Weblearning

The third post is about maps personal cartography and my (fr) “géomatique” attempts with geodata. I’ll explore a data centred “map”, generated “automatically” with spatial data infrastructure.

Instead of a “normal” hand drawn map (see the map of the 19th arrondissement of Paris below), or a map with a particular boundary with labels (see the Parc de la Villette map on Codepen and the corresponding 19th Arrondissement.geojson on Github). I’ll generate an Arts Festival query and compare Arts festivals in two countries and make it possible to download available information.

Firstly – how many ARTs Festivals are on Wikidata? Look at https://w.wiki/MHP7 or visit query.wikidata.org. You’ll see instructions to answer the question. “Count the instances (P31) of arts festivals (Q4801521)”.

title: Number of Arts Festivals on Wikidata
SELECT (COUNT(*) AS ?count)
WHERE {
?item wdt:P31/wdt:P279*   wd:Q4801521
}

The answer to this numbers question will vary as it depends on the available data and how well I constructed the query.

Resources Used

Sites like Geojson / Wikidata / Wikimedia Commons /Leaflet/ SPARQL/ Overpass Turbo offer access to openly licensed data, which allowes me to remix and re-use materials under stated conditions. I can combine these resources, to make layers of information visible. Sounds complicated? Yup! Demonstrable? I think so. Can others do this. Absolutely Yes! Please feel free to copy and paste.

Disclosure: I used chat GPT

Paris and Clarens

I am off to Paris in July on a scholarship. As part of my preparation, I have been looking at Parisian maps and plotting out places / events that I want to visit /attend. There’s Bastille Day on the 14th (I’ll just miss that one) and the Paris-Plages (how cool, fake beaches on the Seine).

I’’m not only mapping small parts of Paris. The Clarens Arts Festival is on Wikipedia and I made a key locations map for Nicola Martins.

With my data driven spatial specs on, I’m going to make an arts festivals map. I’ll show you how to….

Wikidata, Commons, Wikipedia and OpenStreetmaps have been extremely useful as resources. They often contain co-ordinates, included map modules, OSM templates that pull in openstreetmap data or geoshapes (P3896). These worked exemplars have permitted me see how map shapes are generated and stored as points, lines or polygons. I’ve also started a collection of GeoJSON files on GitHub. Yes, Chat GPT, Leaflet and CodePen have shown how a static GeoJSON file can be turned into a visual. You can do the same (and change the parameters quickly using SPARQL). The generated file could then be archived on Wikimedia commons, built into the map itself, or uploaded as a raw file to GitHub or be included in a spreadsheet. These GeoJSON files can also be generated by using https://overpass-turbo.eu/ I’m very sure that there are more options. Its always helpful to have plan B.

Beads and baskets and SPARQL

So, we are exploring some abstract concepts. To help me pull vague abstractions together into a clear explanation, I like think about something physical and concrete. Instead of festivals, I’ll use beads and think about “trays”, “baskets” and “weaves”. You might have to think of your own.

Why physical and concrete? Let’s use another abstract concept. Time! By itself, time is hard to imagine. When you picture a clock with numbers, long and short hands, a clock face and a seconds hand ticking loudly as it passes these numbers. Then time’s passage becomes easier to notice and comprehend.

Querying SPARQL is also quite vague. So I’d like you to imagine you have scooped up some pretty beads and sorted them by colour. You need to store these beads somewhere, so you pop them into different baskets. Now assume that you have a range of beads and baskets. It gets quite difficult to remember which basket you placed which colour beads in. So you give the basket a label which links these basket and the beads in your mind. Now lets also assume that beads represent different things. Status, wealth, spiritual values. The basket label becomes is a “memory location” and the beads therein are arranged and categorized around that memory location. Now lets say that beads are not only about colours. Beads could also a way of communicating emotions in different languages. Our basket labels become more complicated. There are more variables introduced, or “memory locations” and the beads (when seen in relation to other beads) hold multiple meanings.

