Date archive for October, 2009
October 21, 2009Census Bureau Maps Out Likely ParticipationGeographyThe U.S. Census Bureau has rated each census block across the country based on the likelihood of its residents participating in the 2010 census. Those areas deemed “hard to count” will get more of the outreach effort by the Census Bureau. What makes an area hard to count: “We looked at what we considered 12 ... read more October 20, 2009ESRI Launches Free Mapping SiteFree GISA new press release from ESRI today announced the launch of their “Mapping for Everyone” site.: Make a Map—The Make a Map feature includes a simple interactive Web map showing seven different U.S. demographic layers. Visitors can zoom in to an area of interest, select a demographic layer, then embed the map into their own ... read more How Google Earth is Helping an Amazon TribeWeb MappingScientific American profiles the effort by Google’s philanthropic Google Earth Outreach to help the Surui tribe in western Brazil combat illegal logging and mining in the Amazon forest. Google Earth has been working with Chief Almir Surui and the Amazon Conservation Team (a non-profit) to document the illegal logging while also collecting stories and information ... read more October 19, 2009OpenStreetMap’s Atlanta Mapping MarathonDataUPDATE: Fox News in Atlanta has a segment on the OpenStreetMap mapathon. OpenStreetMap is gearing up for a three-day mapping marathon to map with a goal of making the city of Atlanta one of the best mapped in the United States. Over 200 volunteers are expected at the event and will be given GPS units ... read more OpenStreetMap's Atlanta Mapping MarathonDataUPDATE: Fox News in Atlanta has a segment on the OpenStreetMap mapathon. OpenStreetMap is gearing up for a three-day mapping marathon to map with a goal of making the city of Atlanta one of the best mapped in the United States. Over 200 volunteers are expected at the event and will be given GPS units ... read more October 18, 2009USGS Twitter Earthquake DetectorDataThe USGS is now testing out Twitter to collect early response information about earthquakes: “the USGS is developing a system that gathers real-time, earthquake-related messages from the social networking site Twitter and applies place, time, and quantity data to provide geo-located earthquake detection within 60 seconds of an event’s origin time.“ Social media can be ... read more Earthquakes and GISData, Link LibraryMaps of earthquakes and faultlines can be easily accessed over the internet and through public agencies. GIS has also been used in determining earthquake hazards such as landslides and liquefaction. read more...October 17, 2009Tour of Marriage and DivorceGeographyThe NY Times reports on a survey of marriage and divorce by the Pew Research Center in the United States. The flash mapping application looks at the rates of marriage, divorce, and remarriage taken from the US Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey. Idaho has the highest rate of both married men (58%) and women ... read more Library of Congress Online Map CollectionMapsThe Library of Congress has over 4.5 million items in their Geography and Map Division. A small portion of their maps have been digitized and are available online for viewing. The landing page is pretty simplistic (no frills on this site) but you can either search by keyword or browse by location, subject, creator, or ... read more October 14, 2009Continuing the Google Data DebateData, Issues in GISPaul Bissett of Weogeo.com weighs in on the recent dropping of TeleAtlas by Google and addition of parcel data to its mapping applications and API in his article “GOOG = BORG, and I Mean That in the Nicest Way“. Bissett discusses why he believes Googles made these moves and the implications for data vendors such ... read more |

