How to map in Fusion Tables: a basic tutorial

In the last tutorial, I showed how to scrape data off a website. This time I’m going to show how to make a basic heat map in Fusion Tables using GIS data. (Heat maps are very en vogue right now.)

Before I start, I do want to point readers in the direction of NYTimes graphics editor Matthew Ericson’s fantastic blog post that came out a while ago called “When maps shouldn’t be maps.” Using several examples, Ericson illustrates a great point: just because data can be mapped, doesn’t mean it should be mapped. (On that note, I will fully concede that trends in the data I use in this tutorial would probably be best visualized in a bar chart, not a heatmap, but it’s data I had on hand!)

Onwards!

Okay, making a map in Fusion Tables requires three things:

1. A shapefile (which is actually a folder with at least four file types in it: .shp, .dbf, .prj, and .shx). You can download your own copy called wards_may2010.zip under “Attachments” from the city’s water billing dataset on BuzzData.

2. A tabular data file whose quantitative data is binned into geographic regions — specifically, regions that correspond to those marked in your shapefile. You can use the cleaned-up copy I made of Toronto’s water consumption data from my clone here. 

3. A column of data whose cell inputs — including the header — are exactly identical in both the above shapefile and the tabular data file. (This is the column Fusion Tables matches up to make the merged data table on which your map will be based.)

Got your data? Got your motivation? Then follow the step through this video tutorial and you’ll have your first Fusion tables heatmap ready to go. 

  

And voila!

If you still have questions, feel free to ping me and I’ll help you out. 

-Momoko Price

Have you tried BuzzData yet? What are you waiting for?

Can you spin stories out of data? Prove it.

                      BUZZDATA’S FIRST DATA-STORYTELLING CONTEST IS ON!

It was only a matter of time until I tried something like this. Hopefully this will be the start of something awesome here in Toronto (and perhaps abroad, if others want in): people evaluating and competing to tell the best stories with data.

THE GOAL:

To tell the story behind the data through your own BuzzData project

THE PRIZE:

$100 ITunes gift card — inspired by this guy’s prize for his “Pop and Lock-toberfest” circa 2010 (Sorry. Couldn’t help myself.)

THE RULES:

The number of data sources you can include in your project is unlimited, but you must use at least one of the following, and you have to include all data sources used in your final submission.

1) Toronto Water Billing Data for the last 10 years

2) EIU’s democracy index rankings 2008 and/or 2010

3) Canada Revenue Agency Contracts

4) World Bank Development Indicators

THE DEADLINE: 

Midnight EST, Sunday October 23, 2011

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY:

Submit your project by inviting me (Momoko on BuzzData) and the original publisher of your chosen dataset (as above) to check out your project on BuzzData when it’s done. 

If you know how to use BuzzData, submit as follows:

1. Clone one of the datasets above directly from the publisher on BuzzData. Make it private if you don’t want people to see it until it’s ready

2. Build your project on BuzzData (posting links and viz’s as appropriate).

3. When it’s done, note in the Overview which visualization/article/attachment is the final product(s), then, before deadline, invite me and the data publisher to check it out. And don’t forget to make it public if you want to show it to the world!

4. Tweet and link to your project elsewhere if you want to build interest in it (optional, but always a good idea)

If you’ve never used BuzzData before, here’s a quick video that shows how to start, build and submit your data project (don’t worry, it’s super easy!):

THE WINNER WILL BE VOTED ON AT OUR NEXT MEETUP ON OCT. 24! 

(Short notice, but no worries, this will happen monthly)

Want to attend BuzzData’s workshop next week? Here are the details:

Where: Room 120 at the Centre for Social Innovation, 215 Spadina Ave. (north of Queen St. West in Toronto)

When: Drop in from 6pm onward on Monday, Oct. 24. We’ll be closing up shop by 9pm

RSVP to our Hacks/Hackers meetup group here, please!

Hope to see you there!

-Momoko Price

 (Have you tried BuzzData yet? What are you waiting for, silly?)