Geomancer

A free and open source tool for journalists to easily mash up data based on shared geography.

More about this project

Journalists often need to combine data, but lack the time and tools to do it quickly. We worked with Associated Press to build a free and open source tool to easily mash up data based on shared geography.

Geomancer is a project with a simple goal: to create a prototype tool that will help journalists easily mash up data based on shared geography.

It’s such a common task for data-savvy journalists that it’s easy to underestimate the difficulty. But on deadline, it can become daunting. It requires locating the right data set to provide context, getting it into shape and into place to join it with the data in hand and then merging the two data sets — all before the reporter can even get started with the analysis.

Associated Press, with funding from the Knight Foundation, partnered with DataMade to build Geomancer as a free, open source and extensible platform. We’re launching with data from the 2013 American Community Survey (via Census Reporter) and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget on federal contracts awarded (USASpending.gov). If you’re a developer and want to add your own data source, you can easily do so by extending the pattern we’ve created.

Go ahead and give it a try at geomancer.io.

Press

Introducing Geomancer
Troy Thibodeaux, AP