Map Hawk

The Debt Debate - If you are keeping score at home...

2011-07-31T08:39:00.000-05:00

If you are interested in a regional understanding of how the vote in the U.S. House of Representatives is going with respect to the debt crisis, the New York Times is mapping the votes by house member. The Times provides a list of recent bills debated by the House and selecting any of them will display a map by district of how the votes were cast.

Geography and Journalism

2011-07-12T00:00:00.003-05:00

The session for news media at the EsriUC was easy to miss because it was on Sunday associated with the Business Summit. But it's importance is tied to how geospatial information and technology enters an era of mainstream adoption.

Two excellent presentations focused on not only how maps bring context to stories but when maps "serve as the central vehicle to create a narrative," as described by Roberto Suro, professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and Managing Director of the Annenberg Innovation Lab.

Suro asked, "How do we recover the sense of narrative in an era of data overload? How, as a content creator, do we reestablish the authority of a story teller." Suro discussed where maps and visualization can foster a different journalistic technique. "What do you have to have to make a map tell a story? You have to start with the centrality of place. The "where" is the focal point around which the other elements circle, said Suro.

He mentioned how the most common narrative structure is chronological and how there are a lot of stories that combine chronology with geography. But to make maps more central to the narrative involves a small change in perspective. "The basic mechanical function is different [which is the] geotagging elements of information … and telling a narrative completely through maps," he said.

Matt Waite, a professor at the University of Nebraska's College of Journalism and Mass Communications, and a Pulitzer Prize winner during his time at the St. Petersburg Times for his creation of PolitiFact.com, a fact-checking website that tracks what politicians are saying. Wait took today's publishers to task for using the same "byzantine" production model that's been in use for decades. "If we mess with this thing we are messing with the most foundational thing that we do ... Digital production is very flexible - publishers don't like to hear this," said Waite.

Waite said that, "We are creating a news database augmented by all sorts of data; there are subjects that we can connect to with a complete set of links. Rules can be broken."

He gave an example of how certain stories dealing with crime have certain structured data like addresses or historical crime information, that is, a geographic context. "You start to add these pieces of greater context and it becomes much more than a story; it is context; it is data. When you start to see news as part of a greater whole," said Waite.

Since, as a publisher of a geospatial magazine, we see the technology side of stories and often little about context. In our application articles we like maps to tell a story too. That's what we do as geographers. We tell a story. It may not be a news story like in newspapers or magazine, but maps communicate in a way that tabular information can not. And isn't that the story of GIS?

[Originally published at apb.directionsmag.com]

Want to Catch the World Cup at your Local Bar? Better Know Which Flag they are Flying

2010-06-16T08:24:00.001-05:00

Looking for camaraderie and perhaps quaffing a few brews during the FIFA World Cup matches? You better know which way the local patrons are leaning before sending out a "whoop" and "holler" during a game. Well now the New York Times can help you find just the right establishment with an interactive map that shows you the local allegiances. Jack Dempsey's on West 33rd is obviously a U.S. hang out but Barolo's on West Broadway is going for the Italians. The Time's map shows that Plein Sud, also on West Broadway, has both French and U.S. leanings. Would you like American or French fries with that burger?

As Fall Elections Approach Publications Ramp Up Interactive Maps

2010-06-07T09:34:00.001-05:00

The New York Times has published a map of the fall senate, house and gubernatorial races from around the U.S. The interesting thing this time around will be what each publication has learned since the 2008 elections in using technology to display information geospatially. Flash technology was certainly preferred last time. My guess is we'll see lots of Flash and Flex this time around. The biggest challenge? Making sure each publication draws the House Congressional district boundaries correctly. What a nightmare! Just looking at the irregular shapes of each district is perplexing. Makes you wonder about the political "fist fights" that must arise out of gerrymandering these boundaries. Good luck!

Job Losses in New York City Documented by Subway Ridership Map

2010-04-28T22:50:00.000-05:00

The New York Times has created an interactive map showing the gains or losses in subway ridership over the past year. The maps shows a graduated symbol on each subway stop and provides a tool tip indicating the stop, the increase or decrease in ridership and the number of average daily riders. Most striking, as pointed out in the article, is how you can map the areas hit hardest by the economic recession. It should serve as an invaluable tool for the NYC transportation authority as well as urban planners. But, unfortunately, it displays the tragic effects of a job losses and the potential impact upon the individual local economy around each subway stop.

Chinese Investments in Raw Materials Mapped by Forbes.com

2010-04-28T22:25:00.001-05:00

Forbes.com created a graduated symbol map (see thumbnail at right) of the investments that the Chinese have made in various raw material sectors such as energy, minerals, and transportation. The interactive map illustrates:

the accelerated growth in the number of investments made over the past five years
the size of each investment
the industry sector

Tool tips appear as you hover the cursor over each symbol that shows:

the investor
the amount of the investment
when the investment was made
the industry sector

What is striking about the portrayal of the data is not the size so much as the rapidity with which the investments have been made over just the last two years. If you watch the animated sequence, you will see how many of the investments were accomplished just recently.

The feeding frenzy for raw materials is what is driving infrastructure growth throughout the Mainland.

West Virginia Coal Mine Explosion: Mine Maps Offer Challenges to Average Reader

2010-04-07T08:54:00.001-05:00

The New York Times published both a 2D map and 3D topographic perspective map of the coal mine disaster in Montcoal, West Virginia where 25 miners were killed. Maps should provide some context and while the Times does a good job of showing the basic location of the disaster, they ignored a few cartographic principals. First, the 2D map has an inset map to give the reader the general location of the disaster. Unfortunately, the boundary shown in the inset map does not match the boundary of the mine area on the 2D map itself so it's hard to correlate the two maps. Second, the 3D map shows the topography and a satellite image overlay depicting the surface of the mine as well as a map of the subsurface mine layout. However, the mine layout boundary should be projected onto the 3D topographic map so that the reader understands the surface extents.

Over on USA Today, their map is solely to locate the mine with a "pin." They do not offer supporting maps of the subsurface area although they do have diagrams of how coal is mined at this particular mine.

Depicting the subsurface for the average reader is difficult because of the need to project the layout in 2D and no reference point exists whereby you can relate it to anything on the surface. The subsurface has just as much topographic relief as the surface but we're not used to understanding underground topography as anyone who's ever been in a cave can attest.

Telegraph's Map Shows Political Battlegrounds in Upcoming UK General Election

2010-03-25T10:27:00.001-05:00

The Telegraph has developed a unique thematic map that displays the political landscape for the upcoming general election in the UK. Each constituency is displayed as a single hexagon and color-coded according to the predominant party results from the 2005 election. It is an unusual way of thematically mapping political tendencies since it totally removes any inherent political and geographic boundaries that might otherwise confine an interpretation of the spatial underpinnings. Selecting any single hexagon will review the voting results as well as some selective stats on crime, health and education.

USA Today/USGS Maps of Chilean Earthquake Aftershocks Use Thematics Improperly

2010-03-02T10:31:00.000-06:00

The map of aftershocks from the Chilean earthquake last week reveals the incredible number of strong quakes that continue to jolt the region. Unfortunately, maps produced by the USGS and picked up by USA Today are inappropriately thematicized. The map shows the location of aftershocks marked by large circular symbols that are color-coded according to their most recent occurrence. Those that have been felt within the last hour are red; within the last day are orange; and those within the last week are yellow. It is a totally confusing way to map mainly because the idea should be to recognize both the location and severity. As they are portrayed, the symbols are all the same size and completely obscure most of the information.

Here's my suggestion: Keep the color-coding but use a graduated symbol to represent the aftershock's magnitude. this would help cut down on what is now a very cluttered map. And it would have been a nice addition if it showed the major fault lines as well.

