

The Quiet Revolution Is Here. Help Us Map It - SyncTheory13
https://www.freelancersunion.org/blog/2014/03/05/quiet-revolutionary-map/

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danso
OK, since someone already trolled about Google Maps (in a poorly reasoned
way), I'll lodge my own curmudgeonly criticism: mapping is _rarely_ the way to
solve anything.

Especially in New York, and with standard Google Maps service, it's not hard
to find where things are. It's hard to find that they exist -- and, if they
do, whether they fit your need...and clicking around on a map is not the
efficient way to do it. Nor to enumerate it.

Even the most famous map -- John Snow's cholera map -- was not revolutionary
in itself. Snow didn't find out anything from mapping, it was just part of the
documentary process and the one made famous by Tufte. But Snow himself
would've concluded that the map was of little evidence, because such maps were
used to _prove_ the miasma theory that he was trying to _disprove_. And his
map, without the data that he collected, fell into this visual trap.

So what is the way to do things? Use a spreadsheet. Think about the important
facets about each entry. And hell, one of those could be "address", and in
literally one step, you can also make a map out of it if you want.

And when I mean "especially in New York", I mean that geographical distance is
not the most useful metric. Even when it comes to geography. I prefer
proximity to what subway station, and that is a kind of metric that is
obscured/obfuscated by a map

~~~
pepperax
I agree with you, in a way.

The map itself may not be a way to solve anything, but the data it's
collecting could be. Like you say, you prefer knowing proximity to subway
stations - not just seeing a map. But the need to figure out that proximity is
what makes collecting locational data (in a fun and user-friendly way, like
OP's map) so important.

Regarding my apparent trolling, I think HN may have missed my point. Using the
Google Maps API implies agreement to their ToS, which restricts one from using
non-Google basemaps, and limits usage of the map in certain ways. While many
people ignore, or are never affected, by usage limits, this still obligates
developers to Google's quotas and pricing tiers (updated significantly in late
2013). There are other, similarly-implemented mapping APIs with more options,
where you aren't locked-in to a particular vendor's load quotas. Tying OP's
project to this particular API is a bit like saying "Support Local Businesses!
...click here for our Cafe Press site."

~~~
SyncTheory13
Thank you for more information on your critique. I'm not familiar with how
Google leases out their mapping software, but it sounds like it's definitely
worth having a conversation about. Unfortunately, I'm in no ways tied to
Freelancer's Union - Just admiring from afar.

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SyncTheory13
Now that it's had some time to develop analysis without my input, I wanted to
explain why I posted this...

I've had some thoughts rattling in my head for a couple years now on building
networks/tools to unify/empower small organizations, and to reduce
hierarchical structures. There are multiple ways I hope to go about this, and
would love to discuss it with anybody who wants to email me.

More or less, though, this is a very basic form of one of my ideas - or a
decent starting point. I definitely agree with some of the criticism of a map-
only set-up as danso mentioned, etc... I prefer the way Yelp is set up, for
instance.

Also, I don't believe Freelancer's Union has been covered here much (if at
all), and I believe that they could be a great resource to many of the people
here.

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sybhn
I hope you haven't chose the name based on
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiet_Revolution](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiet_Revolution).
A wonderful revolution that left Quebec in its current advanced state ;-)

PS: not all of it was bad.

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austinstorm
Great idea, but the rhetoric is a bit overblown.

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Dirlewanger
...I'll give it a couple months.

~~~
l33tbro
It's obviously a step in the rivht direction, but the branding and creative is
too uninspiring for a mass onboarding. While I share their frustrations, I
would never become "Quiet" because the people behind it appear naive and fail
to address complexity in their manifesto (ie: cororates = bad, yoga = good). I
think it is also highly derivative of the "slow" movement that sprung up a few
years back.

I don't like to hate on creativity , but faux-revolutionaries that don't
address complexity really annoy me.

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pepperax
Big, grandiose talk... Google Maps API. Amusing.

~~~
Raphmedia
I don't see what is wrong with using the tools at hand.

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qKyuu
There isn't. It's just a troll (an anti-Google troll which is a common
variety).

Made an account for this purpose, pay it no mind:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=pepperax](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=pepperax)

~~~
pekk
That doesn't invalidate the comments.

Your name is also green, does that invalidate your comments? No.