A Query Service called SPARQL allows me to locate beads (stored entities ) in baskets (memory locations). These beads and baskets are on Wikidata (a sister project of Wikipedia) and I can combine them in different permuatations . In this case SPARQL is going to help us identify Arts Festivals in South Africa and in Arts Festivals France. Each SPARQL query is an instruction. Go into a room that contain a wide mixture and assortment of beads. Use the baskets and sorting trays. Press play to execute a query and extract the desired beads from identified baskets. Then fill a tray with a particular collection of those beads.
After that, you will string the beads together and attempt to make meaning. Drawn from matching colours or perhaps it through a Zulu love letter. The meaning could be stitched into a an image grid, a map or a graph.

Making sense of variables

• Image grid of pictures of SA Art festivals.
• SA Arts festival plotted on a map
• Arts festivals compared on a world map

Guide for SPARQLing : Collect arts festival beads from the basket South Africa (P258 is the memory location) . Then string festival beads together as a grid of images (and not a necklace). These arts festival (Q4801521) orbs must be local and located in South Africa (Q258). You will display the workings of your search in a tray.
Eventually a collection of pictures of arts festivals from South Africa that are on Wikidata should emerge. Go to the Wikidata Query Service and paste this SPARQL in.

#defaultView:ImageGrid (my beads strung together)

SELECT ?beads ?beadsLabel ?beadsPic
WHERE
{ #baskets trays and beads  
  ?beads   wdt:P31/wdt:P279* wd:Q4801521.      
  ?beads   wdt:P17 wd:Q258.
  ?beads   wdt:P18 ?beadsPic.      
}

Look in the tray. I am a little surprised by I have found. Only two arts festivals here in SA? Nope. There are only two South African arts festivals with pictures. Notice there is also other information, some which can be downloaded.

SA Arts festivals plotted on a map

Guide for SPARQLing: Collect beads/items called Q4801521 (arts festivals) in a labelled tray. The selected beads/item must have an associated geo location (P625) and then weave / plot both the festival and geo location on a map once you press play (https://w.wiki/M8GS)

#defaultView:Map

SELECT ?item ?itemLabel ?itemGeo 
WHERE
{
  ?item wdt:P31/wdt:P279* wd:Q4801521.      
  ?item wdt:P625 ?itemGeo.      

SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "[AUTO_LANGUAGE],en". }
} 

Now look at the results. You will see that there are arts festivals on the map from all over the world.
Experiment and play: What differences can you see between the above two queries? Hint: I switched a few words.

Arts festivals (compared) in four countries.

Guide for code: Collect the beads labelled arts festival (Q4801521) from two baskets labelled country South Africa (Q258), France (Q142), Canada (Q16) and….(you decide). Use the geographic coordinates basket (P625) to sort them them out by location and then display the name of the festival and the country. Optional : display the image and festival URL. https://w.wiki/FJfu

If you have followed thus far, well done. This has been hard to write. It also might be hard to read and understand. Babbling is how we learn a new language.

A recap. I used SPARQL to

1. make an image grid of pictures from festivals.
2. plot out festival locations on a map.
3. compare arts festivals in two, three or four countries (with images and a URL).

These three queries might leaving you asking WHY? You have not found many arts festivals. Well, that’s because Countries have a geomatician deficit. We need to be exploring geospatial technology. To be making our own streetmaps. By hand, or on Wikipedia or with GeoJSON.

Wikipedia and Wikidata frequently refer to maps / geodata. We can use a GeoJSON file for creating layers above our basemap. If you do mapping, you’ll find that GIS software is compatible with GeoJSON. You’ll also find it useful to know how to add co-ordinates to Wikidata?

Data meets the map of Paris

My first Paris map in this post was a hand drawn map of the 19th arrondissement. My second was a vector based map of all of Paris’s arrondissement’s . A SPARQL query (see below) shows the different points in the 19th arrondissement. If you insert #defaultView:Map and run this query, you will see a collection of Wikidata points.

