WS4: Introduction to web mapping

Workshop #4: Introduction to web mapping

Monday, November 5^th, 2012, 2-3:45PM

Trainer: Arnaud Vandecasteele (MINES ParisTech) has a specialized Master in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). He has been first engineer then administrator in several corporations (like Infoterra), where he has mainly worked in on-board geographic systems, spatial databases or mapping interfaces. This experiences has earned him to be named as mapping expert by French National Research Agency (ANR) or to contribute as technical editor on the book "Developping with Google API Maps". He is now member of the Research Center on Risks and Crisis in Mines ParisTech/Armines university, specialized in the setting up of new coastal information systems. Finally, he is also co-Founder of the Geotribu.net website, member of the OSGEO-fr association and contributor to OpenStreetMap..

Objective: Presentation of several solutions for online data publishing: CartoDB, GeoCommons, Google Maps, etc.

Audience: This workshop is aimed to a public of humanitarian professionals, beginners in cartography and must meet their level and needs. They will be able later to push further their skills with the MapBox and ArcGISOnline workshops.

Trainer's presentation (in French)

Participants must bring their own laptops to attend this workshop (preferably with WiFi connection).

Summary

1.   Introduction to web mapping:

a.    Introduction to geographical information & spatial data

b.    Principles and possibilities of web mapping tools

c.    Examples of possible applications in the humanitarian domain

2.   Tools and approaches presentations:

a.    CartoDB

b.    GeoCommons

c.    Google  Suite: Google Map, Google Earth (Spreadsheet Mapper, Table fusion)

d.   Briefly, ArcGIS Online and MapBox (both having dedicated workshops)

3.   Demonstration of tools and hand-on exercises:

a.    How to use them to represent thematic data (based on a humanitarian dataset)

b.    How to publish and share maps for a quick reporting perspective

c.    Basic familiarization on CartoDB or Geocommons: account creation, basic settings, adding data, publication

Aims

At the end of workshop, participants will know the potential uses and interest of web mapping tools for their work, receive an overview of the global structure of the studied platforms and master the basic functions of one of them at least. They will be able to choose the most adapted solution to their needs.