For this assignment I had planned on created a global map of the history of how the term algorithm has come to be and be used as a concept. The inspiration was from a book I’m reading Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka. I researched a few mapping tools such as ARCGIS, Tableau, and Leaflet, but determined the learning curve to understand how to approach them was far greater than the time I had to complete this assignment. I wound up using EasyMapMaker instead (https://www.easymapmaker.com/) which graciously supplied some sample excel sheets that I could easily modify with my information.
I modified my initial excel sheet to the longitude and latitude of various ancient cities/countries reference in the early history of algorithms (ie: Baghdad, Greece) and including a link to further information, an accompanying image, and a brief description. Sadly, I kept receiving an error message that the locations were not all found. This seems to be due to geographical limitations of EasyMapMaker. Upon further investigation, it seems only a few handfuls of countries can be used with this platform. Are these limitations of a free platform without the support to staff a larger swath of countries, or? Below is a list of most of the countries available- which is not completely Euro-centric, but limited nonetheless.
Facing this limitation and time crunch I switched gears and thought of the Panama Diaspora in the United States (FYI the Panamanian Parade is October 12th near the Brooklyn Museum). I quickly modified my algorithm spreadsheet with information for the Brooklyn parade, San Francisco, and a Diablo Rojo (iconic bus) in Washington DC. I stopped here due to time constraints, but can think of a dance group in Orlando and a “Reina” competition in Austin, Texas off the top of my head. There would of course be more data upon further research.
The map itself is ok considering the ease of use and total lack of previous experience:
https://www.easymapmaker.com/map/8d403dec03bbebb540b99e9164ef664b
6/10, would recommend for ease of use and if concerned with one particular country within their list, rather than a global map. Did not test more granular addresses, but seem to have this capability particularly in the United States.
