Seeking Programmer for Data Visualization Project

Seeking Programmer for Data Visualization Project

The FloatingSheep Collective is seeking a contract programmer for an array of interface design, data handling and visualization tasks to work on the DOLLY (Data On Local Life and You) Project.  The goal of the DOLLY research project is to develop better access to an array of user-generated geodata including our growing databases of geocoded tweets. 

We have developed a scalable back-end database (built on top of existing open source software) that stores, indexes and analyzes a continuous stream of geosocial data on the fly. Since December 2011 this system has processed every geocoded tweet worldwide (~5 million per day) to test robustness and ensure an archive of this otherwise transient data.  We now seek to develop a web based interface to our existing database of 900 million geocoded tweets to allow for data exploration and visualization.  We’re looking for someone with programming ability in javascript and (preferably) ruby, experience with handling big datasets (exposed through ElasticSearch, a RESTful search engine that uses JSON as its data model) and using existing data visualization tools such as D3.  Note: this is a contract position for specific deliverables (which we'll develop in concert with the contractor) rather than an ongoing position.  

If you are interested in working on this project please send a resume and a brief introduction to your experience with building similar interfaces to Matthew Zook (zook@uky.edu).   

In addition to being an academic research project we will also use this data to explore some of the quirkier aspects of life.  In the past we’ve used similar user generated data to create a series of popular maps include “The Price of Weed” (featured in WIRED magazine), “The Beer Bellyof America” (covered by in the New York Times and Economist) and the “Beer vs.Church Tweet Map” (featured in a lot of places).  We also like zombies.

When Google Maps Fails

With the start of the new semester we've not been posting as much but this shall change.  We've got some fun maps in the works.  Until then, we wanted to share this fun example of a Google Maps fail. Earlier we post an example of how the University of Kentucky was relabeled as Transylvania University.

Now apparently, Bally's Casino and Resort is inconspicuously tucked behind a Wal-Mart on the edge of Lexington, KY.  Who knew what lurked in the back alleys of a strip mall?  Thanks to Patrick Bigger who brought this to our attention.

Now we know why Google posts the disclaimer that "These directions are for planning purposes only"!!

Static ScreenShot

Sheepallenge

From the people that brought you IronSheep, SheepCamp and last year's Satan vs. Santa Challenge comes:

SHEEPALLENGE 2012!  The virtual IronSheep competition: virtual data remixed virtually.

In early November 2012, we'll share a super-secret data set with those who register for Sheepallenge.  They can mix, mash, and recompose the data in anyway they chose.  There are no rules about group size or composition, but all authors must be acknowledged on the final submission. 

Final submissions must be sent to Monica (Monica.Stephens@humboldt.edu) by midnight EST on November 30 to be considered for Sheepallenge.  Submissions will be judged by a panel of sheep on their aesthetic value and use of the data. Winners will receive a sheep-related prize.

Early registration is now open.  You can register yourself or your group (group can be changed at anytime) by visiting early registration. Undergrad students from Monica's Intro to Cartography and Ate's Intro to GIS class will participate in the competition as part of their course. So signing up your GIS/Cartography class is definitely encouraged!

Questions?  Comments?  Expressions of interest?  Please email Monica at Monica.Stephens@humboldt.edu.

Let the sheep roll in!

Sheep Droppings, 7/30-8/19: CFPs, SxSW and Volunteered Sheep Information

It's been awhile since the last edition of Sheep Droppings, so we come to you now with a handful of important news and notes spread out over the course of the last few weeks.

First, the Swiss are developing a way for sheep to text message in order to alert their shepherds as to the presence of wolves. All we can say is that we're planning a future paper on Volunteered Sheep Information (hat tip to Jeroen Verplanke for this item).

There are a handful of recent CFPs out worth mentioning, including this planned special issue of the International Journal of Communication entitled 'Big Data, Big Questions, or, Accounting for Big Data'. Abstracts are due October 1.

