Maps

Six months ago my boss said: you have to learn maps NOW!!!

And so, I did. Or I am, learning maps. Specifically, GIS (Geographic Information Systems).

I am have developed the skills to do my own maps...like the maps that John King plays with in CNN. In about three months, I WILL be able to do one of those...I am almost there. Layers of features, you can turn them off and on, etc.

I have access to tons of data, TONS. Electoral, tax lots, education, census, race, gas lines, airports, parks...you name it, there is a map for that. And I probably have access to it.

Well, I have a good problem in my hands. Because I want to mix my political knowledge (political philosophy specifically) with this map-making stuff. But, I still haven't figured what or how. I don't want to be Chuck Todd, I don't wanna be John King, I don't want to be a lofty architect playing utopias in the urban space and stuff...I want to DO something interesting with this...but 'what to do' is still beyond me.

Just got the book GIS for the Urban Environment. Looking for more general knowledge and ideas; As I have the technical stuff (computer wise) almost under my belt.

I have realized that given our current cultural obsession with space and place (the use of it, the curiosity with how places come to be, research on public spaces, etc.) the one who knows how to map stuff out, has a significant competitive advantage.

There are quite a few organizations doing progressive urban planning around (like the Project for Public Spaces), but I knew about them mostly from my interest in urban planning. Now I come from a different perspective...

I am beginning to think map-ally. Everything I read, I am mapping it out. For example, just ended reading The Search for the Buddha (by Charles Allen) two weeks ago; and well, without good maps it was almost impossible to figure out what was what, and where was everything. Absent good maps, we had absolutely no idea of even the historical existence of the Buddha. Maps, maps, maps. That book, by the way, is an archeological detective story. Superbly written. And a wonderful body-blow to Edward Said's Orientalism. Btw, I did my MA thesis on Said, and my momentous conclusion was that his argument was either obvious or false. I never understood what all the fuzz was about. But this Allen guy, while barely addressing Said, DESTROYS him. Said was much more interesting as a literary critic...and even there...he was....obvious or false. I can fight that one.

This is one of the maps I did some time ago. An extremely simple one. And I've edited it a lot, so as to keep private stuff private. But at this point I can map out almost everything that I want to. I just want to put it to good use.