Rationale

Geo-narrative:


View The cure in a larger map

I originally started with the dataviz, and came up with some really good ideas. Such as, what if i could show that countries with high amount of cigarettes consumed per capita, was also related to a shower life span. Another idea was to have calories consumed and amount of water consumed over a week, to try and show that during the week, people are generally healthier, then when the weekend rolls around, people get drunk and healthy eating habbits go out the door. But i ran into the problem of either the data i got was conflicting, didn't lead to a conclusion or i just couldn't find it. So I decided to go with the geo-narrative.

I found the geo-narrative a lot easier to compile information and see where I was going with it. I came up with a story, noted down photos that could be used and what i needed to take photos of, and off i went. Probably the hardest part of this assignment was getting in contact with people on flickr, asking them if it was alright if i used their images for a non commercial university assignment... i sent 4 requests, and received none back. It wasn't nessacarily that the users didn't log into flickr, but were probably unaware that they have received a message from me, (or they just ignored my requests). But after looking around a bit more, I discovered the 'advanced search' option, which revealed that i could search for images with a Creative Commons Licence. This was a great tool to use as I could use the image, without having to contact the owner, and already know under what conditions i could use this image. All of the images i got from Flickr required that i not use it in a commercial environment, and that i simply referenced them. And so I did. In the geo-narrative, you will see that under certain images, there is a link to the owners Flickr page, (or the specific image).

Also in the cultural context of this, I know other people found it difficult to find other geo-narratives, and I also found the same. I guess it is a new concept, and In this 'story telling form' I don't think it will really catch on, unless its in a "this is where i went and here's a picture".

So at the end of the day, the use of creative commons saved me a lot of trouble, and i praise the people who invented it.

I also thought i might embed the map into my blog post, to try and show another example of networked media. But if you do need the larger version, there is a link under the map.