New York Times Map of Chilean Earthquake Area Highly Confusing

2010-03-01T11:48:00.002-06:00

Where to start? The New York Times badly bungled the map showing the region devastated by the massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile late last week. The Times shows two maps, side-by-side, as an illustration of the region that felt the most impact of the temblor. The map on the left has region names declared disaster areas and their political boundary. The right hand map shows the region of severe shaking. The map on the right is NOT an inset map but that's the assumption I made. As I look at the map, the shake boundaries are delineated giving the reader the impression that this is an enlarged view of the left hand map. Looking closely, you can see that the shake area does not extend to the country's eastern border with Argentina. However, you would misinterpret the east boundary of the shake area as the border because of the delineation. In fact, a "shake" area should be graphically portrayed as a "heat map" with graduations of severity by color. The fact that a boundary is used misrepresents the geological impact of the quake. In addition, the Times added population data per square mile and for that they used a density (dot density?) map that could have been misinterpreted for map of shake severity. The smaller inset map in the right hand map just serves to further confuse the reader.

Usually, the New York Times has excellent cartographic quality to support their news stories. This time they tried to do too much at the same time and did not use the correct thematic map symbology to support their data.

Afghan Offensive Mapped by Wall Street Journal

2010-02-25T16:45:00.000-06:00

The Wall Street Journal has developed an interactive map that shows the locations of military clashes, shootings, and other related violence on a daily basis. Tool tips provide the details of each incident and the viewer can navigate by a calendar. The recent offensive on the city of Marjah begins on February 13th and the reports from that area become more detailed.

Mapping Cuts in Early Childhood Education...Chicago Style

2010-02-24T09:00:00.000-06:00

Budget cuts in Illinois funding for early childhood education played out geographically in an article published by Catalyst Chicago, an independent publication reporting on school reform. The article mapped the schools that had a waiting list for children wanting to enter the "Preschool for All" program. Budget deficits in Illinois meant that programs like Preschool for All could not be adequately funded. In the same article, a map was used to show schools that were denied funding statewide and displayed information such as the number of students affected and the amount of money requested for the program.

It's maps such as these that help both citizens and politicians understand the impact, severity, and repercussions of government policy actions.

New York Times Embraces 3D for Mapping the Olympic Games

2010-02-24T08:42:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, in All Points Blog, I surveyed some of the websites offering maps of the Olympic games in Vancouver and the the New York Times came out on top in my opinion in terms of total coverage. But more than the coverage, the Times has embraced 3D visualization technology that is not just fun to play with, but reflects both the hottest topic among geospatial professionals and the needs of the "prosumer." I say "prosumer" because navigating the 3D views of the alpine skiing venues are akin to working with 3D computer aided drafting models and takes a bit of proficiency with the mouse. Nonetheless, the use of digital terrain models and the integration with satellite imagery brings the viewer right into the venue almost as if they were there. My only criticism is that I wanted to get closer to the action. I had hoped to fully zoom into the ski trails themselves so that I could simulate a ski run myself. The use of Intermap's data was a good choice but again I know they have higher resolution data that perhaps could have been used to zoom closer. However, overall the Times fully exploited 3D data so that the average viewer could get a taste of what is really booming in the geospatial profession.

National Media Scrambles with Maps of Haiti

2010-01-18T12:04:00.000-06:00

As the geospatial community rushes into support rescue efforts with as much detail as possible, the national media has produced a variety of different maps to help tell the story.

Wall Street Journal - The WSJ has produced a series of three excellent, interactive maps:

LATEST UPDATES: a thematic map of estimated damages by block and the locations of key places like the National Palace or the UN building as well as tent camps.
BEFORE AND AFTER: a satellite image base with point locations of major structures where you can view photos of before and after shots.
TECTONICS: A population map overlayed with a map of the Gonave microplate and the location of the earthquake with concentric zone showing quake intensity.

USA Today - Map of earthquakes with more than 1000 deaths; provides a bit of history of and the location of major crustal plates that gives the reader a lession in plate tectonics

New York Times - Map showing magnitude of the disaster and details on the impact to different areas. Not interactive.

CNN - Basic data only (provided by Google) showing photos of only a few of the major POIs damages.

The WSJ comes out the winner in my estimation for blanket coverage.

Show me the Map on Climate Change: Time Magazine Misses Opportunity

2009-12-17T09:29:00.000-06:00

Page 60 of the December 14th issue of Time Magazine has a wonderfully useless map of Northern India that focuses on the small city of Leh. I visited Leh in 1979 and it is indeed on the top of the world. The focus of the Time article was climate change and the vanishing glaciers that feed the Indus and Ganges rivers and thus the population of millions of people. Where the map fails is in the type of map it should have displayed. Time should have contacted the USGS where satellite images of the last 30 years showing comparisons of the region and would have allowed readers to SEE the changes. Just a map isn't cutting it anymore. The public is quite familiar with satellite imagery. Just ask any elementary school-aged student and they would be happy to show their parents how to use Google Earth. The USGS's EarthExplorer will allow the public to download imagery, many for free, such as the November 15, 1972 image of Leh and the Ladakhi Himalaya above. Time Magazine should have taken this opportunity to educate the world through imagery and not just a simple map.

Media Ogles Over OnStar After Senator's Daughter's Car is Carjacked

2009-12-03T19:32:00.004-06:00

OnStar is amazing technology, simple but amazing. The amazing thing is that it is a single button push for "all things location" at least as far a vehicle is concerned. Need directions? Push the OnStar button. Concerned about traffic? Push the OnStar button. Need help with a flat tire? Push the OnStar button. It's what all high-tech things should aspire to be!

The incident involving Senator Bob Corker's (R-Tennessee) daughter is illustrative of both the advancements and advantages of location-based services (LBS). The Senator's daughter was assaulted and yanked out of her car when stopped at an intersection on the night of December 2, as reported by the Associated Press. The vehicle was equipped with OnStar. Police used OnStar's service to catch the carjackers and return the car later that night.

In a similar incident in October, OnStar's Stolen Vehicle Slowdown feature was used to capture another carjacker in Visalia, California. In this case, OnStar was able to slow the vehicle to idle speed with Remote Ignition Block whereby the vehicle is slowed but brakes and steering remain functional until the police can identify the vehicle.

The media love's these kind of stories but rarely understands all of the possible applications and underlying technology. CNN's Campbell Brown was reporting the story but should have provided some of the statistics such as how OnStar receives some 500 stolen vehicle requests each month. Now, that number seems high but consider that OnStar is usually installed on the more expensive car models. And, according to OnStar, "Subscribers who prefer not to have the Stolen Vehicle Slowdown capability on their vehicle may contact OnStar to opt out of the service at any time." But why? Privacy? Cost? Seems like a small price to pay for security.

Kudos to GM and OnStar. It continues to be the shining "star" of LBS apps.

Google Earth Tour Feature Helps CNN Tell Story of Ft. Hood Shooting

2009-11-06T15:03:00.003-06:00

I watched the CNN coverage of the Ft. Hood shootings and, during one segment of the program, the on-air reporter "told" the story using Google Earth's "tour" feature. This is a commonly used feature for those that are familiar with the touring function but what struck me was how much it put into context the unfolding of the day's events and timeline of the shootings.

In the past, this type of report might have been supported with rather crudely-drawn 2D maps. In this case, not only was the reporter able to trace the footsteps of the gunman spatially, but the supporting aerial imagery added real context for those who may not be familiar with the extent of the base, but especially for those who might have been stationed there at one time.

As I have commented before, there is some caution with this type of reporting. When the mainstream media uses imagery in this manner, the viewer often gets the sense of being there "live" and in "real-time." In truth, we know that the imagery might be several years old. In this case, I applaud their expert use of Google Earth. It was an added dimension that was used to tell the complete story.

New York Times Maps the City's Mayoral Election

2009-11-03T21:17:00.005-06:00

The New York Times gets it! All the news that fit to map! In their coverage of the New York City mayoral and city council elections this evening, the New York Times displayed a precinct-level map of the voting on their home page. Now, you wouldn't show the results at any other geographic level, right? It's important for two reasons: one, every reader knows in which precint they voted and two, now you can begin to discern some trends in voting which can then be tied to demographic information and hence a better understanding of the political preferences of the voters.

