WWI Story Map

A WWI Story Map

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 100 years ago today, the armistice agreement that ended the First World War took effect and the Great War came to an end.

This war is not well remembered in the United States for various reasons. None of the reasons justify this fact.

It was a war with little purpose to account for the the intense violence and slaughter experienced by millions. It left around 20 million people dead and another 20 million wounded, half of whom were civilians. It was fueled by new technologies and ideologies. It weaponized nationalist sentiments to the same degree as tanks, airplanes, poison gas, or machine guns. The horrors of this war were the defining influence on a generation, and its impacts are felt to this day.

And with the armistice, world leaders decided to forge ahead without adequately addressing the underlying issues and impacts of the war, indeed exacerbating many of these issues. There exist many parallels to or direct results of these same issues in conflicts throughout the 20th century, not the least of which contributed to WWII.

Take today to start thinking more about the First World War, and please do not stop with today. We owe it to the casualties and survivors of this war, many of whom were from our own families or those of our friends, to honor this part of our shared history, and most importantly to learn from it and not repeat it.

Below is a story map detailing the experiences of one soldier.

Open in a new page: WWI Story Map: For King and Country

Pratt SAVI

Spatial Analysis and Visualization Initiative - Pratt Institute

In my early 30s I decided to change career paths from teaching high school physics to Environmental Engineering, which was more in line with my previous academic pursuits. After completing a degree at McGill University, I moved to New York City, but soon realized I had missed something in my studies: GIS.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a field that encompasses various topics, ranging from creating simple digital maps to performing detailed spatial analyses. Placing data on a map lets you visualize and understand it more easily, and with more powerful GIS software, you are able to analyze and compare multiple datasets in various ways.

I recently switched jobs to a position that allowed me a bit more flexibility with my time, so I decided to complete a GIS certification.

The Pratt Institute in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill neighborhood is primarily an art and design school, yet it offers one of the premier GIS certification programs in NYC through its Spatial Analysis and Visualization Initiative (SAVI). The focus of this program is not only to provide instruction for technical mastery of the various GIS software products, but to ensure students understand how to create maps that look good and tell the story the mapmaker set out to tell.

With this new blog, I hope to use much of what I learned at SAVI, and what I will learn in my future endeavors to help people appreciate maps and the stories they tell.