Data Acquisition

Follow along

http://www.johnjcz.com/presentations/maptime-data-acquisition

Data...?

A set of attributes matched to a representation of the physical world

Data -> Information -> Knowledge

Why should I care?

• `cool_idea.shp` probably doesn't exist
• Interesting things haven't been done
• The world runs on PDFs and bad charts

Tools

• Curiosity
• Patience
• Knowing what resources exist*
• (Some coding skills)

Portals

• Census
• Fact Finder
• USGS
• City of Madison
• Overpass API

Tables

Tallest buildings in the world

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_the_world

Website scraping

Other options

Open records request

• Write letters
• Meet people
• Collect your own!
• There might be a reason you can't find it

Geocoding

CartoDB Example

• GPSVisualizer
• geopy
• PostGIS Tiger Geocoder
• Mapzen Search (Pelias)
• Census geocoding API
• Many others!

Warning: geocoding is hard

Attribute Joins

Be nice

• Read the terms of service
• Find, read, and understand the license
• Ask nicely
• Give credit, cite
• Don't thrash servers

Thanks!