Get Down to ZIP Codes for Political Analysis

2009-11-03T21:04:00.003-06:00

I have a problem with CNN's John King and his "magic wall." In tonight's New Jersey gubernatorial election, it's impossible to draw any conclusions on voter preference (conservative vs. liberal) based on county-level mapping, which seems to be the only level of mapping that Mr. King has at his disposal. County maps show yield no true spatial information and the comparisons with the national presidential election of 2008 are spatially irrelavent because the mapping is too "coarse." These are relatively large counties and voting blocks are more easily discerned at the ZIP code level where most demographic patterns are established. Look at any of the psychographic profiling schemes established by the leading demographic data suppliers and you will find that you only begin to understand spatial phenomenon at the ZIP level and preferably, the Census Track. The political punditry will draw improbable conclusions if they stick with the County-level maps to understand voting blocks. It's important to look at the psychographic trends by ZIP code if you want to then draw extensions to voting blocks or changes to political preferences.

USAToday Looks at Bleak Jobs Growth Outlook for 2010

2009-11-03T17:48:00.003-06:00

The job outlook for 2010 doesn't look very rosy according to a map published by USAToday. Though the prospect for job growth will rebound in some areas, most states will continue to so slow or no growth. Hardest hit continue to be Florida, the upper Midwest, and Nevada. The bright spots include the corridor of Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington State where jobs in energy and technology are likely to be found. By metro area, look toward Huntville, Alabama, my current hometown, where jobs gowth is expected to be the highest in the country with a projected growth of 2.9%. This high tech mecca will see job growth due to Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) and the supporting jobs that will move into the region.

More Kudos for CNN on Somoan Tsunami Coverage

2009-09-30T12:17:00.003-05:00

Chad Meyers of CNN provided a stellar, "on-air" explanation of subduction zones while describing the earthquake that generated the tsunami in Somoa and American Somoa. Maps and other reports from CNN at their website. Meyer's report included great visuals using Google Earth but his most impressive review of the situation included a description of what happens when the tsunami reaches shallow waters and the coastal shelf, pushing water inland. Kudos to Meyer for making complex geological and geomorphological phenomenon understandable to the average TV viewer.

Imagery of New Iranian Nuclear Site at Qum Raises Questions

2009-09-29T09:06:00.005-05:00

Today, the New York Times and other media outlets released imagery from DigitalGlobe and GeoEye showing the location of the newly revealed nuclear material manufacturing plant in Iran. The GeoEye-1 half-meter imagery taken on 9/26/2009 shows the completed facility while an image taken in January by DigitalGlobe's WorldView-1 satellite shows the plant under construction. Certainly, U.S. intelligence agencies had their eye on this facility for some time.

The imagery reveals excellent detail showing ventilation shafts, surface-to-air missile batteries and the supporting road network. However, what's missing? No scale bar, no north arrow. If the media is going to start regularly using imagery, maps, and other supporting map-based information, they better learn how to follow correct cartographic principals.

Afghan Violence Mapped

2009-08-24T18:11:00.004-05:00

Leading up to the recent Afghan elections, violence plagued the country. The Wall Street Journal has documented the terrorist acts by mapping bombings, missile strikes, rockets and clashes on an interactive map. The map is supported by a calendar and time scale so the user can choose to see the chronologic order of the incidents. Though the map provides and interesting chronology of events, it lacks the ability to spatially reference or sort incidents by type which would help in understanding the proximity of events and their relative significance to each other, at least for the "arm chair" spatial analyst.

Employment Picture Animated in WSJ Map

2009-08-21T16:40:00.002-05:00

The U.S. unemployment job statistics, on a state by state basis, are nicely explained in a map published today by the Wall Street Journal. What's particularly noticable, if you watch the animated sequence that shows how unemployment rates have increased across the country, is the story of how the states where manufacturing is most heavily concentrated has taken a beating while the agriculturally-based midwest has remained somewhat stable. The service economies of the east coast have been hit hard but not as bad as the tourism economies of Florida, Nevada, and California. Texas, stabilized by oil, has remained below the national average. The graphs also tell an interesting story as you see how some states have only just recently crept up to the national average.

Census Will Show Uptick in Hispanic Population

2009-07-26T16:43:00.004-05:00

The Wall Street Journal published a map this weekend of the growth in the Hipanic population of the United States by state. The map was part of a related article on how the 2010 Census will demonstrate how large the population of hispanics has risen.

The Flash map allows the user to review the statics by state for each year from 2001 and shows a related graph by percent growth by year. [There may be a bug in the map as swapping years caused a new browser window to open which showed nothing; going back to the original window then showed the selected year.]

The decennial census is bound to be a boom for new maps depicting many geodemographic trends with basic population shifts being on the first allow law makers to begin haggling over how much money their district should receive.

But there is a concerted effort by the Census Bureau to count every citizen and they are well on their way to doing just that.

Not Moonstruck by Maps of Lunar Landing Site

2009-07-20T16:23:00.005-05:00

On this anniversary of Apollo 11, perhaps it's my expectations that the images of the lunar landing sites would have imagery good enough to see the actual lunar module but I did not find that the maps provided by Google and published online by CNN very exciting; informative, yes, but fairly mundane. The images had rather course resolution and when you zoomed into the landing sites, the image for Apollo 11, for example, changed to a map that was embedded over the actual site. I was looking to be moonstruck by the imagery my expectations might be clouded by the finer resolution we find from earth orbiting satellites. And the fact that the budgets for lunar exploration were drastically cut after the Apollo program have really not provided the means to do further lunar imaging. Some NASA budget have now only been modestly restored when President Bush said we were headed back to the moon.

Check out some of the other Apollo landing sites (like 16 & 14) which have better resolution and a better map of the travels by the astronauts. But also click on the CHARTS and ELEVATION options as Google registered some additional geology and terrain maps to the lunar surface.

"Le Tour" has "Le Cool" Maps

2009-07-17T08:33:00.004-05:00

If you Google for a map of The Tour de France you'll find the same map issued by the tour itself...a basic route for the race. The mainstream media has essentially replicated that map without much enhancement. USAToday took the route and posted it to Google Maps but the interactivity is minimal.

However, the Tour's own website is very cool. Each stage has the day's segment in a small map but the most nifty part is the "real-time" update of the riders portrayed against a topographic profile map. Lead riders and the peleton are shown in a "cartoon-like" portrait of the race along a road segment and the map is updated every minute or so. The map is updated with the leader's speed, the position along the post (in Km) and the remaining distance. Riders can be individually idenitified by their avatar in the cartoon.

Nicely done.

Crains New York Keeping Tabs on City's Demographics

2009-07-14T14:02:00.004-05:00

Clem Henricksen at ESRI helped point me toward some maps published in some of the recent editions of Crain's New York. The publication is using ESRI technology to create basic demographic information for the city. What's impressive is that they've devoted several pages to demographics and maps. Pictorially aethetic in a tabloid format, Crain's has done a nice job of displaying geospatial information. The information can also be found online.

WTO Maps Disputes Between Members

2009-06-11T21:21:00.007-05:00

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

2009-06-01T15:59:00.005-05:00

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

2009-05-21T16:13:00.003-05:00

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

2009-05-19T21:25:00.003-05:00

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

2009-05-17T14:43:00.004-05:00

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

2009-05-10T21:33:00.003-05:00

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

2009-05-05T08:10:00.003-05:00

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

2009-05-01T15:15:00.003-05:00

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

2009-04-30T22:52:00.003-05:00

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

2009-04-30T11:57:00.003-05:00

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.

