World Geography Blog

Google Maps API for Dummies

2012-05-21T15:30:00.000-07:00

...or at least I wish that's what this post was, or that I could find a Google Maps API for dummies book or website....or anything. So for those of you who find this post looking for such a thing, I apologize for my inadvertent Search Engine Optimization (SEO) leading you here.

I've spent a lot of time over the last two weeks complaining about Google and then learning more about the amazing things you can do with their products. This has only gotten worse since I decided to become proficient with the Google Maps API. You might have noticed the interesting semantics of the previous sentence. I've decided to become proficient at things before with mixed results, for the most part though I end up with a modest improvement in a particular skill which I can use to, in some way, make things better. On occasion I've fallen flat on my face, and this Google Maps API decision has me losing to gravity once again.

This provides me the first opportunity to quote a Disney movie in some time.
Merlin: Don't take gravity too lightly or it'll catch up with you.
Arthur: What's gravity?
Merlin: Gravity is what causes you to fall.
Arthur: Oh, like a stumble or a trip?
Merlin: Yes, it's like a stumble or a- No, no, no, it's the force that pulls you downward, the phenomenon that any two material particles or bodies, if free to move, will be accelerated toward each other.

So, a bit more on this stumble. Meet...www.projectmaplab.com

Before you get excited and click on that, let me explain a bit more. Or did you already click on it?

It's taken me a solid week to get anything working here. I have had some hosting space, doing nothing but taking up space at the cost of about 70 bucks a year. Dealing with simple issues like not having your naked domain (projectmaplab.com) redirect to www.projectmaplab.com and a host of requisite website annoyances slow things down but the good news is I've got most of that stuff fixed. Now I can focus on the laboratory part of things.

When you go to projectmaplab.com you are just as likely to find a page that doesn't load as a map with some strange coloring or just a base map of Ann Arbor. The point is this is truly my new little map laboratory. That means, some experiments will work, and others when mixed incorrectly will blow up like wort remover from Mr. Turkentine.

Ah ha...another movie reference. This isn't the original clip, but it will suffice.

Brushing up on Google Earth Tours

2012-05-14T15:30:00.000-07:00

By now I was hoping to have a great selection of pictures from my recent trip to Prague and Paris. Unfortunately, it looks like those are still a couple of weeks away. However, this delay seems like a good opportunity to put together a quick tour in Google Earth to show my favorite views of the city as we saw them. This is, of course, nothing more than an opportunity for me to brush up on some of the more advanced Google Earth tools I bashed last week.

It's not pretty, but if you open this link to a KMZ file in Google Earth you'll be taken on a quick survey showing you views from the Hunger Wall and Vysehrad.

Surprise, surprise, another compatibility issue has come up. To view this tour, you must have the Google Earth program. Wouldn't it be nice if, when playing a tour on your computer you could create a youtube video? After all, Google does own YouTube. Oh well. If you don't have Google Earth, you need to get it. You can do so here.

Grr Google, Grr Esri

2012-05-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

Over the last year or two Google has been moving to give all of its products a more uniform look. From blogger, to ad sense, ad words, Google Maps, Search, Google+, Youtube, everything looks distinctly more Googly than two years ago. When Larry Page took over as CEO he nixed the projects that weren't helping the company or didn't have the potential to be big ticket items and invested the money in developing projects like Google Glass.
I was easily able to embed that youtube video and if you watch it, the Google Ads will pop up and Google will make a few cents. I've come to except this sort of seamless compatibility across Google products (and even outside Google products). However, as Google Maps continues to expand, so grows my frustration with compatibility issues between Google Maps and Google Earth. A while back I made a video questioning why Google has a separate iPad app for Google Maps and Google Earth. While Google Earth the program is becoming more and more obsolete (because it's not browser based), the functionality of beginner level user generated material far exceeds that of Google Maps, the program which is no doubt used by countless more beginner level users. Combining the two programs seems like a no-brainer.

