code: def geojson_to_dict_list(data):
      
      
      # return data formatted as list or dict
      if type(data) in (list, dict):
          return data
  
      # read from data defined as local file address
      try:
          with open(data, 'r') as f:
              features = json.load(f)['features']
  
      # if data is defined as a URL, load JSON object from address
      except IOError:
          features = requests.get(data).json()['features']
  
      except:
          raise SourceDataError('MapViz data must be valid GeoJSON or JSON.  Please check your <data> parameter.')
  
      return [feature['properties'] for feature in features]
docs: Parse GeoJSON-formatted information in <data> to list of Python dicts