Week 1 - GIS, Data, and Ethics¶
Lecture¶
Introducing the course, GIS, data, and ethics¶
Charting the course for the class and how it relates to GIS, data, and ethics.
Note: Slides will be made available after the lecture.
Lab¶
GITing started with Spatial Data Sets¶
This lab will introduce GitHub and QGIS.
Assignments¶
Unless specified otherwise, all assignments are due at the beginning of class. Late assignments will be given half credit up until a week.
Due Thursday 4/1:¶
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Pre-lab #1¶
Install the software required for the course (QGIS, Git SCM, VS Code) and read pages 1 and 2 and 3 of “Hands on Data Viz”.
Please check the guides for help on: 1. How to sign-up for GitHub 2. How to install GitSCM
Click for more pre-lab information.
Due Monday 4/5 at 12am PST:¶
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“Thinking Cap” post¶
What are problems with the way we use data and GIS?
Respond to the prompt above on the course GitHub discussion board. - 3 to 5 sentences minimum - Feel free to include links and images
Need a refresher on how to complete this assignment?
See how to submit thinking caps, part 1.
Due next Tuesday 4/6:¶
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Comment on 2 posts¶
Leave a reply on the posts of two other students, reflecting on what you think of their discussion post. You can ask a thoughtful follow-up question, express similar experiences, and share resources.
See how to submit thinking caps, part 2
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Finish the weekly reading¶
Weekly Reading:¶
J. W. Crampton and J. Krygier (2010) “An Introduction to Critical Cartography”. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241435510_An_Introduction_to_Critical_Cartography
This 15-page article summarizes critical cartography by introducing ethics and modern mapmaking technologies.
Optional Readings and Resources¶
Definitions¶
GIS - Geographic Information Systems or Science
Ethics - Branch of philosphy concerned about how and why we do certain actions.
Civil Society - The sector of society concerned focused with non-profits and non-government. This is in opposition to the other two sectors of society, the private sector and the government sector.
Data - Observed units of information.
Qualitative data - Properties are descriptive and are not numerical.
Quantitative data - Properties that are numerical.
Cartography - The practice of making maps, includes paper maps and digital mapmaking.
Critical Data Studies - More to the data than just numbers, data should be approached with skepticism and the collection of data is a set of biases
Repository – Place where code exists, also known as a repo.
Open Source - Programs and applications where the source is freely available for people to use and replicate.
Closed Source - Programs where the source is not made available for all.
Open data– When governments, companies, and non-profits provide data for transparency
Humanitarian data – When non-profits and organizations ask for data from volunteers and locals
Crowdsource data – A sourcing model in which individuals or organizations obtain goods or services, including ideas, voting, micro-tasks and finances, from a large, relatively open and often rapidly evolving group of participants.
Participatory data – Puts the community at the forefront of the data, amplifies and empowers local voices
Cloning a repo - Copying another repo to your own location (can be remote or local).
Forking a repo - Copying another repo, but it is still connected to the origin repo
Class repo – Class content and the discussion board. If you are reading this, you probably are on it!
Lab assignment repo – Where lab assignments will be posted at the beginning of the week.
Your lab assignment repo – A forked version of the lab assignment repo, where you will be submitting assignments. The “remote” exists on GitHub and “local” exists on your machine if you cloned it.
Group Project repo – where you will be submitting your group work.