I’ve long admired The Guardian’s innovative approach to opening up their data, so I was very excited to see their technology editor, Charles Arthur, using it on a recent story. I was happily surprised that he was able to set up his map without ever contacting me. I’ve always intended it to be self-serve but that can be very hard to achieve with a completely new product.

Since I’m really keen to see the stories other reporters can tell with OpenHeatMap, I’ve created a four minute video guide aimed at journalists that walks you through exactly what you need to do to build your own maps. If you have some information about places, I’ve made it drop-dead simple to create a map that tells your story, so please check the guide out out and pass it along to any other folks who might be interested.