Media Mapping in Full Swing to Track Swine Flu Pandemic

2009-04-29T16:40:00.004-05:00

As the World Health Organization moves to alert level "Phase 5 " for the H1N1 Swine Flu, various media outlets published interactive maps of the outbreak. Here is a list of the mapping websites that the media outlets have created:

Wall Street Journal
New York Times
CNN
The Guardian (UK)
USAToday
A Google-based has been published based on news reports of the outbreak. (created by someone named niman [source All Points Blog]
HealthMap is a mashup compiled from various (non-media) sources on all types of viruses

New York Times Maps the "Geography of the Recession"

2009-04-08T16:56:00.004-05:00

Recently, I posted a link to maps by the Wall Street Journal about how they mapped the unemployment rate by state and they provided some useful metric from past years. However, the New York Times has taken it a step further by mapping the unemployment numbers by county. What the NYT has done exceptionally well is to "tab" through by metro, rural or manufacturing areas plus highlighting those counties where the "housing bubble" burst! A tool tip provides the county name, unemployment rate and one-year change. In looking for some spatial correlation among the data, the most surprising comes by looking at the one-year change map. I would not have expected to see such a high change in the south. The shift in manufacturing jobs southward and the accompanying increase in population density has certainly contributed to the higher unemployment picture of the "new south."

Wall Street Journal Plots Pirate Attacks

2009-04-08T16:45:00.003-05:00

Some of the more recent pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia have been mapped by the Wall Street Journal. The interactive map provides a location and mouse-over tool tip about the details of the pirate's latest escapade.

Newly Available Study on GIS in Journalism

2009-04-05T21:15:00.003-05:00

I received information about a newly released report from LSU and authored by Ben Wasike is entitled "The diffusion of GIS in journalism." The abstract is as follows:

"The purposes of this study were to determine the likelihood of reporters to adopt Geographical Information Systems and to predict the future of the diffusion of GIS in the journalism industry using the diffusion of innovations theory. The study used two data collection methods: in-depth interviews and a Web survey. The indepth-interviews revealed factors that will influence the diffusion of GIS, including the availability of map data, competition between media agencies, the ease of getting management to buy GIS once its functionality has been demonstrated to them, and the general use of secondary GIS products. The Web survey showed that 63% of the reporters were aware of GIS but only 11% of the reporters surveyed currently use GIS. OLS regression showed that men were more likely to adopt GIS than women, while younger people were more likely to adopt GIS than their older counterparts. The results also showed that reporters who used other technologies in their work were more likely to adopt GIS on a trial basis."

CNN and the Overexposure of Google Earth

2009-04-03T09:52:00.004-05:00

Last night while viewing a segment on CNN, they displayed the location of an event. In this case is was the lockdown at Radford University in Viriginia due to an off-campus fatal shooting whereby the suspect fled onto the campus grounds. During the report, in order to orient the viewer with a geographic perspective, CNN used Google Earth, as they do on so many occasions.

First, of course I appreciate the supporting element of geography to report the story. What is unnecessary is to use a satellite image to identify the location of the incident. Showing the terrain and vegetation is overkill and confusing. A simple map is all that is called for. With today's tools, the map can even be more cartographically pleasing than ever before. However, the use of a satellite image is of no more use to the viewer than it would be if you show an icon of a gun to depict that the event involved a shooting. It's overkill.

Moreover, I suspect that CNN seems to think that by showing a satellite image that it conveys some sense of "real-time." It doesn't. As we know, most of the imagery is two years old or older. Sure, the general public doesn't know this but let's just say the "geographically literate" understand better than most, and that population of viewers is growing every day.

And finally, the image used by CNN encompassed the entire state of Virginia. If you want to place the viewer at the scene, use an aerial image with better proximity to the event.

So, CNN, take my advice...use a more simplified map; augment with better, more accurate street network information; add an aerial image if you like and if you want to place the viewer at the scene, use Google StreetView if you can better locate the event details.

Satellite Image of North Korean Rocket Worries Japanese

2009-03-31T21:26:00.003-05:00

The satellite image from DigitalGlobe's Quickbird satellite shows a three-stage rocket on the launch pad at North Korea'sv Musudan Ri. The image was released by DigitalGlobe and Reuters and published in many newspapers including Japan's Mainichi Daily News.

Malaysian Voting Results

2009-03-30T10:48:00.001-05:00

The Star, a Malaysian newspaper, provides details on election results in the country by showing a map of poll results.

Wall Street Journal Map Shows Banks are Lending in Many Metros

2009-03-30T10:34:00.004-05:00

Today's front page of the Wall Street Journal shows a map of how lending by banks has increased in many metro areas during Q4. Leading the way is my hometown of Huntsville, Alabama. The maps shows the increase in loan balances, an indication that some banks are lending and that the cash crunch has not strapped all municipalities.

Shrinking Wealth

2009-03-30T10:19:00.002-05:00

Forbes published (March 30 issue) a map depicting the loss of wealth among the world's billionaires. The thematic map shows the total losses among all billionaires in each country. The online map is a little hard to read so Forbes provided an interactive "magnifying glass" to see the results of each country. As interesting is the number of countries without millionaires and to see which countries did not suffer to many losses. Bill Gates remains the richest man in the world even though his net worth dropped $18 Billion!

Super Bowl Twitter Chatter

2009-03-20T09:08:00.003-05:00

It was bound to happen...a map of Twitter chatter. Several have been created so far. But the New York Times has put together a map of tweets during the Super Bowl between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals. And it has an interactive timeline...push PLAY and watch the volume of tweets change as the game progresses. There is a legend that indicated certain categories of tweets such as the name of players or tweeted emoticons. Now, the jury is still out as to the value of Twitter, but as a social network, it's gaining lots of followers.

Living on Earth: Mapping Climate Change

2009-03-14T11:04:00.003-05:00

WBUR in Boston hosted a segment for the "Living on Earth" show call Mapping Climate Change. The program interviewed Josef Kellndorfer, a researcher at Wood Hole Oceanographic Institute. It's nice to see the press giving a nod to remote sensing.

CIO Magazine: 15 Must See Images from Google Earth

2009-03-12T08:27:00.002-05:00

Thanks to a tweet from Dave Sonnen, CIO Magazine published the "15 Must See Sights from Google Earth." Now, the images are pretty cool, but what would possess the magazine to focus on geospatial technology, or are they just looking for pretty pictures? Unfortunately, I think the later is true as the caption above the series of images encourages the reader to be an "armchair explorer" if not a world traveler. I think this is all too often the case when those in the mainstream media offer up eye-candy to readers and miss the true value of geospatial technology.

USA Today's Map Shows Housing Construction Shift Back to City

2009-03-11T08:58:00.004-05:00

USA Today published a map (Google Map-based) highlighting the cities that have seen a growth in construction projects located in or near city centers indicating a shift away from traditional suburban development. Was it the high gas prices of last summer, the economic downturn or something else?

British Sub Bases: Off Limits?

2009-03-11T08:52:00.002-05:00

Several media outlets published the Google Earth Imagery of the Royal Navy's submarine base. FOX News showed a variety of angles taken with satellite imagery. What's your opinion? Should supposedly secret military bases be off-limits to the peering eye of commercial satellites?

New York Times: Immigration Explorer

2009-03-11T08:35:00.003-05:00

The New York Times has published an excellent interactive map of immigration patterns from the late 1800's until 2000 showing the migration of immigrants across the U.S. as well as the percentage of each group, region of origin, and where they settled. The county level detail map has tool tips showing the current total population from the U.S. Census as well as the population of foreign born residents. A slider bar allows the viewer to focus on a certain time period (in tens of years) and a drop down box allows the viewer to select a specific nationality of origin. Have fun playing with this one...it's one of the best interactive maps the NY Times has created.

ENVISAT Satellite Image Shows Wrath of Cyclone Downunder

2009-03-09T21:10:00.004-05:00

A European Space Agency ENVISAT satellite image of Tropical Cyclone Hamish graced the entire front page of Brisbane, Australia's The Courier Mail today showing the magnitude of the storm. The image was enhanced by Earth Snapshot and what a fantastic image it is. The detail of the cloud patterns is particularly crisp.

