Now this is a cool proportional symbol map!

Just so you realize that I wasn't rushing into class at the last minute for selfish reasons... I was scanning these incredible maps from Fortune and Time Magazines during World War II. Check out this proportional symbol map of the Soviet Union, including "newly acquired" Polish cities! :) Incredible projection and it shows three different variables! Click on it for a larger image and feel free to download this and save it and distribute it... the copyright has expired!

Mapping Job -- very cool sounding!

Graphic Designer / Mapping Analyst, Pew Research Center

Position Summary
The Graphic Designer / Mapping Analyst is a member of the Pew Research Center’s Project on Social and Demographic Trends. This position is primarily responsible for design of informational graphics; mapping and data management of survey, demographic and geographic trends; and performing mapping and data analysis work relating to other projects within the Center. Candidates must be familiar with GIS Software analysis techniques. This position reports to the Project Director for Social and Demographic Trends

Primary Responsibilities

• Design and developinformation graphics for website dissemination;
• Work withdemographers, survey researchers, economists and editors to conceptualizeand produce data narratives through graphical representation;
• Provide a broadrange of powerful spatial modeling and analyses;
• Create, query, mapand analyze data;
• Manage survey dataand display survey measurements and observations on a map;
• Take a lead role infinding new ways to represent and communicate data;
• Investigate avenuesand research information pertaining to demographic and geographic areas;
• Map and maintaindata points from databases associated with survey, demographic, andgeographic data;
• Work with largeamounts of data utilizing mapping applications;
• Provide mapping,demographic and geographic data management;
• Query informationfrom existing data;
• Query informationacross multiple data layers;
• Providevisualization and analysis of temporal data by defining events thatinclude time and location;
• Provide day-to-daymapping support functions.
  

Required Education/Experience

• Bachelor’sdegree in Journalism with emphasis on Graphic Design or Geography or related equivalent combination of education, training and experience;
• GIS Certification , CAD Technical Schoolor related scientific discipline a plus;
• Minimum 2-5 years experience or equivalent work in a related field;
• Experience working with demographic and geographic data (research, interpretation andapplication);
• Experience in data analysis;
• Background in statistics a plus;
• Experience creating interactive maps a plus;
• Experience in cartography a plus.
• Experience with Census data sets
  

Knowledge and Skill Requirements

• Must have strongbackground using mapping and graphic software;
• Must have knowledge,mastery and command of available graphics and mapping methods/tools to maximizeeffectiveness of data presentation;
• Strong background inindustry-leading design software tools (including ArcGIS, Illustrator, andFreehand.
• Familiarity withQuark, Indesign and Photoshop a plus;
• Strong background inDatabase tools (SQL, MS Access, Crystal Reports, SPSS);
• Must have stronganalytic abilities to capture and illustrate the essence of the data;
• Must be highlyorganized;
• Strong attention todetail;
• Ability to workindependently with minimal guidance;
• Ability tomulti-task, prioritize tasks and deliver against deadlines.
• Ability to interpretand convey data for a lay audience;
• Knowledge of publicopinion data mapping is a plus;
  

Application Procedure
Applicant should send a complete resume and cover letter (indicating where you learned of the opening) to:

Ms. April McWilliams
Human Resources Director
The Pew Research Center
1615 L Street, NW Suite 700
Washington, DC 20036

GIS (read: Cartography) Career & Networking Fair

2008 GIS Career & Networking Fair

The 2008 GIS Career and Networking Fair is scheduled for Wednesday, April 2, 2008! Our first annual GIS Career and Networking Fair was held in 2002 and since then the it has grown into a great event that provides GIS students from around the region a forum to network with potential employers in the public, private, non-profit and academic sectors. In addition to exhibitor booths, we will again feature a variety of interesting speakers. We hope to see you there! Details are as follows:

