StoryMap: build stories with maps

We’ve submitted a proposal to Knight News Challenge for a new project called StoryMap, an open source tool to easily create visualizations based on a narrative on map. You can read the full description of the project here, and vote or comment if you like it.

Every time you try to tell a story using a map you do it in a very similar way: zooming, pointing, panning, marking areas, etc… With StoryMap we want users to be able to build a complex, rich narrative through a simple editor.

StoryMap will rely on CartoDB for data management and data analysis. For the User Interface, it will rely on Leaflet.js and the latest HTML5 technologies to create an engaging user experience. Users with no programming skills will be able create stories based on maps and build storytelling interactions on top of them.

You will be able to select from you CartoDB layers and other sources to create snapshots. The maps can use commercial providers like Google Maps or free sources like OpenStreetMaps.

We feel people spend lot of time creating beautiful visualizations of data, but users rarely manage to get all the juice from those visualizations. Having a more directed experience, together with the possibility of freely explore, we believe will make those visualizations much more engaging and revealing to users.

On another angle. We are working with journalist from some of the biggest newspapers. We understand there is a workflow from developing visualizations to publishing stories, based on them, on online media. StoryMap will help close the gap by providing a tool for journalist to build stories on top of visualizations and maps developed by their graphics and data analysis colleagues.

StoryMap is planned as a free product within the evolving CartoDB Open Source platform. A Knight Foundation grant would be a great push for the project! Vote for StoryMap or post your comments at Knight tumblr if you want to support us. And stay tuned for the upcoming CartoDB 1.0.