GOOGLE FUSION TABLES
Other than tables and charts, another good way to present data is with maps. To use maps in a presentation, the data needs locational information (for example, state, zipcode, lat/long, street name and/or street numbers).
For this assignment you will need to find some data with locational variables, so fusion tables can geocode each record. Remember each row is a record and each column is a data field. Make sure the data you get has a few numbers-based data fields (example:building size, sales price, land acreage and/or year building was built).
What to do:
1) I recommend going to http://www.netronline.com.
2) Then click Public Records Online from the top menu
3) I have researched the states and counties and I recommend you gather sales date from one of the following: (you can use any other state/county that allows you to download your results in excel)
Georgia/Fulton County
Florida/Duval County
Florida/Orange County
4) Search for property sales using any criteria you want - you need about 200 to 300 records in your results
5) Download the data into excel
6) Clean up the data by eliminating columns you do not need, rows with empty cells (I did this in class)
7) At the end you will need only about 100 records
8) Create the concontenate column (see video below) remember Monday's class
9) Use Save-as to make sure this file is saved as an excel file (.xls)
10) Upload into Google Fusion Tables
11) Map records
12) Change style (see video below)
13) Add Legend to map (see video below)
This Homework #6 is due Sunday April 6, 2014 at midnight.
There is no online exam this time.
Once you finish your Google fusion table, save it and then share it with me at os3@aol.com. Make sure you either make it public or available for viewing by me. Your grade will be based on how well your map looks and the coloring of the location dots based on sales price, city or date.
I will be available for a one-on-one on Skype (username: osistrunk3).
Just text me (4045090533) to set an appointment.
Do not wait until the last minute.
You will need a Google account (Gmail, Drive, Blogger or other). Any account should work. Once you have one Google account, you can add other services. Google fusion tables are on Google Drive. If you do not have a Google account, sign up for free, for Google drive.
Below is a video on Google Drive and how it works
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpOmuG3HfPo
What is Google Fusion Tables?
It allows you to visualize data in a map format instead of a table or chart format. You can upload excel data with locational information (Lat/Long, addresses, city and etc.). Once you upload this spreadsheet, you can map each row (record or transaction) to Google map. It allows you to show your data in a map format. Google will map each row. Once mapped, you can use the informational data about each row (the columns) to highlight what is important. For example, your data has addresses. You can map each address and show them on a google map. The you can change to color of each dot based on other information in the spreadsheet, like sales price.
See an example here.
Here is a Youtube tutorial example
Here is a Youtube tutorial video on Concatenate Function
FOR MAC
Youtube Video about using buckets to colorize your data
Youtube Video about adding a Map Legend
Google fusion tables is definitely a tool I want and will learn how to use because this is a tool that can take your business to the next level in efficiency. I look at Google fusion as a tool that puts visual meaning behind each set of data on a level that everyone can understand. Being able to put that data on a level that a 9 year old can understand is the greatness behind Google Fusion. As a owner of a company or a manager, which I will be one day. Knowing how to use Google fusion will allow me to be more effective and efficient in my strategic decision making along with saving money because I will no longer have to pay someone to interrupt my data for me. I will be able to interrupt it my self on a level of clear understanding where it no longer just looks like a bunch of numbers on a sheet of paper.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed doing this homework assignment. Prior to Wednesday's class I had no idea that you could extract information from a website into excel, then transfer that excel document to a fusion table, and finally input the data on a map. Learning and mastering this information will definitely give us an advantage when searching for a job, and it's a cool trick to learn even if you won't use it for work. Fusion tables and maps are a great organizational tool and I hope to use it again in the near future.
ReplyDeleteThe google fusion table is a very useful tool once I learned how to use it in the correct way. There are endless possibilities that can benefit a lot of people in its ability to take information, find it,then plot it. Also the easiness of excel after using the concatenate function really showed me how useful excel can actually be when used correctly.
ReplyDeleteGoogle Fusion Tables are probably one of the most applicable tools. I can see this being used in a lot of different aspects. This is definitely something interesting and plan to use this summer at my job.
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