Mapping the census: how one man produced a library for all by Simon Rogers.
From the post:
The census is an amazing resource – so full of data it’s hard to know where to begin. And increasingly where to begin is by putting together web-based interactives – like this one on language and this on transport patterns that we produced this month.
But one academic is taking everything back to basics – using some pretty sophisticated techniques. Alex Singleton, a lecturer in geographic information science (GIS) at Liverpool University has used R to create the open atlas project.
Singleton has basically produced a detailed mapping report – as a PDF and vectored images – on every one of the local authorities of England & Wales. He automated the process and has provided the code for readers to correct and do something with. In each report there are 391 pages, each with a map. That means, for the 354 local authorities in England & Wales, he has produced 127,466 maps.
Check out Simon’s post to see why Singleton has undertaken such a task.
Question: Was the 2011 census more “transparent,” or “useful” after Singleton’s work or before?
I would say more “transparent” after Singleton’s work.
You?