Presentation Review: Vince Fecteau

This week we began to present our project ideas and bring one another up to speed on where we’re at, and where we’re going. During this time, Vince presented his project idea, which combines GIS and hockey history. Vince’s project essentially consists of the construction of an Internet database of hockey players, mapping where they were born using GIS technology. 

     Vince also presented the data sheet which he will be using as the basis for his mapping. Thanks to help from Professor Ross (Collaboration), Vince is well equipped to successfully complete his map of hockey players, of which there are a resounding 6400. At the completion point of this project, Vince’s project should in some ways resemble something like this.

   The most difficult challenge I believe Vince will encounter is that of finding a way to make the map display or communicate something specific. The creation of a database, though difficult, is essentially the visual display of raw data, and the project is meant to prove something, similar to an academic paper. 

    I do not feel that this will be an insurmountable obstacle for Vince, as it is likely the deeper he delves into his research, the greater the likelihood of patterns emerging and being recognized. It seems very likely that time lapses of hockey players could illustrate the progressively international reach hockey has endured since the inception of professional hockey. 

For example, Vince could choose to combine his project with other data to illustrate relationships between the growth of hockey popularity in various countries with things such as economic expansion or political climate. 

All in all the project seems very interesting and it should be exciting to see the end product and how Vince geared the data. GIS is a very effective tool for data display such as this, and I feel Vince was very wise in selecting it as the format for his database.