(A continually updated list gathered from multiple sources–not meant to duplicate efforts, but synthesised for my benefit and maybe others’, too. Please lemme know if I’m wrong about anything)
Tools
Leaflet – JavaScript library that grabs tiles, adds content, handles interaction
Modest Maps – Another JavaScript library
Polymaps – Another JavaScript library
OpenLayers – Another JavaScript library*
PostGIS – PostGIS is an extension for PostgreSQL. I believe it basically makes it spatial and allows you to manipulate data with geo features
TileMill – Made by Mapbox. Load data, style tiles, export tiles. TileMill uses the Mapnik toolkit
CartoCSS – Use for styling tiles in TileMill
GeoJSON – File type for feature layers (like shp or KML)
TopoJSON – TopoJSON is an extension of GeoJSON that encodes topology
Ogre – Convert shapefiles or KML to GeoJSON
GeoDjango – I don’t really know what GeoDjango does yet
GDAL – I think it’s kinda intense for data/projection manipulation stuff; the stuff that QGIS draws on
D3 – A JavaScript library for making neat maps and visualisations – doesn’t use tiles
CartoDB – Easily turn your geodata into maps, play with visualisations, publish maps (kinda like what Geocommons was/is). They have a bunch of great tutorials to work through and online courses
Google Maps API – Pretty easy to use, cut/copy JavaScript code and you’re good to go
Google Fusion Tables – Easily integrates with Google Maps API to add interactive features to the map
*trying to figure out what makes one library better/worse than another–I suppose this will come with practice and time
Tutorials, presentations, help docs
Most tools come complete with excellent tutorials and documentation–these are other ones I think are useful
General info:
mapschool – the collaborative effort introduces geo principles. GIS peeps would know this stuff
How Web Maps Work – Tom MacWright summarises basic elements of web maps
So you want to make a map… – Noah Veltman goes over general geo principles and three ways to make web maps
Tutorial hubs:
Maptime’s Geolearning – Lists a bunch of different sources for map learnin’
GIS Collective Tutorials – General, D3, Leaflet, and webmapping tutorials
Sparkgeo Labs – these tutorials touch on a bunch of tools
Tool specific:
What even is TileMill? – Lyzi Diamond gives a breakdown
Let’s Make a Map – Mike Bostock (creator of D3) makes a map from scratch with D3 and TopoJSON
Hell yes, Leaflet! – Lyzi Diamond‘s Leaflet tutorial for MaptimePDX
Learn GeoJSON – Lyzi Diamond‘s GeoJSON tutorial shows how to add features to maps
D3.geo presentation – Kai Chang‘s presentation, which as a newbie I find a bit confusing (presentation notes would likely help) but shows what D3 can do
So You’d Like to Make a Map Using Python – Stephan Hügel goes over GIS operations in Python; requires lots of non-standard library packages though
CSS For Maps – Tom MacWright gives an overview of CartoCSS (though this is from 2012 and I’m not sure if the new versions change any of this)
GIS with Python, Shapely, and Fiona – Tom MacWright‘s explains how to use these libraries for data input/output, creating, and manipulating
Data Sources
OpenStreetMap – crowdsourced open data about our world (but you knew that)
DataLibre – hub for Canadian open data portals
Free GIS Data – Robin Wilson has the most comprehensive list of free GIS data I’ve ever seen. May not necessarily be open, but good for playing with
Other learnin’ peeps
Are you learning, too? Let me know! It helps to see what other people are up to.
geogrief 