[OSGeo Africa] Election maps

[Tim Sutton]

Hi

On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 9:37 PM, Adi Eyal <adi at burgercom.co.za> wrote:
> On 23 March 2013 21:23, Chris <chris at airphotoafrica.co.za> wrote:
>>
>>
>>     I wonder if any politicians are statisticians
>>     and
>>     IF any understand attributes and spatial statistics ? ( and
>> forecasting )
>
>
> I'm not sure that politicians understand statistics but their staff members
> surely must. I would be surprised if election campaigns did not incorporate
> this type of information at the very least. I created the poster because I
> don't think that us regular people understand the lay of the land as well as
> they do.
>
>
>>
>>     Could be a gold mine for someone with the necessary knowledge and
>> skills
>
>
> I think so - the recent Obama campaign was won on this sort of thing (as
> well as clever data mining and other cool stuff).

Yes - and making good use of FOSS GIS in the process - see

http://www.terragis.net/2008/11/24/obama-campaign-mapping-voters-with-mapserver-postgis-and-openlayers/

Regards

Tim

>
> Adi
>>
>>
>>
>>     CM
>>
>>
>>
>> On 23 Mar 2013 at 20:38, Adi Eyal wrote:
>>
>> > Thanks Tim
>>
>> > Yup - would you believe that the IEC publishes all their data
>> > in gobsmacking detail? Have a look here: http://www.elections.org.za.
>> > You'll find the results for all the elections that have taken place over
>> > the past two decades or so, down to the voting station. I got the
>> > shapefiles from www.demarcation.gov.za.
>>
>> > Adi
>>
>>
>>
>> > On 23 March 2013 20:35, Tim Sutton <tim at linfiniti.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > > Hi Adi
>> > >
>> > > On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 6:03 PM, Adi Eyal <adi at burgercom.co.za> wrote:
>> > > > Hi All
>> > > >
>> > > > I've been fiddling around the election data from the last municipal
>> > > > elections and I've put together a graphic showing which wards were
>> > > contested
>> > > > and which are strongholds. I defined contested as there being a less
>> > > > than 10% difference in vote counts between the first and second
>> > > > place
>> > > > winners.
>> > > >
>> > > > I'm by no means a cartographer and this is one of my first projects
>> > > > so
>> > > > I
>> > > was
>> > > > hoping for comments about how one might improve the maps. I guess
>> > > > the
>> > > > one problem is that even though you know that a ward is contested,
>> > > > you
>> > > > don't know by how much. Also (and i'm not sure this is important)
>> > > > you
>> > > > don't
>> > > know
>> > > > from the map what the individual wards are - only the municipality
>> > > > they
>> > > are
>> > > > in. Finally, I don't know where most of these municipalities are
>> > > situated so
>> > > > perhaps so sort of contextual map showing them in relation to the
>> > > > rest
>> > > > of the country might be useful. Of course all of these things are
>> > > > possible
>> > > but
>> > > > might not be easy to achieve while still maintaining an uncluttered
>> > > design.
>> > > >
>> > > > Any advice would be appreciated. The small version of the image can
>> > > > be
>> > > found
>> > > > here:
>> > > > http://za.okfn.org/2013/03/23/battle-for-local-municipalities/.
>> > > The
>> > > > complete poster is also available as pdf linked to on the site.
>> > > >
>> > > > Hopefully this sort of question is not frowned upon in this forum
>> > > > (if
>> > > > it helps, everything here was produced with open source tools :)).
>> > > >
>> > >
>> > > Great project!
>> > >
>> > > Is the source data you used available somewhere publicly? If so can
>> > > you
>> > > provide a link to it?
>> > >
>> > > Regards
>> > >
>> > > Tim
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > > Thanks
>> > > > Adi
>> > > >
>> > > > --
>> > > > Adi Eyal
>> > > > Data Specialist
>> > > > phone: +27 78 014 2469
>> > > > skype: adieyalcas
>> > > > linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal
>> > > >
>> > > >
>> > > > _______________________________________________
>> > > > Africa mailing list
>> > > > Africa at lists.osgeo.org
>> > > > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/africa
>> > > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > --
>> > > Tim Sutton - QGIS Project Steering Committee Member (Release  Manager)
>> > > ============================================== Visit
>> > > http://linfiniti.com to find out about:
>> > >  * QGIS programming services
>> > >  * GeoDjango web development
>> > >  * FOSS Consulting Services
>> > > Skype: timlinux Irc: timlinux on #qgis at freenode.net
>> > > ==============================================
>> > > _______________________________________________
>> > > Africa mailing list
>> > > Africa at lists.osgeo.org
>> > > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/africa
>> > >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Adi Eyal
>> > Data Specialist
>> > phone: +27 78 014 2469
>> > skype: adieyalcas
>> > linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal
>> >
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Africa mailing list
>> Africa at lists.osgeo.org
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/africa
>
>
>
>
> --
> Adi Eyal
> Data Specialist
> phone: +27 78 014 2469
> skype: adieyalcas
> linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Africa mailing list
> Africa at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/africa
>



-- 
Tim Sutton - QGIS Project Steering Committee Member (Release  Manager)
==============================================
Visit http://linfiniti.com to find out about:
 * QGIS programming services
 * GeoDjango web development
 * FOSS Consulting Services
Skype: timlinux Irc: timlinux on #qgis at freenode.net
==============================================