The problem is speed. You could if you wanted to offload the graphics plotting to the browser. I’m not sure which libraries there are out there for this, I’ve always done it by hand, and never on anything as complex as a states map. But I imagine it could be done, if you’re very very patient. Either way though, it’s going to be slow. And even if you could get it to work, you’re going to have issues with the clients you support. IE 6 and 7 are going to kill you for this.

You mentioned SVG. This is a good idea. But why use bitmaps if you don’t have to? With a good SVG editor you can create the shapes you need, and make them change color. It’s actually really simple to do. Integrate the SVG into a php script, and you’re golden.

Hard to say, but a great article nevertheless.

But unfortunately your map doesn’t work in my Firefox :/ (version 3.5.8) The map is invisible it only shows the red outline of the states on mouse over.

The same is with IE8, I can see the map, but it doesn’t do anything on mouse over, and the gauge does not work.

Chrome and Safari are fine :-)

So I guess this is a little to early for jQuery to replace flash. At least flash displays and works consistently across different browsers :-)

I’m actually using a similar approach for my final project at university, creating an interactive map of the building using a similar method to you. Check it out in my link.

As it had to be visible on iPhones, flash wasn’t an option and thanks to Keith Wood’s JQuery SVG plugin and SVG DOM plugin, I can achieve everything flash could do and best of all it is easily maintainable by someone who does not use Flash

You are spot on, and I have to tell you that the complications of this particular data source are massive. Namely, schools and states don’t report their shortages consistently. What we’re looking at, and working on is estimating shortage based on retiring teachers, age of students (via the census), and the impact of the U.S. economy on those numbers.

By far, the best data the team has gathered (and continue to evaluate) comes from a report, “Predicting the Need for Newly Hired Teachers in the United States to 2008–09, by William J. Hussar, Economist National Center for Education Statistics”

That said – I’m responsible for the tech elements! But, I’m definitely going to raise your concerns. Can you also connect with me via email?

:)CB

One current example is Nevada which you have listed as having an urgent need for teachers. Washoe County School District which you have incorrectly labeled as Reno/Tahoe will likely be losing as many as 1200 teaching positions next year due to short falls in the states general fund and $35-40 million dollars in additional budget cuts on top of the $45 million that has already been cut from the counties budget. Clark County (Las Vegas) is in equally bad shape only is significantly larger and as such will likely see more teachers let go. The only positions that are even close to having an “urgent” need in this entire state are special education positions.

This same technique was also demoed by Simon Willison at the StackOverflow DevDays in Amsterdam. (“Slides”: http://simonwillison.net/2009/talks/devdays-python/)

Only thing to then is use jquery to animated the selected “slices”.

Am humbled. You guys did a smashing job, I don’t think we executed as well as you did, but for a phase 1 we had a great time, learned from mistakes, and owe you for providing the inspiration.

Paths less traveled are a bit less risky when great devs like yourself have shared lessons learned.

With gratitude,
CB

You make a good point. I have to admit though that the client is a true partner and was totally game for us to experiment, because we had already executed certificationmap.com (another map-driven ed project).

I was fully prepared to be called out ;-) but, I also knew that we could do it and do it with budget. The curve ball was the dependency hell I fell into with the extensions. I wanted to share that back with the community, because it is something to consider if you’re more of a frontend person who finds herself feeling like a Unix admin and cursing about her apartment on a Friday night.

Flash is excellent, I use it a lot, but we did have criteria that made us think jQuery would be the better option.

:-)CB

When the alternative lines up with the development of Flash, then it becomes realistic. There are expectations that live outside this narrative-only utopia.

Thanks so much for the complements! You really took the idea to the next level with this project. I love the speedometer effect!

We did look at a few off the shelf packages, and the only reason we didn’t use ammaps (as just one example) is that we wanted to try to build it ourselves and really did want to experiment with jQuery as a Flash alternative.

Another project of our’s http://www.certificationmap.com uses ammaps, and it’s great, but we wanted to try a different approach.

Would I do it again? Ummmmm . . . . Well, let’s say I hope some of my mistakes teach me and others that there are better approaches!

Cheers!
CB