SELECT ?arrondissement ?arrondissementLabel ?coord ?geo
WHERE {
?arrondissement wdt:P131/wdt:P279* wd:Q204622; #// 19th arrondisimont of Paris
OPTIONAL { ?arrondissement wdt:P625 ?coord }
OPTIONAL { ?arrondissement wdt:P3896 ?geo.}SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "fr,en". }}

Finding the shape of the “19th arrondissement of Paris” (“Q204622”) requires detailed geo co-ordinates. The map that we have here has drawn an odd leaf shape.

If there were more details in the GeoJSON and if these were stored on commons and referenced by Wikidata, you might also be able to use SPARQL to find the shape.

SELECT ?geo WHERE {
wd:Q204622 wdt:P3896 ?geo .
}

My manual attempt at creating a boundary shape is disappointing. Thus far, I have found the best way to obtain the desired boundary shape is with https://overpass-turbo.eu/ and a query that relates to a way or relation on OpenStreetMap

[out:json][timeout:25]; 
relation(9552); 
out geom;

Using this query allows me to create an exportable GeoJASON file of the 19th Arrondissement (saved on Github) that I also adjusted and shared as Data:19_arrondissement_de_Paris.map on Wikimedia Commons.

Back to South Africa

Do we know all the locations of arts festivals in our country? If we try a simple SPARQL query (see example above) and place of the results in a table

item	itemLabel	itemGeo	itemPic
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q3642773	Aardklop	Point(26.9022247 -26.67771)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6979502	National Youth Jazz Festival	Point(26.526666666 -33.31)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q131057081	Rocking The Daisies	Point(18.522784665 -33.48255583)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1266836	Durban International Film Festival	Point(31.025 -29.8583)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q137455846	Clarens arts festival	Point(28.416667 -28.516667)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q10990225	National Arts Festival	Point(26.5193 -33.3195)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7098568	Oppikoppi	Point(27.13611111 -24.88388889)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6650288	Little Hearts Festival	Point(18.420129 -33.904859)	http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Littleheartsfestival2.JPG

I can’t really make a geo shape to accompany this table. There are arts festivals here in Johannesburg. We can make a GeoJSON file of the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens (aka Emmarentia Dam). There are many events in this park. Can we use Turbo Ovepass to draw the shape?

[out:json][timeout:25];  
way(23019683);  
out geom;

Nope. Did not work. Can we draw the shape from open street map? Yes. Go to Export and download a ZIP file. Unzip and open the files with https://geojson.io/. You will find that the information is rather messy. You could clean it up with Open Refine Or just find the geo-coordinates that refer to Emmaentia Park. These are a few other https://tyrasd.github.io/osmtogeojson/ tools https://racum.blog/articles/osm-to-geojson/ that can assist with GeoJSON conversions. You now have a South African shape drawn with geo co-0rdinates.

Final Thoughts

Geospatial data infrastructures allows me to abstract alternate mapping systems (from SA). I think that we can (and need to) question both the human-made and the computer generated structures that promise to address our needs, wants and desires. If we explore our built environments (with the other underbuilt parts in between) and combine our own maps with our mediated networks. then will begin to see to see a socio-technical imaginary that’s been developed to fulfil a certain group’s needs, wants, and desires.

Our tangible environment has visible physical features and less visible infrastructures. For example, a library has visible components. Books, shelves, seating areas, issuing desks, study areas, and computers. Less visible is all the activities in the book chain, who finances the books on the library shelves, who sells software licenses to the city. On campus, the visible features include lamposts, roads, pavements, benches, transport, pedestrian bridges, lecture theatres, labs, studio’s etc. The faculties committee’s governance choices, procurement processes, computer budgets and MS license costs etc are less visible, and in some cases they are hidden. In this geo spatial world, what we call our mediated environments, the visible infrastructures are privately owned devices (laptops, phones, chargers). We are less likely to see the other infrastructures – wifi routers, servers, switches, undersea, DNS records, cables etc, that join to other privately owned infrastructures and intersect with other public and privately owned components. All these visible and less visible features contribute to the socio technical imaginary that we believe holds things together. While some of these structures are in our heads (called schema) these data infrastructures can be made visible. Increasingly, it’s easier to ask private companies to create and manage the visualisation of our socio-technical imaginaries, either in public and mediated spaces. (I’m available).

