The relevance of a cartographer in a data-centric marketplace
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1Wesson, C.
1ORDNANCE SURVEY Email: christopher.wesson@ordnancesurvey.co.uk
Abstract
Geographic data (geodata) comes in many flavours. Whilst topographic products are ideal for cartographic display, many other datasets are more difficult to visualise. This paper presentation seeks to analyse three new applications of cartographic design and development: Cartography in understanding geodata, Cartography in marketing geodata, and Cartography in new-media reporting. What all three have in common is the visual representation of geographic or location-based data to an audience that may not have specifically sought a map, will rarely be cartographic and is perhaps unlikely to have expected such visual interaction. Aided by the reduced costs of traditional GIS software, the arrival of open-source and cloud-based alternatives, in addition to the multitude of web base maps now on offer; more and more market sectors are embracing geographic data. The growth of location based services has exposed the general public from all business backgrounds to the ‘power of location’ and geographically-attributed data. Consumers, developers, businesses, journalists and researchers alike have become aware of geodata as a valuable asset to their decision making, tool creation, performance tracking, storytelling and general research and analysis. Through our own experience and as a result of customer feedback, we are confident that cartographic techniques and styling can help make best use of geodata, including many datasets that we would perhaps regard as less cartographic or even ‘non-map’ products. It is our belief that cartographic visualisation can increase the level of understanding of most geodata products. All Ordnance Survey (OS) data products with significant geographical elements are expected to have cartographic stylesheets by the start of 2015. This article aims to explore examples of cartographically-styled geodata and their use cases, and will also showcase the approach OS has taken in allowing customers to style OS data products with relative ease, including use of GitHub as a central and public repository. Historically the visualisation of geodata products in their marketing has been poor. We have sought to rectify this at OS by creating sets of self-explanatory visuals for each of our products to showcase their content, level of attribution, complementary products, and suggested market use(s): The aim being to achieve better storytelling and so offering customers a better insight into the value and potential of each product to their business. This presentation will explore the method we adopted in showcasing our products on the Ordnance Survey website, creating these new visuals from a blend of photography, cartographic design, case studies and intended uses. Marketing can make good use of the association of customer application with the dataset and the business is now better equipped to show customers and potential customers the value of the underlying data, i.e. the products. The internet with the ever-growing efficiency of social media has become a platform for mass sharing of statistical data, research findings and news stories in a concise and often visual format. Whilst OS is not as involved in this area, our research team has a long-standing relationship with university research across Great Britain, our social media presence is increasing and our products are a data source for national and local media. This paper will use examples of statistical findings, pure scientific data and journalistic reports to show that cartography, above and beyond data visualisation, can add value to this reporting. The report will conclude on whether these arguments can be validated and substantiated and what that means for our industry going forward.
Keywords
geodata; storytelling; visualisation