There's a few places you could start digital mapping. Whatever you use make sure if you put any work into using a system, you can get that work out again, such as by saving or downloading the data in a standard format, such as CSV, KML, KMZ, GeoJSON or other standard spatiotemporal file formats. These are essential file formats for moving data from one system to another in order to access the different capabilities of those systems, and in order to deposit research data in archives:
Google My Maps is a great place to start. In a matter of minutes you can get a web map going, and in so doing learn a few basics about web mapping. Do tutorials or look at the documentation, or better still, just log in and start playing. With Google My Maps you can add points, lines and shapes to a map and add information to them. You can import data, and you can export your map as a KML file. You can also embed the map in a web page.
Google Earth is a desktop application, so it's main drawback is that you cannot share you work so easily on the web, unless you export a KML file and add that to a web mapping system. None the less it is a very powerful tool for doing your map related research. It enables putting points, lines and shapes on a map, with informaiton about them, with other features such as 3D visualisations, and a time slider if your data has time associated with it. Whatever other system you use it's always handy to have Google Earth to open and manipulate KML files and to easily use 3D visualisations.
Quickly putting a few points on a map might be all you need, and even a simple map can have a powerful impact and make a point clear for teaching or research. If not, by trying to build your map in Google My Maps you will quickly learn it's limitations and so get a clear idea of what you want to do. You may quickly grow run into the limitations of systems like Google My Maps and want to do more or different things but there is a bewildering array of different software systems available, each for different purposes, how can you choose?
We have found most digital mapping in humanities focuses on one of 6 themes (on our home page). These are not mutually exclusive and many overlap, but are a convenient way to make sense of a vast amount of information about mapping software. These themes also provide access to systems we are developing that cater specifically to humanities needs - either making common tasks quicker and easier, or developing new functionality.
Tinker provides a question and answer tool to help you find the right digital mapping software for the needs of your digital mapping project.
CSV files aren't specifically for spatiotemporal data, but because they are a widespread format for spreadsheets that are easy to read across many different systems, they are often used for also used for spatiotemporal data. A CSV file may be created by saving an Excel file as filetype 'csv'. 'CSV' stands for 'comma seperated value'.
KML is a standard goecoding XML format. This means it can be processed by a computer easily, and can also, to some extent, be read and modified by a human. Because KML is a standard format for geodata, it can usually be imported into other systems. One of our main aims is not to try to build one system that does all things, but to allow for and further the parallel development of different systems independantly. Interoperability then is key. How this works in practice is often by making data produced in one system available to another in a standard format. Sometimes this is as simple exporting a KML file from one system and importing it into another. Another common format for geodata is GeoJSON. A good tip is to make sure you can get the effort you put into your system out of it again in some standard format.
GeoJSON is another standard for spatial data, but written in JSON, which is a popular way of structuring data for the web.
All of these data formats are stored as plain text, so they can be read and edited by a computer or human.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on. (canoe time)
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on. (least cost techniques etc)
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
There are many ways we think and talk about time. We aim to make available ways to structure temporal information and visualise it for different circumstances such as:
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
There may be any number of reasons. Here's a few common problems:
Coordinates are back to front. Coordinates often appear as a pair, like this: -32.914154, 151.800702. Some systems assume latitude first and longitude second, while others expect the coordinates to be the other way around. Even within Google mapping systems they are expected in one way and in other Google systems another way.
Coordinates are in an unexpected format. Coordinates can be expressed in different ways, as decimal numbers, as degrees, minutes, seconds and so on. Check your data is in the correct format. If not convert it using a conversion tool.
An invalid character or other glitch may be the problem. Computers are temperamental and very literal. Sometimes a whole system might not work because of a full stop in the wrong place. A single letter in a coordinate field that is assumed to be a number might make some systems fail. The only way to deal with this is to hunt down the problem and correct it.
To find and fix problems, try working with just a very small example of your data. If it doesn't work, it will be easy to find issues and try different approaches. If the problem doesn't occur you can keep adding chunks of your data till you narrow down where the problem might be occuring.
The TLCMap projects provide examples using TLCMap systems.
Anterotesis provides a long list of geohumanities projects generally: http://anterotesis.com/wordpress/mapping-resources/dh-gis-projects/
Digital Mapping is always one of the main streams at the international Digital Humanities conference so you have a look through the abstracts: DH2019
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
You can find tutorials on the web explaining how to do this. Here's a few example. We haven't yet checked the effectiveness of any of these, so find one that suits your style and give it a go.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
Although not all data should be open for ethical reasons, TLCMap advocates Open Data and Creative Commons licensing.
Depending on what sort of data you produce there may be other places to deposit it. If you have researched place names we'd appreciate your contribution to the GHAP (Gazetteer of Historical Australian Placenames). If you have produced a gazetteer more generally you might want to contribute to other international aggregations. Certain areas of study or communities of interest may have particular places to deposit data, or to register data, such as Pelagios Commons
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
'Close' compared to what? Handling statistics on elipsoid surfaces, and with time too.
See 'How can I get statistics and metrics on spatiotemporal data?'
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
https://www.ala.org.au/ The places in HuNI. Austage Encyclopedia of Melbourne ANDS and the other places we list as deposits etc.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
To be researched and documented. This may be an area we can improve on.
Time Layered Cultural Map is funded by the Australian Research Council, PROJECT ID: LE190100019
