Tag Archive | Map
January 4, 2013  

Google’s Michael Jones on How Maps Became Personal

by James Fallows, The Atlantic, January 3, 2013

In the past few years, the map has transformed from a static, stylized portrait of the Earth to a dynamic, interactive conversation. (An extended version of an interview from the January/February 2013 issue.) The entire concept of a “map” seems radically different from even a decade ago. It used to be something in a book or on a wall; now it’s something you carry around on your smartphone. Which changes have mattered most? And what further changes should we be ready for? James Fallows interview’s Google’s Michael Jones on How Maps Became Personal.

For the full text of the article, visit Google’s Michael Jones on How Maps Became Personal – James Fallows – The Atlantic.

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January 1, 2013  

New York newspaper defends identifying and mapping gun owners

By Katie Glueck, Politico, December 26, 2012

A suburban New York newspaper on Wednesday defended a decision to publish online maps that reveal names and addresses of people with gun licenses in several counties near New York City. … Over the weekend, the White Plains-based Journal News offered interactive maps of Westchester and Rockland counties which gave names and locations of people with pistol permits that the paper had obtained through the state’s Freedom of Information Act. The piece sparked uproar on the right and among some readers this week.

For full text of the article, please visit: New York newspaper defends identifying gun owners – Katie Glueck – POLITICO.com. Click here to see the interactive Map of the gun permits in Westchester county, NY.

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June 26, 2012  

The Next Generation Of Maps

by Tom Ashbrook, On Point, The Next Generation Of Maps

Time was, a good map was rolled out in captain’s quarters on a rolling sea or a king’s table far from the front. … Flash forward to the smartphone in your pocket, the apps all over, the future rushing at us, and we’ve got maps gone wild. Cartography on digital steroids. Maps loaded with terabytes of data. 3D maps. Maps you can zoom over, zoom into. Walk through. Now Google and Apple are squaring off over the next great map frontier. …

Guests

  • Steven Levy, a senior writer at Wired magazine and author of In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives.
  • Darin Jensen, a cartographer and Professor of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley.
  • David Heyman, cartographer and co-founder of Axis Maps, a group that designs custom and interactive maps for the digital age.

To listen to the podcast, visit NPR’s On Point at The Next Generation Of Maps | On Point with Tom Ashbrook.

May 22, 2012  

Help Humanitarian Open Street Map Team Map Refugee Camps in Africa

REPOST OF ARTICLE “Imagery To the Crowd” by Joshua S. Cambell, Disruptive Geo Blog, May 21, 2012

Over the past year, the Humanitarian Information Unit (HIU) at the U.S. State Department has been working with the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) to publish current high-resolution commercial satellite imagery during humanitarian emergencies. The imagery is used to map the affected areas, and provide a common framework for governments and aid agencies to work from. All of the map data is stored in the OpenStreetMap database (http://osm.org), under a license that ensures the data is freely available and open for a range of uses.

This work began as part of the RELIEF Exercises 11-4 at Camp Roberts in August 2010, and focused primarily on the legal and policy issues associated with sharing imagery. Now with RELIEF Exercise 12-3 happening in DC this week, the project is moving into its first technical implementation. As a proof of concept, the HIU is publishing imagery for the refugee camps in the Horn of Africa, and making the imagery available to the volunteer mapping community. The goal is to produce detailed vector data for the refugee camps, including roads and footpaths in and around the camps. There are tens of thousands of refugees living in these camps who are victims of famine and conflict, and these data can be used to improve planning for humanitarian assistance.

How to help: We are going to open access to the imagery on Monday 21 May 2012. We would like to spend two 24-hour periods tracing the areas of interest, which will include 11 refugee sites. All work will be done through the HOT Tasking Manager (http://tasks.hotosm.org), a microtasking platform that will split up the image tracing into ‘tiles’ that will require approximately 30-45 minutes to map.