And seeing as it's that time of the year when everyone is scrambling to make their AAG plans for the following year, there are a couple of session CFPs for the Floatingsheep co-organized #GEO/CODE symposium recently released. Jonathan Cinnamon and Britta Ricker from Simon Fraser are planning a session entitled "Citizen Data at a Crossroads: How should VGI be conceptualized?". The deadline for abstract submissions is September 14.

Craig Dalton and Matt Wilson are also planning a session, this one entitled "Situating the Geoweb as Technoscience". Deadline on this one is today, but there's always time! Both of these, along with all of the planned sessions for #GEO/CODE are sure to be interesting, so be sure to look into them!

In other sheep-related news (not the kind dealing with actual sheep), Mark and Matt, along with Andrew Boulton, had their paper on urban augmented reality published online in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. If you don't have institutional access, shoot them an email to get a copy. Monica and the Price of Weed map were featured in this piece about medical marijuana in the Tucson Weekly.    

Last, but certainly not least, go vote for Mark and Monica's panel for SxSW on geographies of the internet! Let's keep taking internet geography to the public!

SheepCamp 2012: Ate Poorthuis on the DOLLY Project

Ate Poorthius provides the first look at an extremely early version of the DOLLY project (Data on Local Life and You) under development at the University of Kentucky. The project is designed to provide a website to map geographic social media and official data to enable users to analyze their local communities.

SheepCamp 2012, Ate Poorthius from UK College of Arts & Sciences on Vimeo.

The DOLLY Project: http://newschallenge.tumblr.com/post/25545876923/the-dolly-data-on-local-life-and-you-project

SheepCamp 2012: Sasha Savelyev on Geovisual Analytics for Text

The talk by Sasha Savelyev highlights his work on qualitative information (particularly text) visualization with specific attention to text footprint, text overlap and typeface.

SheepCamp 2012, Alexander Savelyev from UK College of Arts & Sciences on Vimeo.

Sasha's website: http://www.personal.psu.edu/azs5362/

Sheep Droppings: 7/16-7/29

After a week's hiatus, we're back with another - albeit shorter - Sheep Droppings for those needing to scratch the itch of geoweb news.

First, for those looking to publish, the journal Computers, Environment and Urban Systems has a CFP out for a special issue on geospatial analysis of VGI. Paper submissions aren't due until December, so you've got plenty of time to whip that manuscript into shape. 

Speaking of publications, an interesting-looking paper by Andre Oboler, Kristopher Welsh, Lito Cruz entitled, "The danger of big data: Social media as computational social science" snuck by us in the July issue of First Monday. And it also looks like Barney Warf has a shorter-ish book on internet geography coming out sometime soon from Springer. 

For those readers in the UK seeking out the £££, the ESRC has a Google-sponsored workshop and grant CFP out related to applications of big data for social science research.

There's also an opportunity for folks interested in studying in Germany, where there are a handful of PhD studentships at Heidelberg University in spatio-temporal analysis of user-generated content. 

In the interesting-maps-from-around-the-web department, Mark has a new map up comparing the prevalence of different predominantly-Middle Eastern languages in Wikipedia: 

We also stumbled across this video from some folks at MIT promoting a new toolbox for urban network analysis for ArcGIS... While the tool itself seems pretty interesting, the futuristic projections of urban augmented reality are really what makes it most interesting.

Urban Network Analysis from City Form Lab on Vimeo.

We also came across a new (?) attempt at mapping the internet -- focusing on website traffic, but clustering the sites based on nationality and language.

In one final bit of more specifically Sheep-related news, we'd like to again congratulate Monica on her successful dissertation defense last week, and wish her well as she begins a new job at Humboldt State University in California, coincidentally the center of U.S. marijuana production, as confirmed by the Price of Weed map that Monica made. Don't worry, though, she's not leaving us, per se, just moving on to greener (ahem) pastures.

Until next time, sheeple!