» 2009 » August Mapkist

Apps for America

Aug 27, 2009 @ 7:24 PM by Kumiko Yamazaki -- geoweb

Finalists for the Apps for America 2 contest were announced yesterday. I didn’t make the cut……. umm, not that I participated or anything anyway.

Check them out, they are definitely worth a look.

GovPulse.us - GovPulse is a Federal Register browser. The Federal Register is the official journal of the federal government of the United States. In it, you find any kind of notice, notification and solicitation that a federal agency puts out. GovPulse parses it and gives you a way to browse the tens-of-thousands-of-pages-log register by agency, category or date. What’s also compelling about it is the visualizations and analysis the software does on top of the register. For instance, check out the agency page to see sparklines of the notices from each agency, or the map of places mentioned by an agency.

ThisWeKnow.org - This we know is probably best described as the EveryBlock for federal data. Type in your zip code or city and state, and ThisWeKnow will provide you with details that the federal government has about your community. The depth of information in the site is incredible. You can see the mass exodus occurring in Bellevue, NE or the breakdown of people diagnosed with cancer in Los Angeles.

DataMasher - Datamasher allows you to take two different public data sources and mash them up with an operator (+ - * /). Then you can share them with your friends and comment on the mashups of others. A few of my favorite mashups include: High School Graduation vs. Guns in Household, % Total Population in Prison, and my favorite: People per US Representative.

[via nextgov]

I particularly enjoyed ThisWeKnow and DataMasher - they’re EXACTLY what the geospatial web is about. Both sites are packed with location-based data and allows the user to create and aggregate their own data and map. Give them your vote! (registration required)

We Lost Our Homes!

Aug 3, 2009 @ 9:05 PM by Kumiko Yamazaki -- google maps

I spent some time working with recently released foreclosure data (January-June 2009) this past weekend [via RealtyTrac].

You almost always hear about the struggles of California and Florida, and Vegas and Phoenix but how bad is it really? They.. DOMINATED - CA, FL, NV, and AZ have combined to capture 29 of the top 30 metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates.

The Las Vegas-Paradise metro area (Paradise??) took top honors with a 7.45% foreclosure rate, or one every 13 housing units. Damn. How did your city do?

Now I haven’t actively looked for 2008 data or any years past, but I’m sure they’re out there. Depending on how I feel and the feedback I receive, I may or may not turn We Lost Our Homes! into a larger project and learn a few new things along the way — the best reward of them all!

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