One of the points the panel wanted to highlight was the collaboration after the Haiti earthquake between corporations, government institutions and newer participants such as Ushahidi and OpenStreetMap.  As someone who participated early on in the collaboration it was interesting to finally meet people who previous I only knew through phone calls and emails.  One of the questions coming out was is Haiti special or will this happen again?  Was there something about the particular incident or has something fundamentally changed?

I think there are multiple sides to this question.  There is the technology, the people side, the geographic side and the sheer magnitude of the disaster.  I think as far as technology goes things have changed, people can find collaborators in a way that wasn’t possible before.  By finding collaborators individuals were able to make a difference far away from the scene of the actual crisis.  I think the people side is more complex, there was something compelling in the United States with Haiti being so close.  Though now people have formed powerful networks and know that when others need help there is often something they can do.  As far a geography the proximity of Haiti to the United States I believe made the government and its citizens respond in a way they haven’t before.  Then there was the size of the disaster which compelled many people to help.

I think all these factors have changed how people will respond in to a crisis in the future.  Now when an earthquake or flood hits I immediately see the various networks activate, seeing if they can do anything to help.  In some cases such as with the oil spill there is something the technology community can do.  In others there are other factors that either prevent people from helping or the help is unneeded.

Response also will change as groups continue to plan better for the future.  One example of this is the CrisisCamp and the Random Hack of Kindness this weekend.   Another was the Understanding Risk Conference at the World Bank earlier in the week.  I’m still participating in capacity building for OpenStreetMap in Haiti with the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team.  Data will continue to be available on GeoCommons when other events occur such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  And technology will continue to improve making collaboration easier.

Above is a map of all the stadium sites for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. (Use the interactive map to zoom in/out and explore information about each stadium by clicking on the different flags). So how much construction is needed for all of the stadiums to be completed and ready for the World Cup? Below is a map that shows which stadiums are being newly built, having major upgrades, having medium upgrades, and having minor upgrades. (click on the map for a larger view)

Stadium Construction Type, 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africa

From the map above you can see that 5 of the 10 stadiums that are being used in the 2010 World Cup are going to be brand new stadiums. One will go through major upgrading, two through medium upgrading, and two through minor updating. All and all, there is a lot of construction that needs to be done before the start of the cup. Another issue is the size of the stadiums. The map below shows the gross capacity that each stadium will have during the 2010 World Cup.

Stadium Gross Capacities, FIFA World Cup 2010, South Africa

These are all fairly large stadiums that will require a great amount of work to be completed. Will the work be done? Let’s hope so, because if it is not, it may dampen the atmosphere of the world’s greatest soccer tournament in 2010.

Harvard launched AfricaMap. The map is based on the Harvard University Geospatial Infrastructure (HUG) platform and was developed by the Center for Geographic Analysis.  AfricaMap, a OpenLayers-based app, aims to expand existing initiatives for globally sharing spatial data and technology. 

Google Maps created a fun quiz where you get to test your geographic puzzle solving skills. To play the quiz, you have to rearrange letters in a map, using visual clues in the form of a Panoramio photograph, to spell a world capital or U.S. state capital.

The USGS National Geospatial Program Office launched a new version of The National Map website. Revisions include The National Geospatial Program and The National Map web site.

Discussions about the auto industry bailout have been percolating the blogosphere. How would this affect auto industry workers? CNN created an interactive map showing the number of auto industry jobs in each state.

Considering that I was a rower in college, I was pleased to find this data. I was particularly interested in seeing what it would look like if I mapped out the college universities that have rowing programs and then by using proportion symbols, I could see which colleges had the biggest revenues. The following map displays revenues of collegiate rowing teams for both male and female programs combined in 2007:

(Click Finder! to view the data set)

Now to give you an idea of what each college rowing program revenue looks like by gender, the following map is broken down by female revenue and male revenue using proportion symbols to show the amount of revenue comparatively.

(Click map or Maker! to view map)

The states that are a very light cream color (Oregon, Montana, Delaware, New Hampshire) are the states that have no sales/general tax. The darker the state the higher the sales tax rate is in that state.

Now my next question is this. If I am to go to one of these states to shop will I really end up saving more money? I may not be spending money for a sales tax but I certainly will be spending more money on gas to travel the extra distance. I will set up a hypothetical situation using Finder! and Maker! to see what my answer will be.

