You’ve got stuff to map, right? Great! It doesn’t matter if you have latitude/longitude, street addresses, or names of towns, you can map it! Create informative and interactive visualizations of your data easily with Carto. No GIS or programming experience required. Let’s learn about mapping.The free version of Carto has map-making wizards that automatically visualize your data. Your maps can be inserted into your website or app. Carto also offers more advanced intelligence services through their paid plans.
I’ve been using Carto (formerly CartoDB) for a few years now, both for research and for personal projects. In 2016, I worked with professor Udi Sommer to create maps based on his research on criminalization of same-sex activities. The maps show changes in national laws over time across the globe and were included in his book.
If you don’t have your own geographical data there’s plenty to find online. These days, many organizations, governments, and people are collecting and sharing open data. Check out open datasets like GDELT, Dataverse, or search local and national government agencies.
Below I’ve included an interactive map of all the farmer’s markets in the US. It is fully searchable with links to websites where available.
The source is the US Department of Agriculture’s own data. Over 8,000 markets are mapped in this database, demonstrating the connection of farms to consumers that has grown in the US over the last few years. The USDA has made a special effort to support these farmers markets by releasing this data to give them insight into the growing industry.
Check out the map here
Got cool maps to share? Post them below!
Originally published on April 4, 2017.