Sometimes You Just Need a Map to Get the Whole Picture

2009-03-04T17:18:00.003-06:00

Earlier in the day, I read the details of a story in my local paper about how the pilot of a U.S. Navy FA-18 Hornet crashed into a home, killing four people, while trying to land his hobbled aircraft last December. Today's San Diego Tribune however re-created the tragic accident with a map showing the flight path of the jet fighter that had taken off from an aircraft carrier but developed engine trouble. The pilot had the option of landing at a facility away from residential areas but wanted to fly the craft to Miramar Air Station...but didn't make it. I was wondering what the flight path was and trying to imagine what happened. The Tribune's map provided the necessary graphical detail...as only a map can.

Mapping L.A.'s 87 Neighborhoods

2009-03-02T18:16:00.004-06:00

The Los Angeles Times has launched an interactive map called "Mapping L.A." and features informaiton on its 87 neighborhoods. According to the times, the website was developed with Django, OpenLayers, and PostgreSQL and the data is based on the 2000 U.S. Census. But according to the Times, the map will be somewhat dynamic:

"Because L.A. is always changing, Mapping L.A. will change with it. As communities gain in size or importance, or diminish, we’ll reflect those changes in these maps. But, in contrast to the past, the boundaries we recognize today will not be lost. Every time we move a city block from one community to another, we’ll keep a record of the original map that can be republished any time it’s needed. We’ll also keep a log of changes on the site for use by anyone seeking to trace the city’s evolution. "

There is not much additional information there but the boundaries themselves, but it's a start. Perhaps they will add hyper-local news feeds?

Tracking a Lone Wolf

2009-02-26T15:46:00.002-06:00

The Rocky Mountain News' entire front page today is a map depicting the wanderings of a lone female wolf in search of a mate. The wolf has traveled over 1000 miles and the front page map shows her five-state trek. [On a sad note, the Rocky Mountain News' last issue is tomorrow as it is closing its doors.]

Mapping Meteorites

2009-02-26T15:42:00.002-06:00

Meteorite hunters take note! Apparently, the area near Waco, Texas is a hot bed of activity. The Waco Tribune-Herald has a map on its front page to show you where to search!

Geocommons Launches Obamameter

2009-02-26T15:28:00.004-06:00

FortiusOne, as part of their Geocommons initiative, today launched their "Dashboard of the Economy" or as they more aptley named it...their Obamameter, which is a map that reports on the U.S. economic situation and in particular where funding is being spent or requested. According to the company they are mapping "breaking news" and their Obamameter is one of a few "visual dashboards" to watch the current economic situation and the global economy.

Making The Housing Crisis 'Real'

2009-02-19T07:05:00.003-06:00

I was watching ABC New's Nightline program last night as they reported on President Obama's plan to curtail the housing mortgage crisis. The report focused in on Phoenix and in particular West Zion Road in Maricopa, and by using Google Earth, zoomed into that neighborhood which exhibits the kind of blight that many cities are facing...multiple foreclosures on the same block not to mention the many other houses just simply up for sale.

What struck me was that the use of web mapping and satellite technology somehow makes it not just "real" (the obvious reason for using satellite images that can zoom to street level), but familiar. Maps have always been used in some form of news reporting but not with the same specificity; not with the same ability to isolate on a particular street; not with the notion of proximity and scale. It's not only real, but personal.

What's the most asked question when using Google Earth for the first time? Can I see my house? Well, that's fine, except you don't ever want to see it in a news report about home foreclosures. Now, that would be a little too real.

Mapping the News One Newspaper at a Time

2009-02-16T07:43:00.004-06:00

Thanks to good friend Hal Reid, I was pointed to a new web mapping application that the Newseum has developed that plots the the location of the nation's newspapers and displays the daily front page headlines. And it doesn't stop with U.S. publications. You'll find newspapers from around the world. I don't know how they capture all of this information but it is a fantastic resources for finding news from around the world in a geospatial context.

ABC Offers Maps of Australian Bush Fires

2009-02-16T07:03:00.003-06:00

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is using a Microsoft's Virtual Earth-based map to report information about the extent of the bushfires wreaking havoc throughout the country. Up to date information on the location of fires and news about remediation efforts are being cataloged as well as the location of deaths.

Mission Loci Maps Hyperlocal Activity

2009-02-04T08:19:00.002-06:00

Mission Loci, a project of the Cal-Berkeley to provide news and information about the Mission District in San Francisco, launched a mapping app specifically to monitor the impressions about American Apparel, a new fashion store that has moved into the SF Bay area. The app places the impressions of store owners along Valencia street on the map and also provides the location of a potential American Apparel store location. The mapping app is one of a growing number of sites introducing hyperlocal news and its potential impact on neighborhood culture and business.

Seattle Times: No Earthquake Map?

2009-01-30T17:34:00.008-06:00

As we reported last July, The Seattle Times now has a "Mapping the News" page up on the website for local news stories. It is a Google Maps powered application that sorts by day and location. Looks like they used the Google Maps API and their dateline to post the news items. It's odd though that for today particularly with a minor earthquake striking the region that that isn't referenced. Only the epicenter is noted on the page with their story but I found it strange that more news about the quake isn't posted to the Mapping the News page. They have links to other references about the temblor but I expected more at their online portal. But the Times is better at it than the Post-Intelligencer which has no maps at all!

Unemployment Picture Not a Pretty Sight for any State

2009-01-29T07:41:00.003-06:00

The Wall Street Journal published an interactive map by U.S. state showing the year-over-year unemployment trend for December. They've tied the map to a line graph of unemployment figures from each of the preceding months of December back to 2004. Other months can be selected as well and the map will change accordingly. Other, full year-over-year figures can be displayed as well, also back to 2004. They've done a good job with this implementation. However, the version published in the print edition is extremely hard to interpret as it shows unemployment by state as a thematic map in shades of gray. I can distinguish four shades; but not the five shades of gray used in the map.

Geographic Search Engine for News

2009-01-27T15:29:00.004-06:00

A South African company, Muti, has indexed news by geography based on Yahoo Search called News Map. It uses Google Maps as a reference so that the user points to the map and a sidebar displays the search results. The news is not located by any designated "pin map" but if the user zooms in to more localized areas the search is sufficiently indexed to display news by a finer resolution of geography. According to the company:
* Clicking on a country/region retrieves news about that country.
* Switch quickly (edited) to another continent by clicking on the continent links in the header.
* Zooming in one level will retrieve news at the state/provincial level.
* Currently state level news is available for US, Canada, UK(Home Nations) and Australia.
* Zooming in a second time will retrieve city news for large cities.
* Over 3000 large cities are in the database.
* Zooming out again will retrieve news at the respective level.
This should not be confused with the technology developed by MetaCarta which has its own search algorithms and indexes news only by that which is published by the news organization creating the content. It is also called NewsMap.

CNN Tracks its Journalists

2009-01-26T15:17:00.003-06:00

During the U.S. presidential campaign, CNN was using their "magic map" for more than just election results. The were also using Skyhook Wireless technology to track their reporters as they followed the candidates. Skyhooks hybrid positioning technology (Wi-Fi, GPS or cellular) is embedded with iPhones and the reporters were displayed on King's "magic map". Watch the video demonstration by John King.

CNN Runs Satellite Image of Inauguration Parade Route

2009-01-20T15:04:00.003-06:00

Just in case you didn't know exactly where President Barack Obama is, CNN ran a satellite image as a small strip at the bottom of the screen during the inauguration parade showing the location of the motorcade as a small blue dot and a "radar-like" circle "pinging" the location. I think that's going a bit overboard but, hey, satellite images are the hot thing right now. What can I say.

CNN also has some initial images created using Photosynth from the inauguration ceremonies capturing "the moment."

Media Tunes Up Mapping Apps for Inauguration

2009-01-19T16:55:00.003-06:00

Several media outlets have published online map resources for the Inauguration of Barack Obama:

The Wall Street Journal has posted a mashup of the location of inauguration events, balls, and attractions in addition to the inauguration parade route (thanks to the Google Maps & Earth blog for pointing this out.)

