007: Week 14 Interactive Information Visualization Active Research Assignment: MyMaps

View Rebekah's Map (for DAI 227) in a larger map

Googlemaps was surprisingly much simpler to use than I would’ve imagined. Though of course, I wasn’t sure what to expect that might have made it anymore complex. I was fairly impressed with just how much liberties you were given with the place markers, putting them anywhere you want and writing about it however you like (presumably). I decided to make a map of my walking route to City College from home as I was surprised to see upon reflecting, how nicely condensed the neighborhoods were of many kind of businesses from restaurants to libraries.

This may just be my computer/connection, but it might have been nicer to have gotten a form-style way to input all my descriptions/images/etc. because websites heavy in javascript tend to lag a bit for me and thus MyMaps took me a little longer than I had anticipated. Otherwise, I felt it was very straightforward, simple, and as the tutorial said, even the non-tech savvy can do it.

Potential uses for personalized GoogleMaps (though I’m sure this may already be used this way) can act as perfect tour guides for specific people. And no doubt we’re more likely to trust a tour of a city made by a peer/friend. It can also serve as a great advertisement for especially local businesses that can’t afford those hundreds of dollars worth of advertisements so helping people locate them would be great for the economy as well. It will help well-deserved places get the recognition it deserves.

Comparing a map with a timeline might be a little tricky because it ultimately depends on what kind of information one may be looking for. If they wanted to know places specifically in the vicinity, a map would naturally, be the perfect choice but if anything goes, a timeline may be more appropriate. For personal adventures, a map would be most ideal but for research, I would turn to a timeline.

006: Week 13 Interactive Information Visualization Active Research Assignment: Dipity

Rebekah L. on Dipity.

Note: Please click hyperlink, less events seemed to be featured in the widget.

I found my experience with dipity to be very similar with that of uploading images in facebook. Not the mention the color schemes are completely similar, with the navy blue bar on the top followed with lighter schemes for other links. It seemed to be a combination of Facebook’s “status updates” with “uploading images”, with the only difference being you can likely go with just doing one or the other. What I really liked about it was seeing an overview of events in a timeline form, one after another even when it was as little of a thing as “I got this!” followed by “I baked this!”. It felt oddly accomplishing. The only thing I found a bit jarring about dipity was it didn’t reflect paragraph breaks, even when I made them in my update so it makes longer entries appear less organized.

The first thing that came to my mind as a potential use for Dipity was as a study aid. I feel it’d be very helpful for those wanting to learn to history of anything to be able to flip through it one by one in an interesting, and what I personally find fun way with how you can toggle back and forth between events which may have pictures and/or links if you wanted to learn more about said event. It can be great for sharing a log of research or can even act as an art blog of sorts, so one can see how they improved day or week by week. I felt it would also be a perfect logbook for reviews for anything be it restaurants, movies, stores, etc. It may even serve as a great resume for employers needing a quick scan and can see view the timeline of one’s educational and professional accomplishments.