Twitter Maps of Iranian Elections

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Mapchannels Twittermap of the Elections in Iran.

Twitter maps of elections in Iran from 20 Minutes France.

Update 4/7/2018:  Maps don’t seem to work any more. Probably due to changes in Google API.

Trike Spotting

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When will it appear in Amsterdam?  The Google Street View Trike was revealed in late May, and after a test-run in Rome (pictured), the trike will be put to use in the UK.  Google-UK asked googleites for suggestions on where to ride the trike first, places such as monuments and castles.  The final vote takes place on this web page. (July 2018: Can’t find link.)  In the States,  U Penn  seems to be the first campus to snag the trike.

Update 4/7/2018:  Streetview locations today – “Where we’ve been and where we’re headed“

USGS Vector Maps in GeoPDF

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The USGS which calls itself “the nation’s largest water, earth, and biological science and civilian mapping agency” yesterday announced the availability of free vectorized topographic maps for the US in GeoPDF  format.  Details are on their Digital Map home page.  Raster images of topographic maps have been available in GeoPDF form for some time, but the new series will include vector “layers” which can be switched on and off – contours, water, transportation, labels, etc. … just like a real GIS, but much easier to share.  So far, only Arizona is available from the USGS, but much more will be released this year.

The GeoPDF reading software (TerraGo Desktop) can be download free from the developer, TerraGo Technologies.  It is essentially a toolbar which is added to Adobe Reader which makes it possible to see the layers, to do a few spatial calculations (distance and area), and with a single click, hop into Google Maps.   This is a fascinating development for the GIS world.  Late last year ESRI announced an extension for ArcGIS 9.3 for exporting to GeoPDF.  The US government is embracing GeoPDF in a big way, so little TerraGo will probably go a long way.  After three venture-capital financing rounds will they go public, or be gulped by Google?  Could we be looking at the ultimate Google/GIS Mashup?  More later.

Update 30/6/2018: TerraGo has expanded and developed new products and remains independent.  Interesting:  TerraGo Magic 

Where are all the dollars going?

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This  Recovery Map (no longer available) is a really slick interactive map mixing Google Maps with USDA (US Dept. of Agriculture) and HUD (Housing and Urban Development) data, showing ARRA(American Recovery Act of 2009) funding by state.  Click on a state and county levels to zoom in and projects appear at the local level.  The map looks like a great resource for people who want to hook into funding.  As for map-makers, I am still trying to reverse-engineer it!  Shouldn’t there be freedom of information on how to do this?

Another such map about DOE (Dept. of Energy) projects was made by ace cartographers at Axis Maps in Madison Wisconsin.  This illustrates various techniques for communicating data on a static map.  Axis Maps also posted a super video  (with a beautiful musical accompaniment composed by one of the map-makers) showing 106 10-minute steps used to create a meticulously-crafted custom printed map.  Nice!

Update 30/6/2018: Times change, new version of USDA eligibility map
Axis maps continue to amaze after 10 years! For example, see the excellent tutorial on relief mapping

Here’s where we’re headed

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…to Zappo’s to buy shoes!  Twittervision (see last post) looks like the first in what will probably be a mesmerizing flock of new real-time map mashups.  In this Zap-map (No longer available) application, if you tire of the shoe-parade, click on a shoe and you get the details and an order form.  The map is actually not very useful, except for the compelling representation of a retail businesses volume and customer base.  Can’t help wondering if the speed will noticeably change as the economy recovers.  As a sales gimmick, this worked on me.  I hadn’t heard of Zappos before (not buying shoes online, obviously), and I just ordered my first pair (just to see if the map would fly to Amsterdam.)

Update 30/6/2018: Zappos bought by Amazon in July 2009, and this sweet app quickly disappeared.

Twittervision

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Caution.  Twittervision (No longer available!) might make you dizzy.  Maybe it is also a cure for loneliness, if you can bear it.  It is certainly makes one ponder the meaning of it all.  These effervescent messages from real people around the globe, vanish as quickly as they appear, an alarming demonstration of time and space convergence.  Where are we headed? (Jan 8, 2011… this was fun but now seems broken).

Update 30/6/2018: New and awesome tweet map!!   Made by MapD.  Lets see how long this one lasts.

Birds Eye Streetview

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They beat me to it!  Mapchannels created this very neat customizable mashup of Google Street View with Microsoft Bird’s Eye, with all the elements I was muttering about, to myself.  As a matter of fact, Mapchannels has several other nice tools which you can customize and put on your website.  So who are they?  Apparently, a very low profile organization, no name or location to be discovered, a mystery.   So in case you read this, Mapchannels, THANK YOU!

Update 30/6/2018: Amazingly, it still works!  New and Improved (Dam Square). Or try I Giardini in Venice! Explanation and Instructions from Mapchannels

Serious Business

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A recent video, The Internet is Serious Business, created by New York’s Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), explores the Internet infrastructure in NYC, who owns it and why that matters.  This awareness-raising film targets schools and youth programs.  It was filmed by CUP staff and young people from the City-As-School  program and features a wacky alien (extraterrestrial, that is).

Update 30/6/2018: CUP continues with interesting projects.

Geography of Buzz

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An  article in the New York Times  today discusses the use of a GIS spatial analysis technique referred to as ”cluster analysis” for an unusual application.  Researchers Elizabeth Currid of USC and Sarah Williams of Columbia University’s Spatial Information Design Lab  presented their conclusions at a meeting of the Association of American Geographers recently.  The researchers geocoded 300,000 photos and 6000 events from the Getty Imges  database.  With this data set, the Global Moran’s I statistic was used to find hotspots in New York and LA.  The conclusions may not be so very surprising, but the use of photo media is interesting.  This type of social research is likely to show up more often as people begin to mine data from geocoded images (e.g. Picasaweb and Flickr) or geotagged Tweets.

The study was partly inspired the work of  Richard Florida who developed the concept of the “creative class” and created a stir with Amsterdam planners at a 2003 conference titled “Creativity and the City”.

Update 30/6/2018: No doubt a lot more research in this area to be found. For example Trendsmap

Economic Crisis

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This nicely constructed interactive flash map (no longer available) was published by the Dutch paper, the NRC, at the end of February, with data through 3Q 2008.  Not pretty, even in pink. Hopefully they will update it for 4Q, etc.  The data source is listed as Eurostat, which appears to be an excellent resource for general EU statistics.

For US economic statistics, a rich data source is the St. Louis Fed.  The NY Times published an interactive map based on Fed data, showing unemployment by county.  They updated the map from December to January (the image is December and the link is to January), but don’t yet have a map allowing monthly comparison.   In fact they use two different color classification schemes making comparison between the two maps visually impossible.   It would be nice if they made a comparative map like the NRC map.

Update 30/6/2018: These maps seem to be one-offs.  No current updates.