The New York Times has a nicely done perspective view map that includes 3D building models set as a time sequence of events starting with the procession to the swearing in ceremony at the Capitol and completing the view along the parade route.

USA Today has done a very thorough job with their map of including 3D building information, 360 IPIX imagery, and the locations of first aid, video screen locations throughout the Mall area, and security.

The BBC has a static set of maps and aerial photos of Washington but it does have the location of the restricted streets and closed roads for the city center set up due to the parade.

And, as reported in All Points Blog, CNN, GeoEye and Microsoft are teaming to provide a Microsoft Photosynth image of the inauguration.

Time Magazine Map of Israel/Palestinian Region Leaves Many Questions

2009-01-16T08:39:00.005-06:00

I like detail in maps but too often the media leaves it to the oft-times, geographically illiterate reader to figure it out. Time Magazine, in its January 19th issue (page 30), published a map of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that provides information (or not) on the locations of Palestinian communities, the occupied territories procured during the 1967 Six-Day war and Gazan refugee camps. The map is quite detailed and based on information from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. [Don't bother looking on the U.N.'s website for these maps as it will just confuse you.] But there are problems in interpreting the map.

1. While the Time Magazine map shows a nicely detailed thematic of the Palestinian communities, there are two shades of tan delineating these areas but the legend shows only one shade. Why two shades? For more of an explanation, I had to do a lot of digging. The lighter shades are considered under full Palestinian Authority control. The darker shades are merely higher population centers (my interpretation). But no where on the map does it distinguish the two. Poor adherence to cartographic principals.

2. The borders of Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights are indicated by a dotted line. Again, nowhere on the map does it designate this line as a border. Yes, it's obvious but you need to put it in the legend.

3. A closer look at the West Bank border reveals a double-dotted line around a "thumb-shaped" area in the West Bank. Again, no explanation. ReliefWeb has a map (PDF) with a very detailed demarcation of the Green Line, the 1949 Armistice Line. The double line is part of the barrier begin built by the Israeli government. More information, a map and discussion about this barrier can be found in Wikipedia.

So, in summary, the Time Magazine map was a "nice" but cartographically poor representation of the situation on the ground. I expect better from Time's cartographers.

Cincinnati Enquirer Maps News, Crime, Traffic...and Everything Else

2009-01-15T11:59:00.006-06:00

Thanks to Paul Overberg of USA Today, who sent a comment to our Directions Magazine article on "Crime Wave Mapping," for pointing me to the Cincinnati Enquirer's CinciNavigator, a web mapping application that locates news, crime reports, traffic...you name it...in a single portal. CincNavigator uses a Microsoft Virtual Earth platform that is customized nicely to allow the user to isolate activities by date so as not to clutter the map. However, the tool tips as you mouse over each pin location have a way of obscuring some of the other information. The tip advises the user to zoom into the area and that's necessary to truly see incidents at a larger scale. But, overall, they have done an outstanding job with this portal.

Journalism Prize Awarded to Journalist Where Interactive Mapping Used

2009-01-12T22:26:00.005-06:00

I am going to repost here an email from my good friend in Denmark who sent me information about the Calving journalism award that was given to a project where an interactive map was a significant part of the story:

Cavling Prize for journalism with interactive map

Berlingske Tidende receive on Friday Cavling prize for "crimes". This makes the most prestigious prize in the Danish media world this year given to a project where an interactive map has played a pivotal role.

The card has been used to visualize cases from across the country in which the police did not respond to citizen inquiries. In some cases it has acted on human lives. Some examples are found for journalism research, but most cases come from readers who have been invited to submit information.

Along with classic investigative journalism with documented examples of police failure, the story has been questioned by the reforms made by the Danish police. Police top commander has been dismissed and politicians will review the whole reform again.

Committee behind Cavling Prize, among other things, in his reasoning:

"In addition to articles in the newspaper the network is actively used to gather and provide an overview of the extensive documentation in the form of articles, timelines, audio and video clips and interactive maps. This leaves both research methods such as mediation revealed new roads and set new standards of journalistic thoroughness. "

Massive congratulations from here.

You can see the past for the project here.

Best regards / Med venlig hilsen

Jesper Ishoj, Journalist, Denmark
Website: www.GeoJournalistik.com
Company: www.tv2fyn.dk

Time Magazine: Mapping Energy Efficiency State by State

2009-01-12T22:02:00.003-06:00

Which states encourage the most energy efficiency? Time Magazine has a basic prism map showing those states that do it best (see the Jan. 12 issue, page 34-35; the online article does not display the map unfortunately). What's interesting about this map is that you could pair it with those states with the most energy resources (see map at right from the U. S. Geological Survey's map of oil and gas exploration and production in the U.S.) and there is almost a 1 to 1 correlation with the exception of California, and there, their energy production is balanced with an enormous population. The south is particularly poor at encouraging energy efficiency mostly because energy is cheap (TVA and proximity to gasoline refineries). The midwest has lots of resources and places like Wyoming, the lowest ranked state, has an abundance of coal. Texas seems to have struck some balance but big oil can't last forever. Just ask T. Boone Pickens.

Wall Street Journal - Mapping Bank Failures

2009-01-02T07:36:00.003-06:00

Maps don't usually appear on the front page of the "Money and Investing" section of the Wall Street Journal which is why this map of the latest bank failures caught my eye this Friday morning. The map shows the locations of those banks that failed in the Atlanta metro area and in particular in the suburb of Alpharetta. The map was a little hard to decipher unless you are aware of this particular grouping of suburbs which happen to be some of the wealthiest areas of central Georgia. I've attached here a map of the Average Household income (2004 Census data from Microsoft MapPoint 2006). The WSJ map is by ZIP code although this was not noted in the map caption (a failure I hate to see in a respected publication). So, the basic implication here, regardless of the underlying premise of the article which was the simple number of failures is that these banks are failing in some of the highest income areas of the state if not the country.

Weather Channel Utilizes "Near" Real-Time Images for Road Conditions

2008-12-31T07:22:00.005-06:00

The Weather Channel has taken to augment their early morning traffic and travel reports with webcams of major roadways. It's another sign that people are not just tuning in to hear about their local weather but want as close to real-time information as necessary. Now, it's a too much for the Weather Channel to cover all major metros which is why people still tune into local news stations for helicopter reports and live feeds. But the information that will be required by travelers will be in-vehicle reports with live camera feeds to traffic conditions miles ahead of where the driver is currently. I think more drivers with in-vehicle navigation systems will demand connected devices to show these types of live feeds as many state and city departments of transportation currently do. As an example, the image above is from the New York State DOT. We are certainly getting closer to connecting people with the real-time information that they need.

Boston Globe-Year in Maps: How the Media Discovered Digital Geography

2008-12-30T10:46:00.004-06:00

The Boston Globe published a review article on the "cartography boom" that seemed to capture the attention of readers and journalists in 2008. From the presidential elections to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the media used maps to better convey the story.

As Adena Schutzberg pointed out in All Points Blog, the author deserves credit for recognizing the plethora of maps used by the media and that this was a noteworthy story to cover. I think the author, Drake Bennett, both captured and missed key points. What he got right was that the maps helped to distill the enormous volume of data that pores into news rooms and for that, maps provide an essential tool. What he missed was the sense of urgency and immediacy that readers seek when a breaking news story hits, and that maps and satellite imagery put the reader on the ground. Readers feel much more connected to the story if they understand location and context. Readers may not have been familiar with Mumbai or that it had been called "Bombay" previously, but a map showing its location on the subcontinent quickly orients their perspective. The satellite images of the Taj and Oberoi Hotels bring the reader even closer and puts context to the story by positioning the venues with respect to the street network, focale points of each attack, and movements of the terrorists.

What we can not yet do is provide real time remotely sensed data. I'm not sure the readers and media are quite ready themselves but when reporters can not get close to the sceen, another media form will find its way into use: real-time satellite imagery. So, who will be the first to launch a real-time sensor and will the government allow it?