Of all the issues I've come across in the Google Earth vs. Google Maps conundrum, one stands out above the rest. Google's own Keyhole Markup Language does not render the same way in both programs. One can go into great detail and create engaging maps in Google Earth with little to know programming experience, but that same file will not be as rich in Google Maps. Pretty, scaled and colorful labels in GE are rendered as boring red points of interest on Google Maps, where the user has to click on the point of interest to get any info. And the customizations possible in GE pop-ups are not available in Google Maps. You can create excellent maps from scratch in Google Earth but you can only share them with people that use Google Earth. I'd like to think GE is installed on every computer, but its not.

I was hoping that Esri's free arcgis.com would be the answer to these problems. It is not. While it is orders of magnitude better at allowing edits to selected features (like changing all of the dots that represent swimming pools to blue, or all of the states with Republican Governors), it simply lacks full HTML integration, removing an infinite layer of customization. ArcGIS.com does not allow a user to create features, rather you must upload a shapefile. You're really only to create fancy things with subscriptions. Sure extra money for some advanced features are nice but the movement is definitely towards free and ArcGIS.com comes up a bit short. So, now we're stuck with three platforms, all of which excel at a portion of map making or editing but none of which is a consistent go-to solution.

A Few Quick Notes on Prague

2012-04-23T15:06:00.000-07:00

Admittedly I knew very little about Prague before traveling there a few weeks ago; Central European styling, new EU membership and 1,000 years of history at every street corner. That was the extent of my knowledge.

So for those of you reminiscing about a trip, those of you considering Prague as a future destination, or, if like me, you're just curious about everywhere, here are a few notes for you. I've included links to the wikipedia pages which will provide a far better background than I ever could.

Places you HAVE to see
Charles Bridge. It can't get much more touristy than the bridge but it's amazing to walk across something 500 years old.

Vyšehrad - Hidden gem

The Hunger wall - this yielded some of our best pictures

Prague Castle - It can be confusing where the castle/palatial outcrops end and the City begins because the Castle is the largest in the world. You'll know you're there when you have to purchase tickets to go any farther.

Prague Astronomical Clock

I wish I had the opportunity to sit down with everyone who reads this post to reflect on the city. It far exceeded my expectations. The people were friendly, the food good, it's a place I'm looking forward to visiting again.

There is graffiti EVERYWHERE! While a bit concerning when you first see it, the graffiti is not pervasive and has yielded another awesome place to go, Lennon Wall.

It's Europe, and they have great public transportation but Prague has crazy traffic. Utilize the metro and the trams!

As for the half-marathon, it could not have gone much better. The route, for the most part was beautiful, the weather perfect and I came in under two hours.

The more exciting post will come after I'm able to weed through the 700 or so pictures we took and get the best up in a gallery.

On Holiday

2012-03-26T15:50:00.000-07:00

Wednesday is the big day. I'm headed out for seven days in Prague and Paris. I've included a couple maps showing where our hotels are. We'll be running the Hervis half-marathon on Saturday. I've spend a considerable amount of time trying to figure out what electrical attachments I need for the various electronics I'm bringing. I'll spare you the details, which of course I don't actually understand, and instead say that if things go as planned I should be able to post a couple pictures via wifi while across the pond. I'll also end up with a new set of pictures on flickr.

View Hotel in Prague in a larger map

View Hotel in Paris in a larger map

Finding Clarity in Updated Imagery

2012-03-19T15:32:00.000-07:00

In February, Google posted on its lat/long blog that they had uploaded new imagery for more than a hundred different countries. Better yet, they released a KML file that showed the locations of updated imagery including, rural Chad, new housing developments in Burkina Faso, N'djili Airport in DRC - all sorts of interesting stuff. In fact, you should check it out by clicking here and downloading and viewing the KML. Better still, this prompted me to take another peek at the Village of Pommern, which I finally found on Google Earth a few months back. It turns out that the imagery has been significantly improved. So much improved that I could clearly see the outline of the cafeteria extension we were working on back in 2009. It is in the center of the map below.

View Larger Map

Here's a picture of the area as it looked when we were working on it.

So that's fun.

