Notes

GoogleMaps mania. The ability of web site developers to put a customized GoogleMap on their web sites is creating quiet a stir these days, including a story this week on National Public Radio that includes an interview with Mike Pegg, creator of a GoogleMapsMania weblog that tracks the use of GoogleMaps. The implications and possibilities of using GoogleMaps for web journalism are enormous. (Check out a GoogleMap of all the murders in Rochester, N.Y., in 2005 that was built by the folks at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.) Still, at present, GoogleMaps is intimidating because a knowledge of javascript is required. A beacon of hope has begun to shine, however. Mapbuilder.net, developed by Andriy Bidochko, gives us javascript-challenged users an easier way to get our custom-built maps onto our web sites.
More (Posted Jan. 14, 2006)

Want it to last? Draw, don't write. A review of Clifford Connor’s A People's History of Science in the New York Times this month has this observation:

A great moment in the history of science was the publication of Andreas Vesalius's anatomy book, De Humani Corporis Fabrica, in 1543. What made the book a triumph wasn't the Latin text Vesalius wrote but the 420 illustrations. He never took the trouble to name the artists he'd hired to draw them. Nobody has ever translated the whole of Vesalius's text into a modern Western language; the illustrations have stayed in print from that year to this.
The review was written by Jonathan Weiner.

Illustrators, even anonymous ones, can have a great impact on their audience – and this is a prime example of just that. (Posted Dec. 31, 2005)

Tips for beginners. Students who are learning about charts and how to produce them should remember the following:

• Study charts that have been professionally produced by newspapers or news web sites. The Associated Press has a graphics department that produces many charts used by newspapers every day. Look closely at the way they are put together.

• Don’t try to put too much data in a chart. A line chart should not have more than three lines of data. A pie chart should not have more than six or seven sections at most.

• Use an explainer box to help the reader understand the chart. An explainer box is the text under the headline.

• Try to keep the idea of a chart – what you are attempting to show – as simple as possible.

Data is plural. The word “data” is a plural noun and should have a plural verb. The word “media” is plural also.

Graphics reporting. Finding the appropriate data to build a good chart is not always easy. Graphics reporters often find that the data they need are not available or are incomplete. Try to find as much statistical information as you can about the students at your college or school. Begin with the number of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. Who would have that information? See what you can come up with and how many different kinds of charts you can build.

Finding maps to use. If you are working for a publication – high school or college – you should not use maps created by MapQuest or some other professional service without specific permission from that service. To do so is a violation of copyright laws. Maps that are free from those restrictions are available from other sources, however. For national and state maps, try the U.S. Census Bureau. For local maps, look on the web sites of city and county governments. University libraries and geography departments often create maps of the areas they serve, and those can often be used without permission. Before using any map, check to make sure there are no restrictions on its use.