• Date: Wednesday, April 2, 2008
• Time: 11:00AM - 4:00PM
• Location: University of Minnesota, Coffman Memorial Union – Mississippi Room. View Coffman Memorial Union directions and parking.
• 2008 Presentation Schedule
  • 11:00 A.M. - 11:30 A.M.
    Terese Rowekamp (Rowekamp Associates)
    "ArcGIS Model Builder Mini-Tech Forum"
  • 12:30 P.M. - 1:00 P.M.
    Len Kne (U of M Masters of GIS student)
    "The Minnesota Interactive Internet Mapping Project"
  • 1:30 P.M. - 2:30 P.M.
    Jack Dangermond (Founder and President, ESRI)
    "Inside GIS"
  • 3:00 P.M. - 3:30 P.M.
    Sally Wakefield (1000 Friends of Minnesota)
    "Bridging GIS and the Public Mapping Movement"
• Exciting New Event this Year: Following the Career and Networking Fair, all are invited to attend special events featuring ESRI founder, President, and CEO, Jack Dangermond. These events are scheduled at the beautiful McNamara Alumni Center, a short walk from Coffman Memorial Union. Details for these events are currently being finalized. This is the first in an annual University of Minnesota Masters of Geographic Information Science speaker series
• Information for interested exhibitors:
  • There is no charge to exhibit
  • A 6 foot display table with chairs, parking passes, and lunch will be provided
  • Though we especially encourage hiring organizations, all interested organizations are invited to exhibit. Sharing information about your special application of GIS is great for everybody to see and helps make this a true networking event
  • Register for the GIS Career and Networking Fair!
    Alternate registration form
    • Also, you may e-mail us at gisso@umn.edu or call GISSO President Dan Sward at 612-327-0066

The GIS Career & Networking Fair is an initiative of the Geographic Information Science Student Organization.

http://gisso.umn.edu/fair/

Proportional Problem in Excel

Dear Class:

It was truly fun being in lab today! I had a blast. Sorry that I had to dart off. Unfortunately, this will be the case every lab session, as I have to lecture at 1:10 in St. Paul on Wednesdays. However, I will have office hours on Thursdays or Tuesdays -- whichever is more convenient for you -- in the lab too. I will be there tomorrow after lecture. Now, an important note for those of you using your own data. If you are using the West Nile data, you need not read further.

---------------------------
Today I showed you how to determine the circle sizes for your proportional symbols using Excel. However, I quickly realized that what I showed you may not work perfectly for those of you using your own data. The reason being: my smallest value was "1"; so every other value merely had to be multiplied by one. For example, Ohio was the lowest with "1", and Minnesota had "16." Thus, Minnesota's circle size was obviously 16-times (16*) the area of Ohio's circle.

This will not be the case if your lowest value is any number other than "1." Let's pretend your lowest number is "5" and your next lowest number is "7". Seven is not seven times the size of five. It is only 40% larger than five.

Below I will show some screen captures that illustrate how to program Excel to remedy this situation. If you have any questions regarding my directions, please feel free to email me. Thanks and sorry for any inconvenience.

Whereas I told you to take a state and multiply its number of West Nile cases by the area of the lowest valued state's circle, instead you need to first figure out the proportional difference between the lowest state's number of West Nile cases and the state you are trying to figure out.

Originally, I had you type in the second lowest state's "Circle Area" column <=B23*$C$24>. B was the column labeled "West Nile Cases" and $C$24 was in the "Area" column, the lowest valued state (Ohio).

Well, to correct for the fact that not every sample starts with a value of one, you should instead type: <=B23/$B$24*$C$24>

What this does is divide your current state's value by the lowest value to get a percentage of increase. It then multiplies this percentage of increase time the smallest circle area to give you a proper proportional circle. Please email me if you have questions. Email me your Excel sheet too, and I will show you using your very own data!

Thanks again for your patience.

Setting up the smallest value does not change at all.
The area of the smallest value should be equal to your chosen radius squared times Pi (3.14).
Please see image below.