So what’s my point? Yes, turn to Google Maps for directions. Admittedly, this is easy to use. But as I mentioned in my presentation about epistemic opacity, component makers comply with their political masters to build these socio-technical imaginaries. And then they make the maps to show you around. So whether you are in a physical public or mediated private space. The architecture, the landscapes and designs, the background planning, budgets and management are a reflection of the “beliefs that affect or govern the behaviour patterns of society”. Can we see and recognise what’s going on in the under mapped world. Here’s a small glimpse.

Please take a look at my Arts Festival Dashboard. You can see the source code on codepen (this will change as I fiddle with the code). The dashboard will update as you add more arts festivals.

References

https://librarycarpentry.github.io/lc-wikidata/05-intro_to_querying.html

Neumann, A. (2008). Web Mapping and Web Cartography. In: Shekhar, S., Xiong, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of GIS. Springer, Boston, MA.

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I have been blogging about spatial matters and have split my thoughts into three parts.

1. Spatial (earth ) lens
2. Spatial (human) lens
3. Spatial (computer) lens

“A map is like a photograph of the landscape in a moment of time”

Peter Slingsby (Pocock, S. 2019) Meet Mr Slingsby. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU0Sm2tLW8g

Maps are the loveliest way for us to see complicated geodata.

“Geomatics is the study of methods and technologies used to collect, distribute, analyse and present geographical, and spatial data, both natural and human-made”.

https://www.westerncape.gov.za/infrastructure/become-geomatics-professional

There are geomaticians with pen and paper (look out for Peter Slingsby ‘s routes and paths in the Drakensberg and Cederberg); tech giants with a street car, creating 360-degree views, Google’s local leveled guides awarding stars or Open Street Maps volunteers, contributing nodes, ways and relations for a Wikivoyage and their dynamic tourist maps. Cartographers. You make the earth beautiful. Me…I’m teaching myself about geodata. So these three posts comes with a Warning: This is a “brain dump”, its subject to regular revision and it might be long.

My outline for this post.

There are many ways to map a territory. Through commercially published services, by talking to people who know the terrain or by building your own map from the available data.

• Reading my maps (and the territory)
• Three examples of general purpose maps
• Recipes for making general purpose maps
• Four Examples of thematic maps (family, buildings, location)
• Challenge: Making a tour guide map
• Up next

Reading my maps (and the territory)

My maps (shared below) are not definitive. They are a starting point for dialogue. Much like a person may stop their car, and ask me for directions, and I may give them useful instructions or a pin with latitude and logitude pair

So Sho’t Left applies and when we are in mapping territory and you can cross a cartographic threshold. Why? Its important that you make sense of the landscape.

1) Map Examples: Three library maps

In these examples, I’ll take an earth centred perspective. My Library Dashboard contains three examples of maps that draw on English Wikipedia, Open Street Maps (OSM) and Wikimedia Commons. You will notice each map has a single library location where I have zoomed in (from continent to country to province). Here the latitude and longitude create a single node. Each map follows a slightly different labelling convention and points to a different data point on the contitnent.

On the left, the Johannesburg City Library (Africa) map relies on a commons image File:Africa_location_map.svg and an underlying layer appears when the module “Africa” is called.

