First You Make the Maps
How cartography made early modern global trade possible.
Maps and legends. Beautiful!
Tags: maps
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Atlas of Urban Expansion
Oodles and oodles of data on cities, including gorgeous animations of urban growth over time.
An Atlas of Cyberspaces- Historical Maps
These diagrams of early networks feel like manuscripts that you’d half expect to be marked with “Here be dragons” at the edges.
No More Google
A list of alternatives to Google’s products.
Barely Maps
Minimalist cartography.
Medieval Fantasy City Generator by watabou
Procedurally generated medieval town plans. Pick a size and then have some fun with the “warp” option.
The map we need if we want to think about how global living conditions are changing - Our World in Data
While a geographical map is helpful if you want to find your way around the world, a population cartogram is the representation that we need if we want to know where our fellow humans are at home.
Design Patterns on CodePen
This ever-growing curated collection of interface patterns on CodePen is a reliable source of inspiration.
Explore Georeferenced Maps - Spy viewer - National Library of Scotland
This is a fascinating way to explore time and place—a spyglass view of hundred year old maps overlaid on the digital maps of today.
Back to Bradshaw’s / Paul Robert Lloyd
I really like getting Paul’s insights into building his Bradshaw’s Guide project. Here he shares his process for typography, images and geolocation.
Google Maps’s Moat
A fascinating bit of cartographic reverse engineering, looking at how Google has an incredible level of satellite-delivered building detail that then goes into solving the design problem of marking “commercial corridors” (or Areas Of Interest) on their maps.
Google Maps in Space
You can use Google Maps to explore the worlds of our solar system …and take a look inside the ISS.
Mapping in HTML – a proposal for a new element – Terence Eden’s Blog
I quite like this proposal for geo element in HTML, especially that it has a fallback built in (like video). I’m guessing the next step is to file an issue and create a web component to demonstrate how this could work.
That brings up another question: what do you name a custom element that you’d like to eventually become part of the spec? You can’t simply name it geo because you have to include a hyphen. geo-polyfill? geo-proposal? or polyfill-geo? proposal-geo?
Mapping the Sneakernet – The New Inquiry
When it seems like all our online activity is being tracked by Google, Facebook, and co., it comforts me to think of all the untracked usage out there, from shared (or fake) Facebook accounts to the good ol’ sneakernet:
Packets of information can be distributed via SMS and mobile 3G but also pieces of paper, USB sticks and Bluetooth.
Connectivity isn’t binary. Long live the papernet!
what3words | Addressing the world
In this English language alternative to latitude and longitude coordinates, the Clearleft office is located at:
cross.rooms.quick
Mapping Mountains · Mapzen
Everything you never wanted to know about conveying elevation information on maps, delivered in Peter’s always-entertaining style and illustrated with interactive examples.
Building Inspector by NYPL Labs
A wonderful Zooniverse-like project from the New York Public Library:
Help unlock New York City’s past by identifying buildings and other details on beautiful old maps.
The proto-internet | Intelligent Life magazine
Mapping the submarine cables of the Victorian internet.
And by the way, why did nobody tell me about Cartophilia before now? I’m very disappointed in you.
Seasonal posts × Katy DeCorah
This is such a simple little adjustment, but I think it’s kinda brilliant: tweaking the display of your site’s maps to match the season.
Beautiful Maps
Cartography porn.