Accomplishing this task will require that volunteers become familiar with OpenStreetMap and the basic concepts of mapping. But, don’t worry, there are plenty of resources out there to help. For more information on the OpenStreetMap (OSM) process, see the “Beginning OpenStreetMap Tutorial” available from the LearnOSM website (http://learnOSM.org), specifically Chapters 1,2,3,6. For more information on HOT’s work in Somalia see the HOT Somalia project page, and other HOT related materials on the HOT wiki.

For full text of the article, visit Imagery to the crowd…phase 1 | Disruptive Geo.

To help the Humanitarian Open Street Map Team Map Refugee Camps in the Horn of Africa, visit the HOT OSM Task Manager: http://tasks.hotosm.org/

If you don’t have an HOT OSM account, you can register for one by clicking here.

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April 13, 2012  

Crowdsourced open data postcode project sued by proprietary vendor

According to Geolytica (http://geocoder.ca/?sued=1),”Canada Post” has sued “Geocoder.ca” in Federal Court, asking “Geocoder.ca” to take its crowdsourced database down, and also to “pay Canada Post” damages on lost business the later has suffered by not selling enough copies of their own postal code file. Geocoder.ca allows one to look up a postal code (eg K2C 1N5) on www.geocoder.ca, or www.openstreetmap.org or a number of other sites that use geocoder.ca data and technology. See also the summary article by Michael Geist, link below.

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March 23, 2012  

The Media Map: Who’s Reading What And Where

Forbes Magazine‘s The Media Map: Who’s Reading What And Where, March 22, 2012

[Forbes] worked with Bitly and its data on millions of Web clicks to find the most influential media outlets in the country. This map shows which news sources are read and shared at above-average levels by state. …To check out this cool interactive map, visit The Media Map: Who’s Reading What And Where [Interactive] – Forbes.

Perhaps it is not a surprise that, according to this map, Wisconsinites and Minnesotans are reading The Onion. Go Badgers!!

September 27, 2011  

The Freemium Business Model at the Ordnance Survey

by Joe Francica, Directions Magazine, September 15, 2011

Peter ter Haar, director of products at the Ordnance Survey (OS), the national mapping agency of the United Kingdom, discussed how his organization radically challenged and changed their approach to geospatial data access. The OS had been known to offer their large portfolio of data for a high price tag. In the era of Google Maps and online data that at least appears “free” a new model had to be considered. As such, the OS adopted a freemium model and now offers some data “free” and their premium data for a fee.

For full text of the article, visit  The Freemium Business Model at the Ordnance Survey #foss4g2011 – All Points Blog.

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April 12, 2011  

Designers Make Data Much Easier to Digest

by Natasha Singer, NYT, April 2, 2011

In an uncharted world of boundless data, information designers are our new navigators. They are computer scientists, statisticians, graphic designers, producers and cartographers who map entire oceans of data and turn them into innovative visual displays, like rich graphs and charts, that help both companies and consumers cut through the clutter. These gurus of visual analytics are making interactive data synonymous with attractive data.

for full text of the article, visit Designers Make Data Much Easier to Digest – NYTimes.com.

January 31, 2011  

First U.S. map purchased for record price

First Map of US from 1784

First U.S. map purchased for record price

By Jacqueline Trescott, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, January 30, 2011; 10:48 PM

The first map of the United States, created in 1784, has been purchased for the record price of $1.8 million by Washington philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, who is lending it to the Library of Congress. The Abel Buell map, named after the Connecticut cartographer who created it, has been a missing link in the library’s vast collection of maps. Rubenstein, the co-founder and managing director of the Carlyle Group, bought the map at an auction at Christie’s in December. He was attracted to the map’s historic pedigree, he says.”This is the first map copyrighted, the first one to have the American flag and the first one made after the American Revolution. And it was the first one printed in the U.S.,” Rubenstein said. …

For full text of article, visit First U.S. map purchased for record price.

“The historical society, cash-strapped because of state budget cuts, was criticized by some in the museum field for selling this and other treasures.” It ended well, but was it ethical for them to do so?

November 10, 2008  

2008 U.S. Election Map Visualizations