All About MapWI.

MapWI was launched in 2011 to provide interactive maps of legislative districts in Wisconsin.

Who is responsible for MapWI?

My name is Joshua Wachuta. I live in rural Wisconsin and work on this site as a hobby entirely in my spare time. I do not work on behalf of any political party or candidate. Any views expressed on this site are entirely my own and do not represent the perspective of any other person, organization, or entity.

Will the site ever expand to include more maps?

Maybe. It depends on whether there is interest in new maps, and whether I have the time, energy, and/or expertise to prepare them.

Why is the site so ugly?

I had better things to do than spending the time to make it pretty. Who asked you anyway? What's wrong with it? Now you've hurt my feelings.

Where do your get your data?

This website would not be possible without the excellent and timely work of the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, the Wisconsin Governmental Accountability Board, and the Wisconsin Legislature website. Legislative district boundary data is provided by the United States Census Bureau's Tiger. Yes, really.

Why is the site so slow?

The maps are quite detailed and take a while to download. I'm an inexperienced JavaScript programmer and may not use the most efficient code. Your computer is old, cheap, runs Windows, or has a nasty virus. Probably some combination of these factors. Take your pick.

What is the technology behind this site?

I created MapWI using open source tools, and it is served by Apache on Linux. The website uses HTML5, CSS3, SVG and ECMA Script standards. Special credit is due to Brad Neuberg, Rick Masters, James Hight, and Google Inc. for the svgweb library, and to Stuart Langridge for the sorttable library. Thanks also go to Jim Ray of MSNBC for his helpful February 2011 article on dynamic SVG maps at A List Apart, and to Andrew Tanenbaum for creating the seminal Electoral-Vote.com, which helped inspire this website.

How can I contact you?

I welcome your feedback on this site. If you have comments, concerns, additional questions, or think you've spotted an error in MapWI, please email jw@acceity.org.