So You Want to Help Ugandans

2012-03-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

In 2009 I added the veil of green to my twitter avatar to "support" the Green Movement protests and promote awareness of election fraud in Iran. It seemed like a nice thing to do. Realizing, for reasons financial and other, that I wasn't able to attend any rallies in Tehran, I figured by changing my twitter avatar someone might see it and google "What does a green twitter avatar mean?" That was the goal - promote awareness.

After stumbling around online for more info on what was going on in Tehran (remember this was before the Arab Spring and daily updates of Bashar al-Assad) I came across a new term: slacktivism. Used in a sentence, it would go something like this: People who change their twitter avatars to green monochrome are slacktivists.

Slacktivism is a fascinating portmanteau, meaning, more or less, activism that makes you feel good but has no impact, direct or otherwise. I didn't like the thought of being dubbed a slacktivist. After thinking about it more, I allowed myself to appreciate the term slacktivism, and also to realize the fact that BEING aware of the situation, just like any other travesty in other parts of the world, is among the more important things one can do. No matter how small the impact, learning about, talking about and posting about things like the recent murders in Nigeria or who is responsible for the most recent bombings in Nairobi is better than nothing. So while I understand the pejorative nature of the word slacktivism, in the end it's really not much different than activism. Awareness of the masses is one of the most powerful tools available. And that tool can be wielded by nothing more than a bunch of slacktivists.

And now the masses learn about Joseph Kony and the atrocities "going on in Uganda" and it suddenly became chic to know about the next iteration of the Kony saga or other third world conflict.

Over the last week you've probably heard one of the following:

"I ordered a KONY2012 bracelet"
"You ordered a KONY2012 bracelet? Don't you know about Invisible Children's poor giving record?"
"Central African Republic is a country?"
"But there was never a threat the US would pull it's troops out"
"I'm concerned about human rights violations by the Ugandan army"
"Something something Idi Amin"
"Check out their IRS form 990"
"Something something Milton Obote"
"Nodding disease"

My point being, the only thing "cooler" than being aware of Kony was knowing he isn't in Uganda. The only thing cooler than that was knowing about the things that are affecting Ugandans now. And so on.

As someone who tries to keep up with current events across Africa (and simply by having an interest is probably better informed than 90% of Americans) I almost got pulled into the arrogance black hole of current events one-upsmanship, but somewhere along the line I realized that no matter how uninformed or misinformed we mass of slacktivists are, the conversations occurring across US media and our social networks are actually important and worthwhile. Awareness is key.

Even if Kony is never found, the social media, slacktivist, fact-checking palooza that is occurring will have more positive impacts than negative.

Thinking you helped when you didn't doesn't make things worse, it's just unfortunate.

Learning where Uganda is on a map helps.

So while we'll see less and less of Kony over the next few months, all is not lost.

But if you're looking for something else you can do to help some people in Uganda, here's a thought:

Krochet Kids intl: Meet Betty from Krochet Kids intl. on Vimeo.

And you can go ahead and check out their IRS form 990.

The hat I ordered came last week and everything is as promised, even signed by Anena Irene

So you won't find me criticizing anyone who donates to Invisible Children, and I'm glad that you know who Joseph Kony is.

Keeping TaBs on Southern Africa

2012-03-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

I've been reading up on a few sub-Saharan Africa conflicts of the last 50 years. It's easy to get lost in the alphabet soup of rebel groups. Most recently I've been working to remember which is which between the MPLA, FNLA and, UNITA (I'll work on the actual acronyms next) in Angola. For now I treat them as thoughts rather than actual words, much the same way as when I read, or at least tried to read Ringworld (or pretty much anything Larry Niven wrote). Reading about the relationship between the US and South Africa in the 70's and 80's has been a fascinating, if not disappointing experience.

