Module 2 Exercise 1

Creating an interactive map from CWGC data

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Using the CWGC database, I was able to find 79 men with my surname who had died whilst serving in the Canadian Forces. After visiting the CWGC database and searching my surname, I decided to try to do something a little extra by visualizing the names that came up by inputting their cemetary locations into an interactive map.

I first thought the process would be remarkably simple, especially considering the brunt of the work in compiling the data was so easily accessed in the exact format I needed. After that I simply downloaded, edited, then copy-pasted my results into BatchGeo, set some basic parameters as to which column represented the location (in this case "Cemetary or Memorial Location"), and created the map!

However, I quickly ran into issues, as 30 of the 79 names which came up in my search had locations which BatchGeo could not recognize or find. BatchGeo works best with specifics such as addresses, cities, or coordinates. Cemetaries and war memorials, apparently, often lack the specificity required. There were also issues in exporting the files, meaning that the words in certain rows would often repeat themselves, as is evident in the "Country" row, which repeats "United States of America" twice. With 79 (or, 49 now) people, this is a relatively easy thing to remedy, but if I were dealing with thousands and thousands of names it might get more difficult.

This was just something I decided to do rather quickly, without getting too much into aesthetics or organizational problems. All this said, I still think BatchGeo can be a really helpful, simple tool for anyone looking to visualize location data on a map. I was first introduced to it in a journalism class as a really useful tool in online data journalism. I wanted to find a way to apply it as a useful tool during GOTV efforts in political campaigns and, theoretically, it really is. However, I'm not about to put people's voter data online, not knowing who on earth could access it. I'm not nearly familiar enough with the privacy settings of BatchGeo's free service to put any remotely sensitive data onto it. That seems like a recipe for disaster.

You can find the map I've created here, and an introductory video into how BatchGeo works here.