Let’s say I live in the lovely state of Washington in the city called Castle Rock. In Washington the sales tax is at a rate of 6.5%. Next door to me is my neighbor Oregon that has a 0% sales tax. Now on Finder! I can load major shopping centers that are around me in my area. The map below shows that I have two major shopping centers right by me that are relatively close off of Interstate 5, one in Centralia, WA (Centralia Shopping Center, 34.4 miles away) and the other in Portland, OR (Jantzen Beach SuperCenter, 50.4 miles). These will be the two places that I will compare and the map is below of the two with Castle Rock right in the middle. The map is shown below:

Now let’s do some math. My holiday shopping expenses look like this:

Wife = $70, Mom = $60, Dad = $60, Sisters = $120 = = Total of $310 on gifts

In Washington, with shopping tax this equals 310 x 6.5% tax = 20.15, 310 + 20.15 = $330.15. So the difference between the two states is $20.15.

Now let’s look at gas expenses:

Let’s say gas in Castle Rock is $2.00 a gallon and my car averages a rate of 25 mpg. If my round trip from Castle Rock to Centralia is 68.8 and my trip from Portland and back is 100.8 miles, then my gas costs will look like this.

Castle Rock to Centralia: 68.8/25 = 2.75 g x $2 = $5.50

Castle Rock to Portland: 100.8/25 = 4.03 g x $2 = $8.06

By going to Centralia I will end up saving 8.06 – 5.50 = $2.56

Now as we put these two savings figures together we see that overall our trip to Portland would be a wiser choice. You will spend more money on fuel ($2.56), but you will save much more on your shopping expenses ($20.15). Together it will provide us with a savings of $17.59.

I would like to mention that this is very hypothetical. Often, other circumstances (county taxes, municipal taxes, toll roads encountered, different mpg rates on the trips, and many others) may enter into the equation and change figures. All in all this might be a solution to save money, so create your own hypotheticals using Finder! and Maker! and see if it will help. Below are links to Finder! datasets that show major shopping centers (malls, outlet malls) in a few 0% sales tax states. Happy Holidays and good luck shopping!

• Oregon
• Delaware
• New Hampshire

Vector One’s Jeff Thurston discusses the representation part to his GIS series. He says that representation part is an integral feature and one of the primary functional capabilities of GIS. Thurston discusses the many ways GIS is represented, including tabulated spreadsheets, numerically instead of graphically, through maps, charts, etc. He also talks about visualization tools that ‘take GIS data output and use it to develop other forms of visualization.’

The Washington Post released a flashed based Google Map mashup called TimeSpace: World. The map is a compilation of world news from the newspaper, its online site – washingtonpost.com, PostGlobal, Foreign Policy magazine and other partner sites including The Associated Press. The coverage is represented by clusters around hot-spots on the map. Each cluster lets you view articles, blog posts, photos, videos and even reporter twitter feeds.

Microsoft Research India created a system called the Robust Location Search, which enables location addresses in structured formats from any country. Microsoft plans to add it into Window Live Local.

The unemployment is getting worse. “Initial jobless claims surged by 58,000 to 573,000 in the week ending Dec. 6, the highest level since 1982.” MSNBC created an interactive map that displays the unemployment rate by month for each state starting in September 2007.

Blogger added geotagging! Now the Blogger community can geotag blog entries and not just photo. Now feed readers, map applications and search engines can associate posts with their locations.

Click Finder! to view the dataset.

After viewing this above map, I was interested in finding out what the BCS top 25 college football team rankings and their head coaches were getting paid – comparatively to the other head coaches throughout the US. The map below shows the top 25 college football teams with orange proportion symbols and reveal, for the most part, that most of the colleges with highly paid coaches are universities that are succeeding at the highest level. The University of Texas, University of Florida, and University of Alabama show particularly high salaries.

Click Finder! to view the dataset

Prices for a room are ranging from $50 per night to above $4,000. It is quite common to see rooms rented for an average of $2,000 per night. In fact hundreds of DC entrepreneurs a day are jumping for the opportunity to make their month’s rent in one night of sleeping on a friend’s couch so they can rent their apartment. While the prices are often unbelievable, many offers include breakfast, a ride to the metro, and even babysitting.

We thought it would be interesting to see where these people’s room/homes were, if they were actually located anywhere near to the inauguration site (or DC for that matter) and how much they were charging based on their location.

We took a 3 day sample of ads from Craigslist, geo-coded them and then added some attributes based on prices and amenities. You can find this dataset in Finder!.

This first map shows the entire DC metro area and beyond to demonstrate the distribution of rooms for rent.

The next two maps show the DC area with rooms based on price per room, per night, as well as metro stops. It seems like there is very little relationship between the location of the room and the price. Go figure!

So if you are still looking for a place to stay, or if you want to check out how much you can get away with charging for your floor and a sleeping bag, check out this dataset in Maker!.