{{Location map | Africa
| width   = 200
| label   = Johannesburg City Library
| lat_deg = -26.20 
| lon_deg = 28.03}}
}}

• Notice the following on the Johannesburg City Library Map
  1. The map’s width is set at 200
  2. The label is Johannesburg City Library
  3. The latitude (lat_deg) and longitude (lon_deg) show roughly where the library is located on the Africa map.

The centred Randburg Library Map (South Africa) relies on the commons image File:South_Africa_adm_location_map.svg and the underlying layer appears when the module “South_Africa” is called.

{{Location map | South Africa
 | width      = 200
 | lat_deg    = -26.0962
 | lon_deg    = 28.0053
 | label      = [[Randburg_Library|Randburg Library]]
 | position   = right
 | marksize   = 50
 | mark       = MUTCD I4-1.svg
 }

• Notice there are some differences between the Randburg Library Map and the Johannesburg City Library Map
  1. The link is clickable.
  2. The link appears on the right side of the icon
  3. The co-ordinates are longer
  4. The green reading sign (marksize) is too big
  5. MUTCD I4-1.svg is the name of the green reading sign. (Choose a better sign that represents the library or reading )

Lastly, the Weltevreden Public Library Map (right hand side) relies on the image File:South_Africa_Gauteng_location_map.svg and an underlying layer appears when this module “South Africa Gauteng”. Go to the Weltevredenpark Public Library Wikipedia Page, and click on the existing map

• What are the differences I could make to the Weltevredenpark Public Library Map.
  • A label that is clickable or not
  • A large or small mark size
  • A customisable mark
  • Improve the accuracy of the c-ordinates.

Recipe: Try add the spatial data to Weltevredenpark Public Library.

{{Location map | ??
lat_deg |??
lon_deg |??
label   |??
}}

Helpful Hints (or a cheat)

Finding latitude and longitude of any place on the earth is also possible with online maps

• Open Google maps and search for a location. eg. Johannesburg City Library
• Drop a pin on the location and note the feedback in the popup
• You’ll see two numbers that that looks like this
  • | lat_deg = -26.204789
  • | lon_deg = 28.038587
• that’s the latitude (with a minus) and the longitude.
• The same thing can be done on Openstreetmaps.
• The latitude and long also appear in the url bar
• Sometimes you can also right click on a location

2) Map Examples: Thematic maps

Below is a screenshot of four multi label thematic maps that I made. As opposed to the maps that only focus on location, these thematic maps are more about humans. You will see that these maps also have multiple locations.

1. City Centre Lobamba – a map about places I would have liked to visit when I did a training session in Eswatini
2. M. J Naidoo map is about the school, the park, the sports ground, and other places where this local leader was found. The map has a numbered label and has a key below. Both the label and the key links to another Wikipedia articles (also with maps).
3. Clarens Festival map: a map about popular culture locations for those who visit Clarens. Some are linked to Wikipedia or Wikimedia pages.
4. Parktown Mansions map is about the lavish homes that were built by Randlords and the blue plaques that accompany these buildings.

My inspiration: Stuart (my favourite counter-culture urban archaeologist) and Niall’s lovely work on the Grey Street Literary Trail inspired my efforts.

Mouseover on Map: You might notice that these maps are interactive. When your mouse or pointer hovers over label, an image, location or Wikipedia article appears. This allows the reader a quick preview before they click. Now your label and the location do not have to be the same. Let’s explore two labels.

Below is a small part of the code that created this map. Can you guess which of the four pins this code refers to?

{{Mapframe
|lat1 = -33.931 
|lon1 = 18.424
|name1 = [[Cape_Peninsula_University_of_Technology|CPUT (26-27 Mar 2024)]]
|symbol1 = College
}}

Correct. The university of my friend and Professor – Johannes Cronje.

