Professional Geographer » geography

Social Geography Of Hair?

drjill — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 23:24:06 +0000

Something new perhaps for you hairy geographers…

Social Geography Of Hair Opens for Downstreet Art / iBerkshires.com – The Berkshires online guide to events, news and Berkshire County community information..

The Geographic Inequalities of Broadband in Indiana

drjill — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:26:20 +0000

Indiana is participating in the National Broadband Program as a multi-year, multi-agency effort to map areas in the state that are currently served by the state’s 170+ broadband providers. The results from this will be integrated into a national broadband availability map, and will provide a solid foundation for future broadband deployment efforts at the state and national level.

“Broadband access supports our economy, attracts businesses, and enables Indiana to be globally competitive. It improves the quality of life for Hoosiers through better communication and learning,” says Jim Sparks Indiana Geographic Information Officer regarding Indiana’s participation.

The mapping portion of the program intends to identify areas that are underserved and ideally expand access to those areas. Indiana is an active participant in the program, and rightly so – several areas of the state and key demographics are currently underserved. From an user interface perspective, personally I find the national broadband availability maps (different from the IndianaMap) leave something to be desired. I find them generally too technical to communicate much to the average consumer, though they surely are packed with information that will assist at the national program level. Be sure to look at the “Show Gallery” link at the bottom of the page for some nice perspectives (it is easily missed). As a work in progress, it is also worth keeping in mind that the maps may over-represent some areas and under-represent other areas based on individual states’ current participation in the mapping program.

Lest we underestimate the potential impact of the broadband program in Indiana, let us look at the current “state of the state” according to another source, PatchworkNation.org:

Wow, Indiana really stands out.

Vote Now in The Bizarre Map Challenge

drjill — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:37:24 +0000

Vote by April 26th, 2010!

Public voting is open for The Bizarre Map Challenge and every vote counts! The Bizarre Map Challenge is a map design competition open to high school, college, and university students in the United States. The goals of this challenge are: to promote spatial thinking; increase awareness of geospatial technology; and inspire curiosity about geographic patterns and map representation in students and the broader public.

The Prizes (wow!)

First Prize: $5,000
Second Prize: $1,000
Third Prize: $600
and $200 each to the remaining top 10

Your participation through voting helps encourage young map-makers and demonstrates public support for this exciting, fun, and educational competition. Who knows, maybe next year someone you know will compete! Vote for your favorite map now and help spread the word. Voting ends 12:00pm Pacific Time, April 26, 2010.

The Bizarre Map Challenge competition is supported by the National GeoTech Center and San Diego State University.

Interactive Map of U.S. Oil Imports Since 1973

drjill — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:33:46 +0000

RMI (Rocky Mountain Institute) provides a timeline-based interactive map depicting the U.S.’s historical imports of oil since 1973. Map controls can slide to specific dates and highlight five periods by major oil crises, including history briefs in the sideline. Map units can be displayed in oil or U.S. dollars. Map can also be put on auto-play. This is a well-done interactive map and interesting visualization of the flow of resources over time.

Rocky Mountain Institute is an independent, entrepreneurial nonprofit think-and-do tank™ that drives the efficient and restorative use of resources (from the RMI website).

Hold World Landmarks in Your Hands with ARSights & Google Earth

drjill — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:54:30 +0000

A while back I reported on virtual digital holograms, wondering when they would make their way into the mapping arena. Over the past year ARSights, a project by Inglobe Technologies, an italian company specialized in the development of Virtual and Augmented Reality applications, has been building a community-based collection of 3-d virtual models of landmarks all over the world. This fascinating use of the technology is focused on education. Imagine… your students fly to Europe, glide around Italy – looking at the topography of the country as they zoom into to Rome. Now they pick up the Colosseum to really examine it, turning it round and round to really examine what’s there. Requires Google Earth, a web cam, and the ARSights download.

Noel Jenkins of Digital Geography posts this YouTube video showing how things look:

According to the ARSights, there are over 400 contributors now who have started “to share interesting content from many parts of the world. You can take a look at new models mainly in the USA, South America and Europe. Among others, you will find many important landmarks, like for example the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Memorial, the “Fiscal Island” in Rio de Janeiro, the University City in Buenos Aires and il Ponte di Rialto in Venice.”

Alphabetized Map Pleases American Sense of Geography

drjill — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:59:53 +0000

Here’s an oldy-but-goody from the Onion – News in Photos section: “World Map Rearranged To Accommodate Poor Geography Skills Of Americans—Nations Ordered Alphabetically”