starting with Anatomy of a Web Map and working through data display (CartoDB + Leaflet) and then map design (Mapbox Studio) and other lessons addresses this need to start at the beginning and learn from there. It’s a traditional approach, but one that works. Why not give it a try?
Without further ado, here’s our schedule. Tutorials marked in this lovely purple color are ones that build on one another and should go in order.
| DATE | ACTIVITY | SF/OAK |
|---|---|---|
| January 21 | Anatomy of a Web Map | OAK |
| January 28 | Tutorial Development | SF |
| February 4 | Project Night | OAK |
| February 11 | OSM 101 | SF |
| February 18 | OFF | Null Island |
| February 25 | Geodesy (part 1: datums) | SF |
| March 4 | Displaying data: CartoDB + Leaflet | OAK |
| March 11 | Hand-Drawn Maps @FOSS4GNA | Burlingame, CA |
| March 18 | OFF | Null Island |
| March 25 | Geodesy (part 2: projections) | SF |
| April 1 | OFF | Null Island |
| April 8 | Hand Drawn Maps | OAK |
| April 15 | Styling basemaps: Mapbox Studio + GL Editor | SF |
| April 22 | Satellite | SF |
| April 29 | OFF | Null Island |
| May 6 | Turf.js | OAK |
| May 13 | Hand Drawn Maps | SF |
| May 20 | Geographic Data Formats and Data Acquisition | SF |
| May 27 | OFF | Null Island |
| June 3 | Show + Tell | SF |
If you are an organizer you may already have questions, like…
Do I have to go in the exact order or do tutorials on the exact date? Nope! Organizers can do whatever they want. That said, it’s highly recommended to do the tutorials marked in the lovely purple color in the order they are presented, as each contain principles from one of the previous lessons. The more people who are doing the same tutorials around the same time, the more people who will be asking and answering similar questions.
Wait, I’ve never seen some of these tutorials before. What are they? Some of these tutorials – like Turf.js and Geographic Data Formats and Acquisition – haven’t been made yet. As they are made, they’ll be posted on the Resources page.
I have an idea for a tutorial!! Where should I put it? What should I do? We have a growing list of tutorial ideas in this here Github repo. We totally encourage everyone to make and share tutorials!
Did we miss a question? Let us know! Reach out via the Organizer Slack channel or via hello [at] maptime [dot] io. If you’re interested in attending one of the Maptimes listed above, sign up at th the Maptime SF/OAK Meetup page.
We’re excited to learn together in 2015!
