Intro to Web Mapping + GIS

Have you ever wanted to create live maps for your website? Have you struggled with geospatial data, the headache of storing it, or the reliance on proprietary software to play with it? Have you heard of libraries and services like OSM, Leaflet, Mapbox, and Mapbox Studio, but never been sure how they interact with each other or what you can do with them? Have you seen slick webmaps online (https://cartodb.com/gallery/) and longed to recreate them, or build dashboards that allow you to explore your geo-spatial information in interactive charts, maps, and graphs?

This is the workshop for you!

The workshop will cover:

• Mapping Basics: the different components of online maps, how they operate, the data they depend on, and an overview of some of the platforms that could be used to produce them (Google Maps, Mapbox, CartoDB)

• Mapping Data: how to find and prepare data for webmaps, free sources (data.gov (http://ohurisa.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=262&qid=42942), local data portals, OSM Overpass API), as well as how to create and transform data of your own (geojson.io (http://ohurisa.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=263&qid=42942), Fulcrum), and how to store it (Github, CartoDB)

• Creating Custom Maps: Working with CartoDB (https://cartodb.com/), we'll walk through how to make maps fast in a GUI, how to how to style them with CartoCSS (https://www.mapbox.com/tilemill/docs/manual/carto/), and how to use JavaScript to extend their interactivity. You'll learn how to design, build, host, and dynamically update a map.

This will be part I of the course; part II (in a few weeks) will go over advanced JavaScript methods and PostgreSQL for dynamic maps.

Prerequisites:

This class presumes some basic familiarity with HTML/CSS and JavaScript; although we'll provide template files and instruction to minimize a dependency on this prerequisite. Curious to learn and interested in a short primer? Try out one of our Map Academy (http://academy.cartodb.com/) lessons online (like Codecademy but open source and for GIS)!

Don't forget to bring your own laptop and power supply, we'll provide the rest!

About the Instructors:

Aurelia (https://twitter.com/auremoser) is a scientist at CartoDB, she works on data visualization and curriculum development at CartoDB, and co-runs the Girl Develop It NYC chapter. You can check out the things she makes on Github (https://github.com/auremoser) or bl.ocks (http://bl.ocks.org/auremoser).

Andy is a scientist at CartoDB. He works on data analysis with the goal of helping everyone make smarter maps, and education development with Aurelia. He spends a lot of his free time hiking or dreaming of hiking.