To the New York Post - Use the Map...Don't Hide it!

2008-12-29T08:30:00.002-06:00

Thanks to a reader, I was informed that the New York Post is using MetaCarta's NewsMap. Great, I thought...another convert to using interactive mapping for local news reporting. But the Post has buried the NewsMap on the NYPD Blotter page. So, they make a fairly big deal of covering local New York news from the five boroughs but don't index every section with the NewsMaps technology. To be fair, the page on which the map is placed indicates that the NewsMap is in "beta" but the Post will never get feedback on whether readers appreciate the technology.

There's not much "news" on the map and links from the "news tips" (clicking on one of the triangles indicating a news item) may bring you to a page that has a larger map window but not much additional news.

So, my advice to the Post is to make this a little more robust even before you launch this in beta because it is just not that informative and rarely indexes news of interest. I'd advise MetaCarta to work with the Post to get this into a form that truly exposes local content.

Geopolitics and Geography

2008-12-28T09:05:00.003-06:00

On Time Magazine's "Person of the Year" cover, there is a map. Yes, it's hard to see unless you're looking for it. Otherwise you'll focus on the image of Barack Obama.

The map in the upper left hand corner underscores the importance of the Middle East and that fact that it is one additional crisis of the many that Obama faces as he takes office. Time could have used an image of a militant, terrorist or pirate but a map is the only way to depict the problems that impact a concentrated region of the world that continues in turmoil.

And yet somehow I think it speaks to our lack of geographic awareness, our lack of geographic knowledge both of juxtaposition and history. U.S. students continually under perform in a fundamental understanding of geography, culture and politics. It's time that those of us who live in and supposedly understand a world of digital geography where global communication is instantaneous that we take time to better understand cultural geography and teach those who don't.

Mr. Obama faces huge challenges in the Middle East, as every president has since Jimmy Carter. As a man whose expectations could not be greater to impact world opinion, he has an opportunity to impact an even more important audience...our elementary educators and the children they teach.

NY Times Goes Beta with "Represent"

2008-12-23T09:09:00.002-06:00

Thanks to my colleague at Directions/All Points Blog (where you can find some of the technical details about the map), Adena Schutzberg, and a tip she received from Amy Grahran, there is news out about a new mapping feature offered by the New York Times called "Represent." By typing in your address you can get information about your congressional or state elected officials, a map denoting the boundaries of their districts, and some news clippings about the most recent activities of these politicians.

First, let me say that this is exactly the type of geographical information that should be provided by your local news source. It's short, concise, well-layed out and informative. Spot on!

As this is in beta, there are obviously more features or changes to come. Let me offer a few suggestions:

Aggregate more hyperlocal news such as from Topix or YourStreet. Sure, the NY Time is not the ultimate source but this type of aggregation is becoming more commonplace and it is a topic my editors are discussing as well.
Should it be interactive? Right now, the Google Maps are static. For political and news purposes, using the map as a reference for news stories would be key, much like MetaCarta does now for Reuters.
Filter the news by topic such as whether the news is city, state, or federally related. Since they've got those maps already generated just segment the news accordingly.
Since this is a resource for residents, give them a way to "sound off" by allowing them a comments page about certain political issues.
And if they have a gripe about a pothole, let them contact the city department directly by placing a "pin" on the map with a note about what the problem is at that location.

Useless Map Fades to Gray

2008-12-22T06:53:00.003-06:00

I want to be fair to the Wall Street Journal but sometimes I'm just left scratching my head. In an article in today's WSJ, a thematic map of the median household income in and around the Chicago area was used to show the high income areas affected by the routing of a freight rail line. Canadian National Railway purchased a suburban rail line that they wanted to use for freight to bypass the congested lines through downtown Chicago.

In fairness, I think the map enhanced the story. The problem was that you just could not read it. Once again, a shaded gray thematic doesn't really work for a print newspaper. Though the WSJ limited the gray tones to only four, the tones were too faded. And it took me almost five minutes to actually see that the rail line was overlayed on the map itself. It was not noted in the legend and I can only assume that they thought it was obvious. It was not.

Now, unless you are faily familiar with thematic maps and you can discern spatial patterns, the fact that the rail line does indeed meander through some of the high income ZIP codes, you'd miss the entire point of the map. Neither were some of the more recognizable high income towns denoted on the map like Lake Forrest and Barrington, which would have help me understand where the rail line was routed. So, the town names were missing, the political boundaries of the thematic were not explained, and the rail line itself was fading into the background. Why bother with the map at all?

New York Times Explores the Changing Demographics of The Big Apple

2008-12-09T06:53:00.004-06:00

One of the lead stories today in the New York Times discusses the demographic diversity of New York City in recent times. A thematic map of the five New York boroughs divided by ZIP code provides some details on median rent and median income between 2000 and 2007. The newspaper reports that a three year study confirms what some have suggested anecdotally about the changes in income, ethnicity, and poverty. For example, there was a decline by 17% of those who did not speak English in the home in Sunset Park, Brooklyn indicating a gentrification of the area that is heavily Hispanic and Asian. While the proportion of foreign born citizens remains the same, the proportion who are now American citizens passed the 50% level. The American Community Survey was the source for some of the data.

Time Magazine Maps the State of American Health

2008-12-04T07:52:00.004-06:00

What's striking about some of the maps provided by Time Magazine in their article focused on the state of American Health is that they parallel another U.S. trend: spending on education. Once again the deep South, Kentucky and West Virginia come up short in statistics such as life expectancy and areas such as the upper Midwest, Utah and Colorado seem to trend higher. There is no secret here. Better educated people tend to understand the value of good health and the spatial correlation becomes obvious when you look at a map. This is not only a travesty but a failure of the local government authorities to act. This geographic phenomena hasn't changed in years and the worst part of it is that these states obviously invested their money poorly because another map in the same report shows that Federal Government spending on health care programs is actually pretty healthy. It's high time these officials looked at a map to see what a poor job they've done.

Wall Street Journal Places Image Map of Mumbai Attacks on Front Page

2008-12-01T10:53:00.003-06:00

Today's front page of the Wall Street Journal features an image map of Mumbai annotated with the locations of the terrorist attacks. This map has been reproduced in other publications so there is nothing new except some brief notes on the event at each location. The WSJ is a little late to the game with this map especially since the headline on the image reads "Deadly Route" when in fact there is no identification of the route the terrorists took to reach each attack. A reconstruction of the route the terrorists used would indeed have been a better use of the map if such information has already been discerned. However, the online version of the same image map provides a timeline of the attacks from which you could discern the route and this same map has the events parsed by day during the 60-hour seige.

Wired Maps the World of Food, Crops and Politics

2008-12-01T08:54:00.002-06:00

If maps do anything, they condense the salient points of news into a single, visual medium. In Wired Magazine's November issue, the author of the article "Feeding the World" uses a world atlas to identify trouble spots that hinder the proliferation of food production. The map highlights the problems related to climate conditions such as droughts or storm-related damage, as well as political issue such as food subsidies or export restrictions.

On Busiest Travel Day of the Year, USA Today Shows Airport Delays

2008-11-30T20:52:00.006-06:00

USA Today used its regularly published interactive map of the flight delays to highlight where travelers may find slow going today. The map uses a simple, colored dot to show which airports are experiencing delays. The map is "powered" by FlightView.com a company that has several products for travel information. (Image used with permission)

CNN, Washington Post Provide Interactive Map of Mumbai Terrorist Attack

2008-11-30T20:35:00.004-06:00

Both CNN and the Washington Post have developed excellent online maps of the Mumbai terrorist attacks of the last week. CNN used a simple satellite image-map of the Mumbai peninsula and then used simple symbols to mark the location of the attacks but use a tool-tip approach to allow the reader to drill down for more information. The Washington Post used Google Maps mashup with much more annotation to the location of each attack such that it indicated the time of the terrorist invasion. Unfortunately, repeated attempts to articles at the Times of India met with server errors. The Telegraph (Calcutta) did not have much in the way of maps to support news reporting.

