Maki 3.0: open sourced icons for maps
Nathaniel Slaughter, Mapbox
20 Minutes
It can be a challenge to design a consistent and readable set of symbols for any map, but the limited resolution and variability of digital screens provide additional hurdles. The Maki project has been an attempt to work within these constraints and provide an open-source set of vector symbols for common map points of interest. The vector icon set embraces the pixel grid and is easily customized with different colors and backgrounds to fit a wide variety of maps styles. Earlier this year, Maki 3.0 was released with a focus on improving three core aspects of the project: the overall design of the icon set, tools to create customized versions, and clear style guidelines to help anyone design new symbols for the project. This talk will focus on the processes and design considerations for each of these aspects, and how they are already helping people use Maki and contribute to its
Creating, Collaborating On, and Maintaining Maps with Make
Seth Fitzsimmons, Stamen
10 Minutes
Reproducible, automated workflows are fundamental to the creative process. They provide a safety net for experimentation and document complicated step-by-step actions. Makefiles have been used to compile source code for decades, so let's start there. Data preparation (format conversion, re-projection, filtering, project initialization) and post-processing steps (PDF generation, compression, publishing to the web) can be viewed as a series of transformations. This prevents us from needing to remember error-prone, rote steps and allows us to focus more on creativity and collaboration.. We will also discuss the concept of idempotency, the result of which is that only resources that have changed need to be re-transformed, speeding up the processing. We will work through some examples of how to combine `make`, basic shell scripting, and other tools to achieve these goals. (`make` is a command line tool, so some familiarity there is helpful.)
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Tools for getting OSM into Desktop GIS
Daniel McGlone, Azavea
15 Minutes
Since its inception, OpenStreetMap has crowdsourced the addition of millions of features of spatial data across the world. It’s become a fantastic resource for geographic reference data and it’s constantly being improved and updated. While it’s open source and the data is free, getting it into a usable format for analysis in desktop GIS, for example, can take a bit of effort. This session will give an overview of a handful of tools and apps for getting data from OSM and into desktop GIS software such as ArcGIS and QGIS.
Breaking up with Raster and Going Steady with Vector Tiles
Katie Kowalsky, Mapzen
15 Minutes
Cartographer meets map tiles. That infamous meet-cute has caused scores of love, commitment, and eventual heartbreak for all of us in web mapping. The technology behind tiles is constantly changing, growing, and expanding—but where does that leave a cartographer? Are the limits of raster tiles worth abandoning for the mysterious, bad boy vector tiles? This talk will impart the wisdom of how a cartographer’s quest for true love in her tiling scheme and possible workflows can adapt smoothly to a new relationship with vector tiles.
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Transportation flow mapping: a practical productivity presentation
Matthew Hampton, Oregon Metro
15 Minutes
Learn how to quickly and efficiently make transportation flow maps using easily gathered data.
