I’ll be the first to admit, if the subject ever comes up, that I like maps. So last week, when the New York Times ran a story titled “On the Move, in a Thriving Tech Sector”, I was interested as much in the accompanying map as I was the article. I also wondered, what would this map look like for the DC Tech community?
After many hours of data wrangling, here’s the answer: http://www.kerzap.com/projects/dc-startup-map/.
I started with the list from Proudly Made in DC. (Thanks to Zvi and Michael for the assistance.) I had to limit each listing to one category, so there were some editorial decisions. I then visited each web site to find their (offline) address. The data was imported into Google Fusion Tables, which also handles the mapping. Some things I found out while doing this:
- Only about half of the companies on Proudly Made in DC had addresses listed on their web sites.
- Corralling everyone into a small set of categories that I could color-code led to some interesting decisions. This is the part of the map that needs the most clean-up.
- I was surprised how far out I had to zoom to show everyone by default–our community extends from the Fredricksburg to the Maryland-Pennsylvania border.
If you want your company to be shown on this map, please do two things. (If you’ve already done the second, make sure you do the first.)
- Add your address to your web site if it isn’t there already. (A street address is preferred; a P.O. Box is acceptable.)
- Get your company listed on Proudly Made In DC. Scroll down to the bottom of their page for info on submitting your info.