1) I think a good place to start looking would be Central Square since it does seem to house quite a few creative enterprises. Not only is it close and easily accessible, there may be existing connections with some of the venues already there. Most students have friends that have performed at many of the venues or know of people working there. With a small area to cover and running our map as a pilot program for a larger map, this would be a reasonable goal for the semester.
2) I think an interesting map would be a comprehensive media map of all the companies in central (since that should be a pretty simple survey) and for one or two companies that are extremely helpful and receptive to our work, map all the other companies that support their work and products. Since this completely depends on the cooperation of others, this might be a little more difficult to achieve, unless there are strong connections that are already established.
3) Because the creation of a media map may take more extensive resources than we as a class would have, I think the media map should serve a community that might be able to lend resources or information to us. Because the governor's office might have some valuable input and use for this project, we could get information that they have already gathered about the industry like a broad and general listing of companies in central square (so we won't HAVE to physically walk down the street and document every single company). Interviews should be conducted before the completion of the project to ask professionals to see what type of information they would like to see on a map of the industry. A professional setting might be the best way to take this project because 1) something with comments would require a moderator and 2) comments would inevitably create division and maybe alienate companies that might otherwise help us. By staying impartial, we stand the best chance of being a respectable source of information and receive the help and support we need. Information like contact information, company summary and the type of business they do is incredibly important to the project.
4) We should use a similar interface as google maps but also have different colors for each of the media industries, that way if a company produces 3 types of media, the dot would be three different colors. This would accurately portray everything the company does, instead of trying to lump it in a large category.
1 comment:
I really like the ideas that Katharine brought up (pretty much all of them, but particularly #4). I think that a Google Maps interface would be particularly appropriate for this type of presentation, and I like the ideas of different-colored dots, etc.
As Lana and I were discussing after class, it would be fantastic to go further than just plotting the locations of these businesses—what if we could map out some relationships between these businesses and... where they eat, where they go out, where they get coffee, etc., and plot those?
This would be a great test of our "Silicon Alley" concept, and not only would we learn more about the types of businesses in our area, but the information we collect would probably be much more useful to the City of Cambridge. This approach would be more time-consuming, so perhaps we could put together some surveys to distribute to local businesses and plot who we hear back from? Or, what if we were to refine our scope to just the "new media" industries? Or, as Katharine noted in her #1, just limit ourselves to Central Square?
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