New York Times Maps Super-Computing Power

2008-11-23T14:43:00.003-06:00

If you can suspend your geographic sensibilities for a moment, the New York Times has created a graduated symbol map of the world's fastest supercomputers in the world. The map is a bit skewed in the sense that the locations of these supercomputers are not exactly in their correct locations on the map though the Times tries their best to balance size of the symbol with geographic correctness. While the locations of the supercomputers are easier to place geogrpaphically in Europe because they are smaller in computing-power, the largest supercomputer in the U.S. lands smack dab in the middle of the map that the Times created giving the illusion that Los Alamos, New Mexico, is somewhere in the middle of the country and Oak Ridge, Tennessee is near the border with Canada. Anyway, I think I would have preferred that the Times try a little harder to maintain some semblance of geographic location. Don't we have enough trouble with geographic literacy in this country?

Baron Services: Weather Technology for TV is Going to Change

2008-11-20T20:22:00.003-06:00

Today at our Rocket City Geospatial Conference in Huntsville, Alabama, Bob Baron, CEO and founder of Baron Services (also of Huntsville) gave our attendees a glimpse of TV weather forecasting in the future. OMNI, is a "Google Earth-like" interface that will allow TV weather broadcasters a visualization platform, well, like Google Earth but with stylistic changes that offer greater depth of displaying weather patterns, storms and tools to help TV forecasters. Using high resolution 3D terrain data, 3D building models, and text displays that will turn heads, Baron is delivering a new paradigm that leverages geospatial technology to the media weather forecasters.

LA Times Maps Fire Damage

2008-11-18T08:10:00.004-06:00

The Los Angeles Times has created several maps of fire-damaged homes, locations of where the fires began, and animal safe shelters as the region is once again fighting fires in heavily residential areas. The maps are reminiscent of those produced by the Times during last year's devastating fires in the region. More and more, the media is utilizing mapping technology to get the news out and is in many ways becoming the primary source of information to which citizens turn to get updated and near real-time news.

Chicago Trib Points to Geography Week Resources

2008-11-16T15:38:00.001-06:00

The Chicago Tribune has set up a page with some great resources to take help readers take part in National Geography Awareness Week (Nov. 16-22).

NBC Chicago Launches Beta Website for Traffic, Live Camera Feeds

2008-11-16T15:26:00.006-06:00

So, traffic is, as some at deCarta are prognosticating, "the next killer app." And at NBC Chicago, they have launched a beta website for just such real-time information. I think this is a perfect application for TV stations to deploy. You expect to get your weather info from them; why not traffic? Radio stations have been doing it for years, but there is nothing like a picture to show the way. And with more people purchasing cell phones that are really Internet browers, like the iPhone, NBC Chicago is making the right move. Microsoft Virtual Earth is the mapping app they are using and they have integrated traffic and live roadway camera feeds as well. According to the MSFT VE blog, the app was developed by MyWeather LLC and is getting the traffic info from their "own traffic flow/incident overlay." The thumbnail maps of the 5 highest traffic zones is a nice touch and sure to be clicked on alot.

Google Dribbles out Flu Map; The Media Exhibits Flu-like Symptoms

2008-11-13T17:09:00.003-06:00

Many local and national news media contracted the "ga ga fever" by fawning over the story about Google's Flu Map. And while Google's search technology and their ability to spot trends in an unusual, highly Web 2.0 fashion is nothing to sneeze at, I cringe at the media's fevered pitch over Google.org's map. Let's face it, what was the bigger deal? That is was a map of potential flu outbreaks, or was it because Google was able to geolocate based on IP address? I just think that everyime Google cough's up another cool map that the media faints.

It was even more telling that only passing mention was given to the work of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CNN specifically mentions in their coverage how Google predicated flu concentrations two weeks sooner than the CDC. But the CDC is constantly updating the number of cases of influenza and reports the results in a weekly report...with maps included. The media seems to be looking to minimize the work of the CDC by pointing to the cool technology of Google.

I would however recommend to the CDC that they look into more interactive mapping technology. Their website is lacking in the ability to injest some real-time information that could be updated on web maps.

WSJ-It's "the Big One"...SoCal Prepares for Huge Earthquake

2008-11-11T17:49:00.006-06:00

The Wall Street Journal reported today on plans for the Great Southern California ShakeOut...a huge preparedness drill in the LA area staged by the USGS and sponsors like the Home Depot and State Farm Insurance. Accompanying the article is an interactive map that is a history of some of the more major earthquakes in California. Be sure to click on the "Maps" tab of the WSJ article and don't miss the second map which shows the zones of the greatest earthquake hazards. The image at right is a hazard zone map prepared by the USGS. It is similar to the one shown by the WSJ.

Mortgage Mess

2008-11-11T06:55:00.003-06:00

The New York Times illustrates just where the mortgage crisis has taken its toll. Yesterday, the Times reported on the percentage of homes within each state that have negative equity. The source of the data is from First American CoreLogic. California with 29% and Florida with 27% are the highest.

USA Today's "Behind the Results" Map...awesome

2008-11-05T16:50:00.004-06:00

If you love to slice and dice the demographics, you'll love USA Today's "Behind the Results" map. And the slickness by which you can "drag and swipe" the "map squeegee" window that allows the viewer to compare the percentage of voters in that demographic category with how that demographic voted for president is just awesome. The demographic options are older voters (65+), younger voters (18-29), Blacks, Hispanics, and median household income. Kudos to USA Today.

The Election in Hamilton County, Ohio

2008-11-05T16:24:00.003-06:00

In its final issue before the U.S. presidential election, Time Magazine profiled Hamilton County, Ohio, a "red" county that had delivered impressive victories for the Republicans dating back to 1992. The article did a nice job of giving a demographic analysis of the county though it would have been helpful to dig deeper by zip code as to the true demographic composition. It was important to understand how much Cincinnati, with a different composition than the remainder of the county, influenced the vote. Time reported that the social conservative nature of the western part of the county and fiscal conservatism of the eastern part of the county formed a solid Republican toehold. On Tuesday, Hamilton County went to Senator Obama by a 52/47 percent margin. The county results are shown on a map compiled by the New York Times. There are no results posted yet by the Ohio Secretary of State for each Congressional District, but I will be watching.

delicious bookmarks - US Elections

2008-11-04T21:48:00.003-06:00

Here is a collection of bookmarks I've created on del.icio.us for reference.

In the End...Not Much New...NY Times, CNN Shine

2008-11-04T21:13:00.003-06:00

As the results stream in, there is not much new with respect to any additional technology presented by the media. They had already developed their mapping platforms and utilized what they had without showing any add-on functionality; no imagery back drop which CNN tried to do during the primaries (annd didn't make much sense). However, the New York Times and CNN allowed highly user-friendly maps by which to drill down to the county level and view the vote county by percentage by candidate. CNN's map actually was far less visually appealing than what the Times put on their home page. While other sites provided drill down capapbilities (MSNBC), the Times put it on their home page and it was easy to zoom in/out and get the results by tool tip.

CNN goes Quasi "BIM" with Capital Building

2008-11-04T17:17:00.003-06:00

At 6:15 p.m. EST, John King unveiled new technology on CNN using a 3D display of the Capital Building and a map of the seats held in the House and Senate by Democrats and Republicans. Though not true building information modeling (BIM), King was using display technology that looked quasi CAD-like. He did not drill down into the Capital Building itself but is that next?

CBS News: Half Telestrator, Half 'magic map'...Half as good?

2008-11-04T15:49:00.004-06:00

Jeff Greenfield of CBS News thinks only Iowa, Colorado and New Mexico will put Obama over the top. The interactive map he is using is "half telestrator, half magic map." And yes...maybe only half as good as everyone else maps. I'll reserve more judgment until tonight's coverage.