Seemingly unrelated to the history of South Africa and its neighbors, the unexpected delight of a TaB cola sent me on a separate, web-hunt. I was pleased to discover that not only was it a Coca-Cola product, but it was a sugar and calorie free pop that tastes much better than Diet Coke, or as they call it elsewhere, Coke Lite. The tie-in to this discussion is the fact that TaB is only available in a few countries, including the Southern African Customs Union countries, which includes many of the same players as my sub-Saharan Africa conflict reading, namely South Africa and what is now Namibia.
The real "lesson" out of this, however, is the fact that there is a Southern African Customs Union. Now, despite the SACU's success in acquiring a tasty no-calorie pop, they have not realized a successful long-term trade agreement with the US. Jumping to yet one more seemingly unrelated lily-pad, thinking of relations between South Africa and the US made me think of one of the hot button issues of today - Syria. Specifically an article in If you've been following the situation at all, you've probably been frustrated if not perplexed by the inaction of Russia and China. Bringing South Africa back in to the discussion, you absolutely must read this article.

One of the interesting lines in the article refers to the foreign policy of developing democractic countries as having "a strong preference for softer tools of international intervention: what they call constructive engagement". To bring this full circle, "constructive engagement" is the exact same term used by the Reagan Administration over its relationship with South Africa during the end of Apartheid. Of course, the Reagan Administrations use of the term "constructive" doesn't seem to mean the same thing.

I doubt I'll ever write a post that makes so many jumps between unrelated topics, but sometimes, no matter how illogical the progression, it's worth it to get everything out.

Iringa Update

2012-02-13T13:43:00.000-08:00

A little over a year ago I wrote about updating some of the streets in Iringa, to better match existing imagery. While the individual updates were rewarding, I complained about the inability to perform multiple edits. As I worked my way outside of the center of the city, I noticed that the streets were all misaligned. I logged it as an issue in the Google Map Maker forum.

And nothing happened.

Until now. I received email confirmation that my problem (the misalignments) had been fixed. To my surprise, throughout the City of Iringa, the images and the roads are now perfectly aligned. When I logged the issue, the streets were all 25-100 feet off or more. Take a look at it now!

It's good to know that Google continues its cartographic work in Africa, albeit more slowly than I'd appreciate.

On a similar front, last week Google announced it would be collecting streetview imagery in Botswana. We don't know when the data will be live, but I'll keep my eye out for you. Read the Google press release.

A Hot Maghreb and a Nice Warm Mitten

2012-01-09T18:27:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks off has provided me an opportunity to reflect. While the time was fleeting, the reflection was powerful and important. When it comes to geography, I have a renewed sense of wonder when it comes to all the Places yet to explore. Earlier today, after a Google search for "Maghreb" I ended up on a wiki commons page of a map of northwest Africa by Guilliaume Delisle.

A touch of "research" got me thinking about how cool it would be to visit the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress, where the above map "lives".

This ain't a bad Guilliaume! I wonder what else he has done? Surely, a map of Michigan.

Which, I'll be damned doesn't make me think of the dumb Wisconsin adverts claiming mitten status over Michigan! You be the judge. Which looks more like a mitten ? :)

Yay! Michigan beats Wisconsin again!

A Nice Little Sail South

2011-12-19T15:57:00.001-08:00

The idea is to go from Alicante, Spain to Cape Town, South Africa on a sail boat as fast as possible. Not having their own database companies and billions in disposable income, most people instead flock to a game to simulate the long race. I'm always intrigued by visualizations of a massive number of data points. Of course those databases companies make both the real race possible and amazing geographic visualizations to go with it, such as the one below.

The track of each person that participated is shown in white, with a tiny blue dot showing the position of each boat. Perhaps the coolest part is noticing things like the people who didn't follow through and sail straight into North America, or those who tried to use the Suez canal and sail around the horn of Africa rather than the western coast.

Whatever their reasons, its cool to look at the thoughts and strategies of so many people in just 30 short seconds!

Strait

2011-12-12T14:22:00.000-08:00

It's incredibly frustrating to fork over hundreds of dollars a month for gas. Being addicted to gas is not fun. There's no way out - you can't live without it. You can put it off for a day, hoping the price will go down and you can drive miles searching for the best dealer, but in the end, you have to get gas.

