https://maps-sharpcrafters-com.s3.amazonaws.com/users-2010-04/googlemaps.html
(I don’t give you absolute number of the color scale – I don’t know it myself -- so you can think the number-of-users-per-square-inch is a relevant unit.)
How I built this map
The map is constructed from web server logs, but I find it much more useful than anything I could see before. Google Analytics construct map overlays by drawing circles of different radius; since these circles largely overlap, it’s very difficult to get an idea of the real distribution of users.
This map has a strong mathematical foundation: it shows the Gaussian distribution of users in the world.
I used the following steps:
- Start with IP of users, visitors, …
- Map the IP to a geo location using GeoIP Free.
- Associate each IP with a Gaussian distribution. Choose a small radius for precision, larger to see trends (here it’s pretty large). Note that computing the distance of a point from another, given their longitude and latitude, is not trivial.
- For each point on the map, sum all distributions, then normalize.
This results in a function [-180,180]x[-90x90] –> [0, 1]. - Map the value to a color/opacity space, store it as PNG.
- Use MapTiler to generate an overlay for Google Maps.
- Upload it. I’m done.
Interesting findings
The proportion of PostSharp users is of course highly correlated to the demographics and the economics of the area itself. So the density of users in Europe is higher than in the USA, but there’re still more users in the USA than in Europe.
The map shows peeks in London and Taipei; Netherlands have a lot of PostSharp fans too. Germany has large areas of average densities, which suggests that German software development is less concentrated in cities than in other countries. A good thing. New-York is the home of may PostSharpers too. I would have loved to see a peek in Seatle, but…
Two deceptions: France and Japan.
And one good surprise: Bermuda.
Folks in Bermuda, I am offering you 1 week of free consulting – just pay T+E :).
Enough. I still have to finish the doc and finish 2.0.
Happy PostSharping!
-gael