Originally, I told you to multiply the data value for each forthcoming case by the circle area for the smallest case. This works if your smallest value is 1. But only then! (See below.)



You should replace the above formula for area (for all of your cases aside from the one with the smallest value, which does not change) with this formula below. Divide the value of your current case by the value of your smallest case and multiply that value times the area of the smallest case. (Please see formula below.)

Spring Break Update

Spring Break Mapping! Africa Maize Production.
Not my favorite. What can I do to make it better?
Please post comments/suggestions below. Thanks!

I hope this blog post finds you all doing very well. I just want to say thank you to the students that chose to fill out the midterm evaluations. I really appreciate the feedback. I will attempt to address the perceived shortcomings of this course the best I can. I want to take some time to address a few of the issues that arose on the midterm evaluations, as we will have a lot to cover when class resumes on Tuesday.

PACE OF LECTURE
Darnit, Garnet! I apologize profusely for lecturing too quickly. It is a bad habit I have; I get excited, carried away, and a little too overzealous in my lectures. Though I love the topic, it truly is inexcusable to not give you enough time to take notes. So I plan on doing a better job of pacing myself.

However, I must ask you a favor. When I go too fast during lecture, please raise your hand and ask me to go back and remind me to slow down. I know it isn't your responsibility to slow the lecturer down, but you are paying for this course! So when I fail to put the brakes on, you have every right to let me know I am going too fast. I will not be mad; in fact, I will really appreciate it.

The hardest part about lecturing is knowing what pace is right for the students in front of you. While I am up there it seems like forever between slides; however, as I recall from being a student, often it is nearly impossible to keep up, because you are writing everything. I understand this, though forget it when I am lecturing, and I will buy the first three people who tell me to slow down during lecture (when applicable) a candy bar of their choice. I'm serious about this -- you are paying to learn, so don't let me cheat you out of information. Again, I apologize.

LAB
First of all, there were several great suggestions regarding how to make lab better and more beneficial. In light of the recent tragedy, I have volunteered to take over labs the rest of the semester. I hope that my being there will do several things:

• Maintain the strong class cohesion that I have really appreciated thus far;
• Better help tie my lectures to your lab assignments, because I will be there to help guide you through any questions you have and I know what I am expecting from you; and
• Allow me to show you a few tricks I have learned along the way; although, by now you are all probably becoming more proficient at some of these programs than I am!

Second of all, I apologize that your lab grades have not been forthcoming at an acceptable rate. Ben was in charge of grading your labs. I do not believe he graded your Brazil lab yet; I will do so this week. I had been grading the in-class assignment you turned in several weeks ago and planned to return it to you the day of the midterm. That morning I heard of Ben's death and did not finish grading it. You will receive it at the end of the break.

I set a personal turn around time of one week on all grading for every class I teach. This is a policy that I have had to break a few times in my career (including once this semester, because you all went the extra mile on the in-class assignment), but I will do everything in my power to turn all assignments around in one week for you from here on out.

COURSE WEBSITES
It has been brought to my attention that there are too many course websites for this course. I agree. I will never "diversify" this much again! I promise. :)

• I prefer to blog.
• I plan to keep using this blog for the following purposes -- to ramble to the class like I am right now.
• Ben preferred to Moodle.
• I will keep using Moodle for all important information, including grades, imperative information, etc.
• Facebook was an experiment that does not seem to have taken off.
• I do not check the Facebook group; so if you guys want to start using it, please feel free.
• I am loath to add any students as "Friends" on Facebook until the semester is over. It isn't because I don't like you; in fact, you are the best class I have ever had! I just want to maintain a little separation while I am in a position of authority.
  

• I apologize for any confusion caused by the myriad virtual existences of this course!

Debunking the FreeHand / Illustrator Argument
To me, the debate over whether you should learn how to design good maps using FreeHand or Illustrator is as vacuous as arguing which computer is the best -- Mac or PC.

