Date archive for December, 2007
December 12, 2007GPS Gang TrackingGPSSolving the murder of a young woman killed in a drive-by shooting was made easy by the fact that one of the seven gang members involved was wearing a GPS bracelet issued to him by the Los Angeles Police Department. On November 12, authorities starting tracking the movements of about twenty paroled gang members through GPS. ... read more December 10, 2007GeoSciML – Geologic Markup LanguageCodingGeoSciML is a markup language specific to the geosciences and is designed to support the exchange of geoscience information. It is being developed through the Interoperability Working Group of the Commission for the Management and Application of Geoscience Information (CGI), a commission of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). GeoSciML – the CGI Datamodel ... read more How Well Do You Know Your World?GeographyA fun way to learn about where places are in the world is to take advantage of the plethora of free geography games on the Internet. One such game is “How Well Do You Know Your World?” The object of the game is to accurately locate places on the world map as quickly as possible. ... read more December 5, 2007GPS Not Welcomed HereGPSSome British towns, up in arms over repeatedly experiencing trucks getting stuck on roads too narrow to accomodate them, are moving toward the drastic step of asking companies that supply mapping data to in-vehicle GPS navigation systems to remove roadways that are inappropriate for commercial travel. In an article from the NY Times: “We’ve said, ‘Just ... read more Volunteered GeographyCommunity, Data, Issues in GISMichael Goodchild, a professor of Geography at UC Santa Barbara, explores the historical and current trends of collaborative geographic data creation in what he terms “volunteered geography” in an article published in GeoJournal. In dissecting this phenomenon, Goodchild seeks to answer the following questions: “what drives people to do this, how accurate are the results, will they ... read more December 4, 2007 GeoBriefs: Has China Banned You?, Potential Jobs in Geography, Juicy GeographyGIS NewsAre you curious if your web site is accessible in China? Test out your URL on the Great Firewall of China to see if your site can be viewed within China: Great Firewall of China. GIS has opened up the possibilities of geography majors to find a career in their discipline. Find out about other jobs ... read more Map UsabilityCartographyAdvances in web technology and mapping have triggered countless discussions on how online mapping technology is changing how people use and make maps. An interesting study by Thomas Porathe from Mälardalen University in Sweden on User-Centered Map Design was presented at the June 2007 Usability Professionals’ Conference held in Austin, Texas. Porathe’s study looked at how the human ... read more  500 Year Old Map Naming America on DisplayMapsThe oldest map using the name America will go on permanent display on December 13th at the Library of Congress. The Library acquired the 1507 Waldseemüller Map of the World map for $10 million (purchase completed in 2003). In addition to being the first map to use the annotation “America”, it is also significant for ... read more December 3, 2007Free Maps for UK School KidsGeographyBelow is an interesting press release from the Ordnance Survey (Great Britain). Accompanying this effort to provide free maps to all of the students is an educational site called Mapzone. Mapzone has some great content including introductory text on GIS, geography games, trivia, and more. Press Release: Ordnance Survey’s offer of a free map for ... read more December 2, 2007 Oxford Atlas of the WorldGeographyThe best way to learn about the world is to sit down with a high quality atlas and travel through the pages. Some of my favorite memories as a child were those sitting with my father, browsing through an atlas and learning about geography. Oxford University Press recently issued the fourteenth edition of their celebrated ... read more |