A side effect of that addiction is a heightened sense of Middle East sociopolitical awareness for most Americans. Recently, we saw the significant impact of the Arab Spring in Libya on the price of oil. This was quite interesting because Libya has a relatively small share of world oil production. We're so addicted, though, that we use it as fast as our dealers can produce it.

And then we "lost" a drone in Iran.

They we're not impressed. And, as they do from time to time brought out the threat of blocking the Strait of Hormuz. Now, I had heard of this threat but looked a little further into the potential implication of having the straight closed.

It turns out, more than 40% of oil shipped by tanker in the world passes through the straight of Hormuz. That means 15 million barrels per day - give or take a few.

Looking back at my post on oil production by country we see that that can be thought of as Saudi Arabia and Iran going off line at the same time. That's the number two and four producer in the world. Libya is about 17th.

So unfortunately that couple hundred dollars a month could look very cheap in 2012.

And that's not fun to think about.

Brain Drain

2011-12-05T16:01:00.001-08:00

From time to time, events in one's everyday work life will lead that person to evaluate their continued service. It's at that time that I, er, one, considers the possibility of moving somewhere else, somewhere to a place where they feel their needs will be better met.

I've been down that road before, and to a certain extent, for almost everyone, its a continuing evaluation. In southeast Michigan we have an interesting problem. We have great universities and a below average economy. That manifests itself as significant brain-drain, where the talented folk move outside of the area.

Washtenaw County (think Ann Arbor) attracts lots of people (the young ones) from all over the region, who then get a great education financed in part by the taxpayers. A frustratingly high number of those people go out of state seeking the fruits of a less-bad economy. This makes our economy even worse, with the exception of the night before thanksgiving when everyone comes back to go out to the bars and fellow-high-school-alumni-watch.

Wayne County (think Detroit) has an even bigger problem, a dwindling population. Unfortunately it's a rarity for a well-educated Detroiter to stay put in the city.

So we know these issues are there but Forbes just came out with a great tool to visualize it. Using tax data it shows how many people move between counties, net gain in blue, net loss in red. Unfortunately I can't embed the cool tool. But here are links to the Washtenaw County and Wayne County maps. It'll take a minute to load...but be patient, it's worth it.

Wayne County

Washtenaw County

A Prime Slice Before Thanksgiving

2011-11-21T13:43:00.001-08:00

Just a few days away from Thanksgiving, it's time to take a look at a little slice of the earth. The Prime Meridian is the ugly step child of the equator. It's the go to longitudinal line, unappreciated for no other reason than our perception of up and down in the universe.

Ultimately the reason for this post is my frustration with Google's decision to not allow exports of the great elevation profiles in Google Earth. I realize they own a certain amount of the "rights" to it, but at the same time, it seems like one of those things you shouldn't be able to own, you know, the moon, earth elevation profiles...Antarctica.

I took a slice on near the Prime Meridian (give or take a couple minutes each way) starting on the north shore of the UK and extending to the southern shore of Ghana. I guess I think this elevation profile is cool because, when dealing with such a long line, you can really "see" things. Starting with the relatively flat lands over England, extending to the Pyrenees near the border of France and Spain (and Andorra), we then see the fall off into the Mediterranean which jumps up to the Algerian edge of the Atlas mountains and finally falling off across the Sahara and across the ol' Volta.

So that's one way of looking at it...here's another:

Simple, yes...but still pretty cool.

Big City Lights

2011-11-14T10:20:00.001-08:00

I spent the weekend in Chicago two weeks ago. It was a short trip, only two days. It was enough for me to catch the big-city-life bug again. The place we stayed was right downtown, within walking distance of just about everything. It was 15 minutes one way to the Hancock and 25 to the Museum district, Soldier Field area. In fact, it was right here:
View Hotel de Andy in a larger map
The ability to walk to so many attractions, food venues, and artistic happenings made me very jealous. I love my house but I simply don't have the ability to go places, and more importantly do THINGS without a car. I have a nice path to go running on but I'm a straight, three mile jaunt away from exciting stuff, like a bookstore - a real LIVE bookstore. I think that is where they tell you how to use a Nook.

