Paul Butler mined through some of the data held by the social networking firm on its 500m members.
The map above is the result of his attempts to visualise where people live relative to their Facebook friends. Each line connects cities with pairs of friends. The brighter the line, the more friends between those cities. After tweaking the graphic and data set it produced a "surprisingly detailed map of the world," he said in a blog post.
"Not only were continents visible, certain international borders were apparent as well," he wrote."What really struck me, though, was knowing that the lines didn't represent coasts or rivers or political borders, but real human relationships.
"However, large chunks of the world are missing, such as China and central Africa, which is the maps strength as it highlights the political influence in those countries/continents as Facebook, as too Google, have struggled to function there with rules and as so have a small presence.So anstract, love it.
Published on 2010/12/20 3:30 pm.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tags: cartography, Central Africa, Chunks, Coasts, Continents, Detailed Map Of The World, Facebook Friends, Google, Human Relationships, International Borders, map, Map Of The World, maps, Networking Firm, Pairs, Paul Butler, People, Political Borders, Political Influence, Rivers, Social network, Social Networking, Tweaking, world
The fabulous design agency Pentagram based in New York with partners like Angus Hyland (co-author of many excellant design/illustration books, The Picture Book: Contemporary Illustration & Paula Scher (AIGA medalists, notorius mapper, will feature soon),
....at the worlds leading multi-disciplinary design consultancy, feature an excellant map that Scher would be proud of.
The partner DJ Stout has created a “Texas Designer’s Map of the World” as a part of a promotion for Sappi Fine Paper. Based on the concept of a Texas Brag Map, the poster elucidates the worldview that everything is bigger and better in the Lone Star State. “It’s part of our Texas heritage and our collective sense of humor,” explains Stout. “My apologies to the other smaller, less interesting states on the map.”' (pentagram, 2008, p.new).
He divides a map of the U.S. into six parts and assigns each section to a graphic designer who resides within the region. When all six posters are put together, they form a giant map of the United States, “of course I was given the Southwest,” says Stout (pentagram, 2008, p.new). Its composition is bolshy, beautifully layered (as you notice opening the pdf on a sluggish computer), with Piet Zwart/H. N. Werkman letters treatment surrounded by soft pastel triadic harmony of red, blue, yellow. Yet still its not too disparaging with the these surreal, fluctuating sized elements like The World's biggest Jack Rabbit, it has Swiss grounding in neat, clean, precise, even grids of text J.M.Brockmann would be proud of, creating a salient [1] contrast. It also treats word (type) as image that crow [2], and concrete poets of appollinaire to mallarme would adore.
The other participants include Art Chantry, Rick Valicenti, Paul Sahre, Clive Piercy and Tim Hussey. Brilliant.
Download the large version image here.
http://blog.pentagram.com/2008/02/new-work-sappi.php
[1] Kress & Van leeuwen
[2] Left to Right: The Cultural Shift from Word to Image
Published on 2008/03/27 7:40 pm.
Filed under: bolshy, brockmann, contrast, designs, graphic, harmony, illustration, interdisciplinary, map, new york, pentagram, surreal, swiss, texas, world, zwart Tags: Angus Hyland, Appollinaire, Art Chantry, bolshy, brockmann, Collective Sense, contrast, design, Design Illustration, designs, Disc jockey, Fabulous Design, graphic, Graphic design, harmony, illustration, Illustration Books, interdisciplinary, Jack Rabbit, Lone Star State, map, Map Of The United States, Map Of The World, new york, New York City, Paul Sahre, Paula Scher, pentagram, Piet Zwart, Rick Valicenti, Sluggish Computer, surreal, swiss, texas, Texas Heritage, United States, Werkman, Word Type, world, zwart
