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Datamapper 

a curated open-source platform for geographically

analyzing local political & economic data

business brief 

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Maps Are Critical to a Stories:

Whether Internationally

Aug-Sept 2011

Drought and famine in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya ² August 2011

Source: AFP Source: Edward Carr  

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Or, Nationally or Locally

School quality in the Acton, Littleton, andMaynard,MA

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But, Making Maps Online Is Hard

� Require extensive effort

aligning data points organized

by Census tract, zip code, local

political boundary, or political

district

� Require advanced knowledge

of GIS, KML, Flash/Flex or any

number of other acronyms(1)

� Rely on expensive or clunkydesktop software

� Maps are underused

� Especially in online journalism, where

they could be most

powerful in

capturing the reader 

(1) Examples: ESRI Shape (.shp), E00 ArcInfo Interchange (.e00), ArcInfo Coverage (.adf)

Current methods are incredibly expensive:

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Datamapper to Fix Two Key Problems

Create a curated, open-source

database of linked Census tracts,

zip codes, local city and town

boundaries, and political districts

o Similar to the Music Genome Projectthat powers Pandora(1)

Seeking partnerships with newsorganizations and civic

technology leaders

Provide user-friendly mapping

framewor k based on modern web

standards

To be developed through a seriesof Hacks/Hackers hackathons

(1) Also inspired by Ushahidi and the OpenStreetMap

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We·re Looking to Collaborate to Begin Developing

Such a Platform

Hacks/Hackers, open-source developer 

community

Data visualization experts from around

the world like Prof. Andrew Beveridge at

Queens College

Leverage existing open mapping

framewor ks like d3 and Polymaps

Would like to partner with several major 

news organizations as partners and test

clients

Would like to leverage some of the

existing mapping datasets from news

organizations

Open-source community News organizations

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Source: IEA April 2011 oil mar ket assessment report

We Get Better Stories, and

Everyone Wins

Libya: oil fields and regions of conflict

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