You can see the difference between

• 33°55’54.6″S 18°25’29.6″E (degrees minutes seconds)
• -33.931838, 18.424892 (decimal)

This tool can help you convert https://geohack.toolforge.org/

Can you see the TUT Campus, where I helped run a SWiP workshop. Go to the Wikipedia page and click on the Geo link on the top right and you will find some geo-cordinates

Now if you add these degree minutes seconds co-ordinates, to a map, they might not work and you will get an error message However these degree minutes seconds

|lat2 = 25° 43′ 55.92″ S, 
|lon2 = 28° 9′ 42.84″ E

can be converted into decimals to create your second location on the map.

|lat2 =- -25.7322
|lon2 =28.1619

You have started to build a multi label map. Do you think that you can add your own university? Or do you want to cheat and look at the code view.

Thematic Maps using Wikipedia Templates

Scope: In the two examples below, I will show how to plot UNISA’s campuses on a web map focused on South Africa. Or public libraries on a web map of Johannesburg.

These two templates have GREATLY simplified this process. They are called location map~ and location map+

{{Location map~ | South Africa
 | lat_deg    = -29.849383
 | lon_deg    = 31.00821
 | label      = [[University_of_South_Africa||UNISA]]
 | mark       = Blue pog.svg
 | position   = left
 | marksize   = 6
}}

Code Recipe:

{{Location map+ | South Africa
| caption = Locations of the public universities in South Africa
| alt = Locations of public universities in South Africa  
| width   = {{{width|650}}}
| float = {{{float|right}}}
| places  =
{{Location map~ | South Africa
 | lat_deg    = -25.767
 | lon_deg    = 28.199
 | label      = <div style="position:relative;top:0.5em;">[[University_of_South_Africa|{{nowrap|UNISA}}]]</div>
 | mark       = Blue pog.svg
 | position   = left
 | marksize   = 6
}}
}}

Notice that both location map~ and location map+ “South Africa”. Now “South Africa” is a hidden layer with location data for South Africa in a module. Four co-ordinates will centre the South African Map

Guide for code: I want to display all the South African Universities that participated in SWiP. The project might expand, so I’ll need to add an unlimited number of marks and labels onto a map.

Step 1: Go to Your Wikipedia Sandbox Page

Step 2: Confirm the name of the area for the map – Its called South Africa

Step 3: Launch the template > Template:Location_map~

The UNISA co-ordinates will give me the location of UNISA on a South African Map as a background. Then I’ll add the first label onto the map, and where it should be in relation to the Now we can combine this individual map and it’s location into a number of points

Location + and Location ~

Look carefully in the code above. Can you see the word “Location”?

Location + | South Africa (this calls the module location map + and the category)

• | caption = Locations of the public universities in South Africa (this appears at the bottom of the map).
• | alt = Locations of public universities in South Africa (offers an alternate caption)

If you have got so far well done! Here is the article and map. Look at the example code on https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Derek_J_Moore/Universities

Creating a tourist map

Crowdsourced geographic information on open street maps can be used to map geographic entities. I do this on phones on laptops, with open source software and Google tours. Maybe try a

• A Blue Plaque Trail (work with the local Heritage Association)
• An Uprising Tour (your history teacher might have an idea)
• Ruined Stationbuilding Tour (post steam blight)
• Authors, Screen Writers and their Scenes Tour (create pre-release media for a star)

Up next

Next thing to learn? https://osm.wikidata.link/ (more ) and adding co-ordinates onto Wikidata

References

https://librarycarpentry.github.io/lc-wikidata/05-intro_to_querying.html

Neumann, A. (2008). Web Mapping and Web Cartography. In: Shekhar, S., Xiong, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of GIS. Springer, Boston, MA.

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*Confession, I translated that Wikipedia article about geomaticians. Based on the French Wikipedia article.

This spatial theme that I have been blogging about has been revised repeatedly and I have split it into three parts.

1. Spatial (earth ) lens
2. Spatial (human) lens
3. Spatial (data) lens

Cara is pointing at two maps. The conventional map is located the entrance of The Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking Afrika. The upside down map, with a negative shape is located at CLTD. Both use the ”mercator projection.”