The happenstance art of maps

I showed recently how CLIWOC weather data from ships captains logs dating 1662 to 1885 totalled almost 1/2M points. It started with a 1/4M ships tracks, and combining look-up tables from four maritime agencies they yield numeric wind force and direction...

Dynamic maps final (for now)

[Update1: longhand version posted on my map catalog blog
Update 2: companion Slideshare delves into technical issues]

This is the end installment of progressing from static to dynamic maps online. A few lessons learned along the way on posting a quarter million point dataset, which ballooned to almost half a million after links & joins...

Lessons from 'static to dynamic maps'

Last month related the stumbling blocks in posting too much data on arcgis.com - time animation pushed the limits of stock web service even when limits are set above 250K points - and other services don't offer animation as yet.

From static to dynamic maps, continued

Last month I reported on posting on arcgis.com some time-stamped, time-slider or time-aware maps - I showed my WhereIsAndrew map - I also mentioned how time-sliders are a great way to roll-up diverse datasets that are time dependent. CLIWOC Captain's ships logs was the other example cited, and I proceeded to post it as a service from ArcMap on arcgis.com.

From static to dynamic maps, my travel so far

I tell people "I know just enough java to be dangerous", and it has served my well in my prior attempts logged in my old web page. These were all Google Maps API v.2 I built about 5 years ago. This blog as well as my new map catalog showed how I built maps in QGIS then ArcGIS, and then posted them on giscloud.com and AWS via Mapcentia GeoCloud2. I recently posted maps on arcgis.com on desktop and smartphone, static results of 'traveling salesman' geoprocessing on the desktop or online.

Handy maps

A 'handy' is what Germans call a mobile or cell phone. I uploaded free ArcGIS for Android on my  smartphone, which now has a decent screen to read maps on - love my Navigon Europe on it, and Google Maps too - but here is a quick&easy application of arcgis.com for the rest of us. 

... now HOW open is open?

[Update: Part II is on my Medium professional channel 2½ year later: Almost open data]

A lot of (virtual) ink has flowed around opening up data, as in this blog, GISuser crowdsourcing open data (below left) etc. etc. And everyone is getting into the act, from White House (below center) and Whitehall (UK Cabinet Office) to the number of open data hits (below right).

Releasing data really works, Part VI

Three months into posting data on my web service - Part V - I created a short list of free data for Great Britain on my Map Catalog called GB Freebie.

Global Sailings (1662 - 1856, English, Spanish, Dutch, French) revisited

[Update: climate data (wind speed & direction) have now been added in short & long posts]

I originally extracted CLIWOC (CLImatological database for the World's OCeans) ship captains' logs ships locations over a decade ago, to demonstrate the processing of 250K+ points in ArcGIS desktop using then new File Geodatabase. Five years later I posted this on my old website with instructions how to use it in  old ArcGIS Explorer and KML, and then I put a layer package on arcgis.com - both related historic details like de laPerouse's demise below, the importance of data standards and metadata, and the interst it generated elsewhere - more recently I posted a time-based variation of same, where using a time slider helps clarifiy complex data on desktop GIS.

Maps are forever (Part III)

My first post on this theme traced beautiful medieval maps from the British library in London to the Harvard Libray online, to land on a 1610 beauty.