For my remaining blogs, I plan to address the different technological elements on my website. First up are the graphs that I have created using AM Charts, a website that allows you to build JavaScript charts, graphs, and maps. For my website, I built graphs that show for Moscow: births and deaths, natural and migration-related population growth, total population growth, and changing nationality and place of origin.
AM Charts provides a very user-friendly system that provides you with multiple options for building your charts and graphs. First, you can download free versions of AM Chart’s products. The website advertises that, “The only limitation of the free version is that a small link to this web site will be displayed in the top left corner of your charts.” The download comes with over 80 sample charts that you can view and examine the code. The graphs range from simple bar graphs to complex bar and line graph combos with interactive elements that explain data points. The download also comes with a brief tutorial and various JavaScript and CSS sheets. The second option for using AM Charts is paying for it, which I cannot comment on, except to say that if the creators are correct, it should be similar to what I have described.
I have also used the third option: the online chart editor. This option requires you to create a free account with AM Charts. The online chart editor provides you with several dozen templates to work with. After selecting your template, you may either upload a CSV file with your data or input it manually. I found it somewhat difficult at times to adjust the legend and axis labels, but I discovered that there are multiple ways to address these issues. The chart builder allows you to select and alter options through an input interface, but you can also access the code to edit your chart there. Once your chart is complete, you can use an embedded link to present it on your website. AM Charts will save your graphs that you built while logged in to your free account.
The graphs that I have created have helped me understand my research data better. On my website, I have three line graphs that depict population growth in Moscow. The first shows births and deaths on the same graph. Until 1984, births and deaths rose together, which did not radically alter Moscow’s population. In 1989, deaths surpassed births and continued to do so throughout the 1990s. My second line graph illustrates population growth related to migration and live births on the same plane. Migration consistently played a larger role in contributing to population growth, but tended to mimic the patterns of natural births. In 1989, deaths surpassed births while migration did not contribute to Moscow’s population decline until 1992. Migration to Moscow dropped sharply, but rebounded before birthrates did, contributing to population growth. The last graph shows Moscow’s overall population growth.
My current dilemma is how to use graphs when methods of recording data changed. In the Soviet period, place of origin and nationality were not necessarily the same thing. For example, an Armenian could have lived in Azerbaijan before moving to Moscow. Soviet statistic takers in Moscow recorded place of origin for all migrants annually, and nationality every several years. Statistics in the post-Soviet period tend to only record place of origin, which obscures information and poses a challenge in creating graphs.
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