Maps

November 2009

The challenge was to make a data and number driven website accessible to the lay person. Displaying data in the context of its location using visually appealing and interactive maps was one of the many value additions that we provided to make analyzeVietnam more user friendly.

One would think that sourcing and displaying a map is easy enough. However we soon found that there were many versions of the Vietnam map available. Although all the maps were “S” shaped many had inaccurate borders and most came minus a few islands. Moreover none of the publicly available satellite images were detailed enough. They just gave a high level view of Vietnam with its provinces.

A Vietnamese state owned enterprise came to our rescue and was willing to sell us accurate and very detailed maps making it possible to drill down to the districts, showing major roadways and landmarks. Soon we had a CD with 64 high resolution vector images – a map for Vietnam and each of its provinces.

The next step was to consolidate information on each province and each district of Vietnam to be displayed against each map. All this had to be in English and Vietnamese. Uyen undertook this arduous exercise

Threshold did a splendid job of making the maps easy and quick to download, zoomable numerous times, and pannable to any district. Thanks to Uyen’s back breaking effort against each map analyzeVietnam now contains detailed information on topography, economy, infrastructure and business climate. Each province is rated based on how developed and business friendly it is.

And thus with the maps module analyzeVietnam sought to become a universal medium for communication, easily understood by all.

It is said that maps are much more than an aid to navigation; they are, in effect, the key to empire, the way to wealth. How True!