/30DayMapChallenge

Official repo for the #30DayMapChallenge data visualization project. Open to everyone!

Primary LanguagePythonGNU General Public License v3.0GPL-3.0

Daily social mapping project happening every November

Themes for the maps. See more below.

The official repository for #30DayMapChallenge, a daily mapping challenge open to everyone.

The idea is to create maps based around different themes each day of November using the hashtag #30DayMapChallenge. You can prepare the maps beforehand, but the main idea is to publish maps on the dedicated days. Just include a picture of the map when you post to Twitter (or other platforms) with the hashtag. You don't have to sign up anywhere to participate. There are no restrictions on the tools, technologies or the data you use in your maps. Doing less than 30 is also fine. See the Code of Conduct at the bottom of the page.

Day Date Theme Details
1 01-11-2022 Points A map with points.
2 02-11-2022 Lines A map with lines.
3 03-11-2022 Polygons A map with polygons.
4 04-11-2022 Colour Friday: Green Map containing green colour.
5 05-11-2022 Ukraine Map about Ukraine. Слава Україні!
6 06-11-2022 Network A subway network, information network, or something completely different.
7 07-11-2022 Raster A day dedicated to those lovely pixels.
8 08-11-2022 Data: OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap is the source for geospatial data. Use OSM to map something that is interesting to you. You can access the data e.g. from GeoFabrik or some of these sources. Remember to credit '© OpenStreetMap contributors'.
9 09-11-2022 Space Space as in a boundless three-dimensional extent or as in outer space. Or something else. You choose.
10 10-11-2022 A bad map Make intentionally a bad map. What makes a map bad?
11 11-11-2022 Colour Friday: Red Wohoo! Friday again! Make a red map!
12 12-11-2022 Scale In cartography scale is everything. How to make a map about scale? How to show the importance of scale?
13 13-11-2022 5 minute map Some people spend hours on their maps. For day 13, set yourself a time limit of just 5 minutes and see what you can make.
14 14-11-2022 Hexagons A map containing hexagons.
15 15-11-2022 Food/drink Where does food come from? Where people consume most coffee? Or maybe you could make a map FROM food?
16 16-11-2022 Minimal How minimal can you go?
17 17-11-2022 A map without a computer Go outside. Pick up a pen. Do something that is not in a digital format.
18 18-11-2022 Colour Friday: Blue Map containing blue colour.
19 19-11-2022 Globe That round thing.
20 20-11-2022 “My favourite…” Map something you like.
21 21-11-2022 Data: Kontur Population Dataset Make a map with this population dataset. Data is in H3 hexagons with population counts at 400m resolution. Fixed up fusion of GHSL, Facebook, Microsoft Buildings, Copernicus Global Land Service Land Cover, and OpenStreetMap data. You can access it You can access it here.
22 22-11-2022 NULL
23 23-11-2022 Movement Make a map about something moving. Can be humans, animals or something else. Can be animated or static.
24 24-11-2022 Fantasy An imaginary place or a fantasy style.
25 25-11-2022 Colour Friday: 2 colours Map containing only two colours.
26 26-11-2022 Island(s) Islands in the water, islands of innovation or something completely different.
27 27-11-2022 Music Music (or sound). How would you map it?
28 28-11-2022 3D The magnificent third dimension! Visualize something in 3D
29 29-11-2022 “Out of my comfort zone” Challenge yourself. Maybe a map using a new tool?
30 30-11-2022 Remix Take a map that you've done during the month and do a new version. Or take a map you really like by someone else and do your own version.

The above table is also available as an iCal calendar file for consumption by your favorite calendar/scheduling application.

Data 🗺

You can use what ever data you want. But here are a few sources which could help you to get started or give you new ideas 👇

Tools 🔨🔧

Because the challenge is aimed to be open for everyone, the tools listed here will be open source tools. Still, the challenge can be done with any kind of software (or even without any software). Programming skills are not in any way a requirement to do the maps.

  • QGIS
    • A Free and Open Source Geographic Information System. A desktop software that allows you to read/write multiple data formats and output (mainly static) maps.
  • Kepler
    • Open source geospatial analysis tool for large-scale data sets and for interactive maps.
  • Aerialod
    • Not really a GIS tool, but can be used to create some stunning 3D visualizations
  • Blender
    • Free and open source 3D creation suite. Check out the BlenderGIS extension.
  • R packages for geospatial
  • Python packages for geospatial
  • Mapshaper
    • Useful for geospatial data processing in the browser such as file format conversion, map projection, feature simplification, filtering, clipping, merging etc. Can also be run locally from the command line.
  • Vega-Lite
  • Vega
    • More flexible but lower-level declarative visualization specification including cartographic output. Specifications can be written directly in JSON or via program language interfaces such elm-vega.
  • Litvis
    • Literate Visualization notebook environment optimised for specifying visualizations and documenting the design process. While not specific to cartography, can be a useful environment for exploring cartographic design.
  • Observable
    • Reactive notebook environment for generation of visualization and cartographic output embedded in a textual narrative. Focus is on using d3 for specifying visual output.

Tutorials + helpful resources 📚

If you want to make maps with QGIS, this video is a great starting point. Check out also other videos by Klas Karlson

Maps &stats

In 2021 there were more than 1200 mappers and more than 9000 maps created for the challenge. In 2020 more than 1000 people posted more than 7000 maps for the challenge on different platforms. If you want to see some maps from past challenges, browse the hashtag on Twitter or check the official website of the challenge and browse different years.

#30DayMapChallenge bot by Haifeng Niu harvested comprehensive stats and maps from the challenge

In 2020 & 2019 David Friggens did a huge lift on the 30DayMapChallenge2020Metadata repository with metadata & interactive gallery.

Code of Conduct

No matter if you are a GIS expert or never made a map before this challenge, everyone is welcome to participate,

But keep in mind a few things:

  • All maps you publish have to be your original work. Don’t steal content from others.
  • Give credit to the original data source whenever possible.
  • The challenge is all about creativity, openness and the joy of beautiful maps and cartography. It is not a competition,
  • Don’t be an asshole.

Inspiration for the challenge came from Inktober and Tidy Tuesday.

Merchandise

Get your official #30DayMapChallenge stickers from Redbubble.