More than JUST density, comprehensive public transportation is critical to a lively community. While there were more cars than I remember in Chicago, bus, bike or walk are clearly the way to go. I live in Washtenaw County, where we are on the verge (well a year away) of a historic vote on the future of transit service in our area. I suppose I could walk to these attractions, but three miles each way adds up. And nobody likes a sweaty runner in a bookstore (is that an old saying?). With expanded service I might have the chance to catch a ride on the bus for that 3 mile straight shot, putting me right in the heart of a corridor ripe for redevelopment and investment. It seems like attracting young twenty something talent like myself would be a good tool for further development. Ah crap, I'm thirty-something now. Guess I'll have to start watching that show.

The transit provider in the area has spent considerable resources over the past year or two promoting its Transit Master Plan. Now we're to the point where, as a community, we need to see if we are "forward-thinking" enough to expand to a more comprehensive countywide transit system - you know, like the ones they have in every major city, Detroit, in some ways, excepted. What's best is a public involvement tool being used to gather comments from the community. Check it out here. Ah yes, GIS is everywhere.

And for good measure, here's a picture of the big city lights that have me itching for an urban lifestyle.

Zombie Apocalypse in Phillipines

2011-11-07T18:38:00.000-08:00

You've probably heard of the effect where, if you're pregnant, you'll notice pregnant people everywhere, taking over the earth.

It turns out the same happens with new websites coming online.

While this one is my "pride and joy" I'm always starting some new blog or website. Ten days or so ago, I started a couple websites with a friend on zombies. That's right, zombies- everything zombies. Wouldn't you know, as soon as we made that decision, I've heard Zombie discussion everyday. It's popping up EVERY day in conversation. Sure, some of that is the Halloween peak, but a lot of it is because general zombie-talk is on the rise. Check out this infograph from Google insights.

We haven't clearly figured out the entire form, flow or function of the web sites, but part of the reason to do all of this is that the web, despite its obvious thirst for zombie info, does not have many quality sites.

OK, anyway.

Interestingly enough, I know nothing about zombies, and for someone who technically operates three zombie websites, that's a tad embarrassing. So I spent some time doing some high level research. The most interesting thing I noticed was the intense geographic hot spots of zombie search activity.

Who knew that the zombie search term was so popular in the Philippines? I'm amazed at its popularity throughout the southeast Asia area. And...I'm looking forward to learning more about why that is...because the world deserves good zombie sites.

Check out the whole zombie report here.

And since I figure you wonder, two of the sites are www.killthezombie.com and www.savethezombie.com

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

2011-10-31T16:59:00.000-07:00

I've been fortunate to do a fair amount of international travel over the past few years. This past week I booked a trip for March of 2012 in the Czech Republic. Once again I'll be participating in a run, although a half marathon this time, the Hervis Half Marathon. The course looks amazing, for the most part hugging the Vltava river.

So hopefully the trip will mirror what I was able to do in London and Scotland.

Take a look around at our hotel and where we'll be staying
View Larger Map

Also exciting is the fact that we'll be right across the river from the Dancing House.

Yes, photographic opportunity everywhere.

I'd love to hear your stories if you've been to the Czech Republic. Feel free to post a comment.

Update Yourself on Africa

2011-10-24T17:06:00.000-07:00

Africa has been in the news a lot in the past couple of weeks. Sure, the biggest story is the death of Gaddafi, but the news wire is buzzing with major events all over the continent. As I've mentioned before, you should keep yourself up to date on these current events, because they impact us, and will continue to impact us and our foreign policy for years to come.

For social issues perhaps the biggest story is Morgan Tsvangirai's about-face on gay rights. Gay rights is a really hot topic across Africa, particularly because of the harsh punishments, including death to the openly gay. Not only has the Zimbabwean Prime Minister changed his tune, but he is referring to sexual choice as a human right. Now, if we could only get rid of the nemesis, Mugabe.

