Maps and Datasets

Maps are visual media, whether in print or electronic format: painted on skin or on cave walls:​

• Maps visually represent the relationship between data elements.
• Any set of data elements can become a map. eg.  population, geography, history, culture, medicine.
• Maps can represent data from our real world, or they can illustrate the worlds of our imagination.
• Maps can be transmitted through any medium (eg. stone, wood, tile, skin, paper, electronics ) that provides a stable structure to transmit the data.

Maps and datasets might be designed or re-purposed to:

• help one navigate and understand the broader world community,
• enhance websites (eg. this guide),
• make projects pop due to the visual appeal of the image,
• create apps on a mobile devices in order to find places and people eg. a hospital, clinic or doctor,
• populate a GIS system that tracks and presents visually a world map showing a pandemic outbreak.