Right now probably 10 of you are screaming: "Mac!" The other 20 are shouting: "PC!" Who is right? Is it majority rules? No, I would argue democracy doesn't help us resolve this issue. Is it based on performance? Well, no because both computers use the same chip set. So what the heck are Mac and PC people arguing about? Usability.

We like what we know. More people have been exposed to PCs for a multitude of reasons, not least of which is affordability. Now, that's not to say that Macs don't offer a sexier interface, fewer crashes, etc. (I don't know, actually, I don't use a Mac. I just take my cousin's word for it.) The point is, these two computers do the same thing in the end! People use these computers as tools for a purpose -- write a paper, surf the web, play video games, make maps, etc.

I learned FreeHand 7 when I took this course. I still prefer FreeHand's interface over Illustrator's. It's a question of usability -- that simple. Is FreeHand better for making maps? It is for me. Might some people argue that it is not, because the technology has not been developed in recent years -- yes. But they probably aren't people using this program to make maps anyway. These people are likely using Illustrator to make maps; so of course they think Illustrator is better. Thus, their argument is quite irrelevant to my using FreeHand.

Illustrator is newer. Illustrator is sexier. Illustrator will continue being updated in the future and FreeHand will not. But Illustrator is not better for making maps. In fact, FreeHand does many useful things that Illustrator does not -- like attach text to path. Vice versa, Illustrator has many features that FreeHand does not... which I can't think of right now, because I normally choose to use FreeHand.

The goal of this course is twofold:

1. To provide you with a skill: the ability to start with nothing but an idea (e.g., UFO abductions) and then systematically plan, design, and create a clear and well balanced map; and
2. To familiarize you with a graphics program that you can use to produce maps well into the future.
   

• You can use FreeHand in the future. You simply cannot buy a new version of it.
  

• On Tuesday I will show you a website of a guy who still makes all of his maps using FreeHand 8 or 9. He and his wife have a yacht and work from home, because they have made so much money over the years producing State Park maps using this "antiquated" program. He has a computer running Windows 98, he told me, with FreeHand and Mapublisher and that's what they use. Like a trusty old Chevy pickup truck, I suppose.

This all being said... I would have liked you all to have learned how to use Illustrator this semester. It was my original plan, because I was worried that this debate might erupt. The department does not have a license to Illustrator that they were willing to transfer to our lab due to costs and time constraints.

For those of you who are going to upgrade to Illustrator the first chance you get, there is a free online tutorial at the Adobe site on how to transition from FreeHand to Illustrator (e.g., what tools are the same, different, etc.). I went through it last summer and now know how to do everything I learned in FreeHand in Illustrator. It only took a few hours of tinkering to pick it up. So please do not lose sleep over this. Please.

The Book
I apologize that the book was so expensive and that some of you find it a little "dry." It really is the "source" on cartography right now, though; so I think it is worth it. Nonetheless, at the end of the semester I would really appreciate your thoughts on it and its value.


This has been amazingly long winded. If you have read this far, congratulations! You get extra credit. I'm serious -- please send me an email saying you read this line.

I hope you are all having a great spring break, and I promise not to be this long winded, nor speak as quickly as I just typed this after downing two Earl Grays and chasing it with a Pepsi, on Tuesday.

Be well.

Benjamin Alden's Cartography

The first thematic map Ben Alden made in Geog 5511 (Spring 2006).

Extremely Sad News

Ben Alden's first map in Geog 5511 (Spring 2006).

Dear Class:

I have some extremely sad news to relay to you. Your TA, Ben Alden, has passed away.

I do not have any details at the moment. Once I learn more (e.g., whether there will be a memorial service) I will let you all know.

Arrangements will be made for you to have a new TA in lab beginning after Spring Break. I will know more about this when we meet again.

I will miss my personal friend, cartography buddy, and class helper.

All the best,

Ian Muehlenhaus