WTO Maps Disputes Between Members

The World Trade Organizations (WTO) has created a map of that identifies the outstanding disputes between members. The map shows whether an individual country has been a respondent to or has issued a complaint against a specific country. The map at right shows the number of complaints (red) and responses to complaints (blue). By clicking on any individual country where a relationship has been discerned will display a list of the specific complaints. [The map reference is courtesty of Gary D. Price, Librarian and Editor, ResourceShelf and DocuTicker.]

Proximity Matters to Football Recruiting

Sports Illustrated writer Andy Staples validated a theory of his that when recruiting highly prized talent for college football programs "geographic distribution isn't a quirk." So, when he received a spreadsheet of 422 nominees for the annual U.S. Army All-American Bowl to be held next January in San Antonio, Staples went about "mapping" the location of each of their hometowns.

Now, the map itself is not that well constructed. The Yahoo Map has the location of each hometown and the nominee's basic bio information such as high school and position. I was hoping to see more information such as proximity to nearest big time football program or schools that actively recruiting them.

More interesting was Staples' assessement of how Pete Carroll of USC could field top talent within 119 miles of the school; or how Randy Shannon of Miami "should never waste a penny recruiting outside South Florida, has 30 nominees within 79 miles of his campus." Now that's good information. I wonder just how many coaches employ a geospatial analysis of the top talent. Oh, perhaps intuitively they understand the proximity of their talent pool. But, I'll play the skeptic...I want to walk into the coach's office so he can "show me the map!"

And what about the recruit? Talented football recruits typically don't look much further than a few hundred miles away from home anyway. Perhaps they like the support network to be close by or have grown up in proximity to the region's favorite big time school.

And we need to talk about weather as well. If you're recruited by Notre Dame and USC do you choose to play in the warm or the cold? There's a theory that many of the big time schools of the east, north and plain states lose out to the south, west coast and southwest and that over time, weather is a major factor in the migration of talent and the success of each program.

In the end, it's all about geography in may cases to both the recruited and the recruiter.

New York Times: Mapping Foreclosures in the New York Region

The New York Times has created a map of foreclosures in the New York region and found that they are highest where high minority populations exist. An interactive slider bar allows you to see the results from past years and you can zoom it to see the results by Census Tract. Dots on the map represent the location of foreclosures or multiple foreclosures. The basemap is by Google Maps and the data is from multiple sources. The region of coverage includes not just the boroughs of New York but also several counties in New Jersey as well as Suffolk County, N.Y. north of the city and the New Haven, CT area.

Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People Map

The May 11th issue of Time Magazine is dedicated to the 100 most influential people in the world. You may have missed the map of "where they are from" as it is hidden in the double page fold-out section just after page 42. You won't find the map online unfortunately but it is quite a compilation of information because it maps all 553 of its Time 100 from this year as well as past years. I wouldn't say there are any patterns other than the geographic distribution is not a surprise. The state of New York has the most of any followed by California. The UK has more than any other European country; China has the most in Asia/Pacific. So, forget looking for a pattern...just enjoy browsing the fold out map and finding out more about those who touch our world in unique ways.

Startling Look at the Fading Auto Industry

Several publications this week noted the closing of hundreds of car dealerships across the United States. Once the backbone of the American dream, the auto industry is drastically paring its dealerships. CNNMoney.com provided a map (at right) of the Chysler dealerships closing their doors, nearly 800 or one-quarter of the total number. Meanwhile, GM announced that 2600 dealerships were being eliminated. The closings will have a near immediate ripple effect across the country as many lose their jobs and communities will feal the impact of additional unemployment.

Washington Post's Space-Time Entertainment Map

Need to know where your favorite entertainers are and when? The Washington Post has created an interactive map to show in both time and space (or is that time & spatial?) the location of photos, video, and news articles about celebrities. You can navigate the map by date and a slider bar at the bottom of the map can help you to narrow the time window when the images were taken. The technology uses Google Maps.

What's Your Adversity Index? MSNBC Maps Metros Feeling Recession Most

MSNBC has created an "Adversity Index" map of 381 metro areas in the U. S. In conjunction with Moody's.com, the maps displays a thematic map of whether a state is either in "recession," "at risk," "recovery," or "expansion." By clicking on each state a table will be displayed showing the largest metros and the economic indicators for each such as "employment," "single family housing starts," "housing prices," and "industrial production." Hover the mouse over each state and it will show you the aggregate indicators for each.

The map also has a slider bar that will allow you to move along a time line from 1995 to present to thematically display the conditions at any particular time.

This is an extremely good representation of the data that is highly useful to any company looking at moving into or expanding existing operations in any given region.

The News is the News in this Map of Publishing Defaults

There has been an unprecedented decline in the publishing business as a result of declining advertising sales due to the sluggish US economy. So hard hit has the publishing industry been that such stalwarts of the business like the Rocky Mountain News have closed shop while others cancelled their print editions entirely, slashed staff or moved to an online-only version. This map by the Wall Street Journal chronicles the bad news. This only tells part of the story as the remainder of the publishing business has not been without equal or worse devastation. Entire magazines have been discontinued and publishing companies like Taunton Press have gone so far as to eliminate the job of "publisher" and has reorganized staff into "content," "sales," or "marketing" with everyone reporting to a vice president.

USA Today Projects Employment in 2010

Thanks to Paul Overberg at USA Today, he clued me into a very comprehensive map the newspaper published showing the projected job growth through 2010. The job forecasts can be displayed by metro area or by state.

You can click on the map of the metro areas and see, by quarter, the projected employment picture, both the number of jobs and percent change from previous quarter. Click on the list of metros and the metro is highlighted on the map.

Jobs and employment can be segmented by industry sector and likewise illustrated geographically.

As usual, USA Today always seems not only to have the best research but the graphic "eye" by which the location-based data can most easily be portrayed.

Keep up with the news folks! H1N1 is Spreading

The mainstream media is now behind in their coverage of the H1N1 (i.e. Swine Flu) coverage. Maps are not being updated with the latest outbreaks. None of the media outlets I cited in yesterday's blog post has kept up with the locations of the latest outbreak. HealthMap however is doing a good job.