You should also check out the next tutorial in the series: The Complete n00b’s Guide to Gephi

A few weeks ago, I presented to the UNL DH community about a project that I’m beginning while a fellow at the CDRH’s Digital Scholarship Incubator. The project is an effort to utilize digital tools to visualize business and organizational records related to my dissertation on industrialization in small cities. During my talk, I noted I was still uncertain as to what tool to use to create my maps, but thankfully, James Austin Wehrwein was also presenting. Afterwards he suggested I consider R and check out his tutorial on creating a density map in R.

Frankly, I was blown away how easy it was to create a map in R. His tutorial was easy to follow and acclimated me to R rather quickly. On top of this tutorial, I realized that the data I had used initially in Gephi already contained the coordinates for each geographic location and I would not need to clean up my data, reducing the number of steps even further. Convinced R was my new best friend, I began looking around for a way to create choropleth maps, which were another type of visualization I wanted in my project. I was thrilled to find someone had already done much of the heavy lifting and there was a packet that made the process so easy even I could create maps without pulling my hair out.

In the interest in helping out other n00bs, I’ve posted my steps in creating these maps below:

Creating a Density Map

Packets you’ll need:

> library(“ggmap”, lib.loc=”C:/Users/Home/Documents/R/win-library/3.1″)

Import Spreadsheet:

> ph map<-get_map(location='united states', zoom=4, maptype='roadmap')
ggmap(map)+geom_point(aes(x=longitude, y=latitude, size=(total.cost)), data=ph, alpha=.5)

This is all you need to do if you already have the longitude and latitude coordinates. Again, see creating a density map in R”>this tutorial if you don’t have already clean data.

Creating a Choropleth Map
This user guide is how I figured it out and has much more information than I give.

Packets you’ll need:

> library(“choroplethr”, lib.loc=”C:/Users/Home/Documents/R/win-library/3.1″)
> library(“Hmisc”, lib.loc=”C:/Users/Home/Documents/R/win-library/3.1″)

Import Spreadsheet:

> df choroplethr(df, “state”, num_buckets = 6, title = “W1923”, scaleName = “Buyers”, showLabels = T, states = state.abb)

The size of the buckets will be automatically configured, but you can also have a continuous scale if you designate the number of buckets as 1. Here you should change the title and scaleName to whatever you want it to say. Note “df” tells the program the name of my spreadsheet and “state” tells the program what kind of “region” to look for in my data. You’re line would read “county” or “zip” if you are not using state names.

Sizing your buckets
Now if you don’t want the program to automatically determine the size of your buckets, you can do the following:

> df.map = bind_df_to_map(df, “state”)
> df.map$value = cut2(df.map$value, cuts=c(0,50,100,150,Inf))
> render_choropleth(df.map, “state”, “Grand Rapids Winter Market 1923”, “Buyers Attending”)

Here I’ve told the program to create buckets with dividing lines at 0, 50, 100, and 150. Simply add or subtract numbers here to create the desired number and size of your buckets. Also notice that the data you are pull from has changed from df to df.map which I created with “bind_df_to_map”. Again, “state” would be replaced with “county” or “zip” if using one of them them.

I’m still learning R and figuring out how to better improve these maps, but if you’re looking for something quick and effective these maps are hard to beat.

The only question remains is: R you ready to give it a try?

(Be thankful I only included one “R” based pun)

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