Maps: Lesson and Listen Series by Bill Shander

In Episode #9 of Bill Shander's Data Visualization, Data Storytelling, and Information Design - Lesson and Listen Series on LinkedIn Learning, he interviews Dr. Kenneth Field, a Senior Product Engineer at ESRI. Ken is the author of 2 books - Cartography (2018) and Thematic Mapping (2021)

He also blogs (cartoblography.com) and tweets (@kennethfield) about mapping.

Key takeaways from the talk:

• Maps are more than navigation tools: While primarily used for navigation, maps also provide valuable insights into culture, technology, and non-geographic data.
• Thematic maps convey data: Thematic maps, like choropleths, use visual elements (color, shading) to represent data values across geographic regions.
• Choropleths have limitations: Choropleth maps can be misleading because they emphasize the size of geographic areas, which may not accurately reflect the data being represented (e.g., electoral votes vs. land area).
• Cartograms offer an alternative: Cartograms, especially gridded cartograms, can address the limitations of choropleths by resizing geographic areas according to a relevant variable, like population or electoral votes. 
• Map choice matters: Thoughtful consideration should be given to the type of map used to effectively communicate data and avoid unintended consequences or misinterpretations. The key thing to make sure your map does is to inform and clarify something. 
• Cartography is evolving: Mapping has become democratized, with more people creating and using maps, especially with digital tools and mobile devices. This shift brings both opportunities and responsibilities. 
• Projections serve different purposes: The earth is a sphere or pretty close to a sphere and when you create a flat representation of it you have to use a projection, which essentially represents that three-dimensional spiritual thing on a flat plane. And there are a lot of different map projections like Mercator projection, Equal-area projection etc. There is no single "best" map projection; the choice depends on the specific purpose of the map and the properties of the projection. 
• Context is crucial in map interpretation: The "right" or "wrong" of a map is often less important than understanding its context, purpose, and potential biases. Maps can be used to tell different stories and even for persuasion or propaganda.

Ken created 100 maps based on the 2016 presidential election in the United States with different variations of map styles for mapping that thematic data and each one tells a very different story. 

Asked about what's the most important thing happening in cartography today, he says - "...it's the way in which mapping has become democratized...mapping can be done by everyone...you're now at the center of the map. The map is based around you on mobile phones, our cell phones. We walk around and you're constantly in the middle of the map, so it's now the case that we have almost an edgeless map, and you are now central focus, you are now the object on the map around which everything else is positioned and referenced. And if we take that logically, some of our smartphone maps actually provide us with personalized information related to the sort of things that we do, the places we go, the restaurants we like, the hotel bookings we've got. So maps are becoming more personalized...there's lots of really interesting things happening in cartography, and they're largely based around this shift from a traditional more objective way of mapping to a perhaps more personalized form of cartography."