Design Around the World
Mar 12, 2010 @ 10:57 AM by Kumiko Yamazaki -- map subway
Carrying on the subway maps theme, Webdesigner Depot has put together an awesome collection of metro maps from around the world.
Most of them are really clean and beautiful.. others, not so much. And why is the map of Kobe, Japan, written in Korean?
Which is your favorite?
leave a commentThe iPad and Maps
Mar 12, 2010 @ 9:55 AM by Kumiko Yamazaki -- appleIn case anyone’s missed it before, or just want to see it again, this is CNET’s video showcasing Google Maps in action on the iPad.
How will the iPad revolutionize the mapping community?
Unless you purchase the 3G version, the iPad only comes with an integrated digital compass and will be using Wi-Fi trangulation to approximate your location and orientation. This is hardly useful if you’re lost and on the road.
If, however, you’re one of the lucky ones with an iPad 3G, it will include almost all the capabilities of the iPhone and more. This will undoubtedly change the apps market and its expectations from each app due to its larger screen size. One prime example is guided tours. The iPad is no longer about carrying a map, but a data overload of suggested sites to see, reviews, comments, nearby restaurants, photos, and videos. DC Historic Tours is an excellent example of the future on the iPad.
Your Resume is Boring
Mar 10, 2010 @ 12:20 PM by Kumiko Yamazaki -- google maps subway visualization
Ed Hamilton, a copywriter, created his CV in a Google My Map! It helps that he’s had a very diverse career that has taken him from the UK to Vietnam and Trinidad & Tobago. It’s very simple, yet creative and effective, as it should be.
What have you done with your resume lately??
Below are a few other map and visualization-related resumes I enjoyed. I didn’t see many out there - any geographers have a creative resume you want me to post here?
The infographic:
The subway map:
Foursquare as a Marketing Tool
Mar 9, 2010 @ 6:45 PM by Kumiko Yamazaki -- apps foursquare locationBy now, most of you have heard of Foursquare, the location-based app that lets you virtually check in to a location. You let the application know where you are and in return, you receive badges (bragging rights) and work your way to becoming the mayor of your favorite venue. You are also encouraged to leave “tips” for others letting them know what you loved or didn’t love about the particular venue.
Foursquare is very similar to visiting a website online except it’s real life. Many website owners will use analytics on their site to learn more about the behavior of its visitors for market research, so it comes as no surprise that business owners may want the same type of analytics for their venue.
This feature is now available for a few select businesses - Foursquare Introduces New Tools for Businesses [via NYT].
It’s amazing the amount of data that is available through Foursquare and the advantages it can provide to businesses everywhere. The obvious error with these analytics is that only a small percentage of people use Foursquare. The children and elderly will most likely not appear in the data.
However, what they will receive are a core of young adults who may be social media gurus and can persuade their entire social network to visit (or not visit) your business. This new tool offers a direct personal relationship with your customers so the lesson here is to let them know they are valued customers and offer them incentives to keep coming back. Foursquare is just a location-based game for most people but is also becoming a valuable marketing tool for businesses.
follow Kumiko on Foursquare
follow Britta on Foursquare
Another Google Lab Experiment: Public Data Explorer
Mar 8, 2010 @ 6:08 PM by Kumiko Yamazaki -- google visualizationGoogle’s latest lab creation is their Public Data Explorer. Similar to GeoCommons Maker! and Gapminder, Google allows you to visualize data as a line graph, bar graph, bubble chart or a map. The visualizations will also dynamically change as the latest data becomes updated and available through their service.
It’s simple and can be useful but is still very limited in the number of data they currently have and is lacking the ability to export and download the data. But as with any Google Lab experiment, their Public Data Explorer is only a prototype and can easily be developed into something more powerful by their many engineers.
The following is an example of seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the US.
One thing I’ve noticed is the increase in services we’re seeing that allows us to visualize data based on cultural geographies. What I’m referring to is data separated by countries, states and cities. Despite this growth, there are still large numbers of datasets that cannot be captured by these cultural boundaries but are equally as important (i.e. climate and deforestation). Knowing how each of these are changing over time is crucial to understanding our planet yet only account for a small percentage of existing data.
Interactive Atlas Goodness
Mar 8, 2010 @ 4:56 PM by Britta Ricker -- geoweb map visualizationThe Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) is an organization that focuses on environmental issues across North America. This secretariat was formed as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to ensure that environmental degradation was being monitored fairly and carefully across the continent. 
One of the many noteworthy CEC initiatives is its new interactive atlas. The CEC works with the environmental ministries from Canada, the United States and Mexico to aggregate environmental data from across North America. They have developed an online atlas to show how environmental phenomenon does not stop at political boundaries. On this atlas you can view conservation areas, species habitats, pollution and waste depositories and other intriguing data sets for the entire continent. Check it out here. http://www.cec.org/atlas/
The CEC also has a featured video. You can see the back of my head around 2:05! Enjoy!
Kumiko is also building a beautiful open source interactive atlas that will be released soon. This atlas will be an exciting way to communicate and visualize a variety of information. The users will be able to navigate through the data at their own pace and hopefully gain new knowledge through this fun geospatial application!
Spatial Data Infrastructure: (aka) Dark Knight
Dec 15, 2009 @ 4:03 PM by Britta Ricker -- web2.0Spatial data infrastructure (SDI) or any sort of data and information infrastructure lurks in the background. Users rarely think about how the information they are viewing is organized behind the scenes until it is time to use it for their own purposes.
I recently went to a stimulating talk given by Prestige Makanga from the University of South Africa entitled “SDI and sustainable settlements in developing nations.” He really did an excellent job of explaining the role and importance of a well-planned SDI. He explained how different SDIs are necessary for different levels of government, different scales, and different projects.
His talk reminded me of how important data infrastructure really is. In this Web 2.0 world we are living in, we want our ideas not to stop at one website but to be passed on, embedded in Facebook, in blogs, in Google Maps mashups. Effective data infrastructure can help make that happen. SDIs typically go unnoticed, they lurk in the background, but when executed well they can throw quite a punch. For example look at data.gov, Vancouver open data and GeoCommons Finder. The information provided is organized so well that you can find traces of their information all over the web used in innovative yet unexpected ways. This is how the dark knight packs his punch too, thoughtfully well planned and unexpected!
Prestige was a visiting scholar at Simon Fraser University. I was fortunate enough to talk with him at length about the use of volunteered geographic information and the use of Web 2.0 in Africa. Prestige attentively recommended that a process of continuous learning and iterative communication with communities and community officials is needed for robust and effective data to be incorporated into the SDI.
SDI is only one tool on the dark knight’s geographic services utility belt!!!! Beware one-way data disseminators.
Kumiko Yamazaki: kyamazaki@mapkist.com