Interactive space-time dynamics: A hands-on introduction to i2maps

The objective of this workshop is to provide an overview and give a practical introduction to i2maps - an open-source geocomputation platform. i2maps provides a flexible framework for knowledge discovery from spatio-temporal data and web-oriented visualisation, providing a means to enable your data to speak for themselves. It consists of two libraries, one written in Javascript, and one written in Python. The Javascript library is used for building the interactive user-interface, and is built on top of OpenLayers. The Python library consists of a server-based API for linking data sources and spatio-temporal analysis modules to the Javascript library, and is built around the GeoDjango framework. This workshop work through the process of setting-up a complete i2maps project, involving setting up the data sources, linking the input data to a customized spatial analysis method, and providing the results as an interactive map/timeline in a web browser. After the workshop, each participant should have a broad overview of the i2maps architecture, as well as the skills required to build a simple project of their own. The first step of the workshop will focus on setting up spatial data storage, and to access this data using the i2maps framework, displaying the data as an interactive map. In the second step, the spatial data will be plugged into a modeling module (for example, a spatial interpolation algorithm), and to provide the results of the analysis or prediction model as an interactive visualisation. Finally, a temporal dimension will be integrated into the model and visualisation, allowing the user to explore the data and results in both space and time. During the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to work with their own data, or to reproduce one of the i2maps demo examples, such as a weather information system, or Twitter activity monitor. More information on i2maps is available at http://ncg.nuim.ie/i2maps and https://github.com/NCG/i2maps.