Earlier today there were two bombings in Nairobi, Kenya, one at a bar and one at a bus stop. This is particularly concerning because they come just days after threats from al-Shabab, the al Qaeda linked terrorist extremists. The group has had a strong hold on much of Somalia, including Mogadishu but an African alliance of troops has recently made significant gains in the area. In fact, they've almost completely forced al-Shabab from Mogadishu.

And we recently heard the US was sending a small cadre of troops into Uganda to fight the Lord's Resistance Army. The LRA are a scary bunch of brainwashed central Africans led by a mad man. I was unaware of the extent of their terrorist reign over the region. I came across a fantastic website that you should visit LRACrisisTracker.org. These folks are doing amazing work assembling critical information and attempting to spread the word.

Take a look at one of their videos. It's powerful stuff

ESRI Uses Preemptive Strike Against Google Earth Builder

2011-10-17T16:37:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, the GIS world went gaga over Google's announcement that they were moving into the professional realm of GIS with Google Earth Builder. The thought of Google competing directly with the big dog - ESRI was exciting. I could almost hear the prices falling.

Google Earth Builder is attempting to merge cloud computing and GIS functionality. A mix appealing to government and non-profit agencies - a market ESRI has had a strangle hold on. They wowed us with this teaser video.

With a history of making GIS so simple and accessible, it seemed that Google was making a statement - thank you for holding the reigns, but we got it from here!

That might have been a bit premature.

I don't talk much about ESRI products on this blog BECAUSE they are not as simple and accessible as Google products. That appears to be changing thanks to ArcGIS Online.

"Maps and Apps for Everyone" - that's the first thing on their website. ESRI has made map making, hosting and sharing free. Up to 2GB of free storage are granted simply by registering an ESRI global account, which takes about a minute. Once you have that account you can leverage thousands of available layers, upload OR create your own from scratch. Once you've created maps you can add them to a gallery and share them all around the world. ESRI has taken things one step farther by providing website templates that can be used to showcase your map galleries right in your own web domain.

And they didn't stop there. They have added single click web app publishing. That means you can create webpages and maps for use on any mobile device instantly. This is more than just something that will open on an iPad, we're talking about templates built to work across multiple mobile technologies.

The point is, ESRI is attempting to bring GIS data to everyone. It's free and it's easy!

So far, me like!

Secondary Data

2011-10-03T17:03:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I'm speaking as a guest at an Urban Planning class at Eastern Michigan University. I've been asked to speak about secondary data and how it relates to my job and the jobs of other transportation planners. As I was assembling a list of topics and sources it dawned on me that a few of these might work well for readers of this blog.

Remember the Census long form? I bet you were glad you didn't get one as part of the 2010 census! How do I know that? There is no census long form anymore. It's been replaced by annual data collections that are packaged into 1, 3 and 5 year data sets. We now call it the American Community Survey. I suppose the thought is that if you call it that, people won't realize it's sort of just the census long form. This means your odds of having to answer the in depth questions of what used to be the census long form are less during the full census count, but higher during any other year.

It's taken the folks at the Census a while to get this data packaged appropriately but the factfinder2 website is finally working fairly reliably. From there you can access just about any information you'd like, depending on the size of your community. If your community is larger than 60,000 you can get the 1 year data sample, but if you live in a rural area, you'll need to rely on the 5 year data. The feds are quick to say it's NOT a five year average but rather, a representation of the five year period. Tomorrow we'll be looking at means of transportation to work by age.

Whatever.

Unlike the Census, the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) mashes up tons of data into ways that help planners. Our office started keeping them on our radar about a year or so ago. My favorite mash up is a household and transportation affordability index which puts together household costs and transportation costs as a percentage of income. We refer to this visualization as the "drive to qualify" map because, despite being approved for mortgages in suburban areas, an alarmingly high number of people spend more than 45% of their income on household and transport expenses. With a percentage that high, there isn't a lot left to support this "creative class" we pride ourselves here in Southeast Michigan. Check it out in more detail by clicking below. You can start here and zoom right into your own community.

H+T Affordability Index: Ann Arbor, MI: Comparing Housing Costs - % Income to Housing and Transportation Costs - % Income

The Housing + Transportation Affordability Index is an innovative tool that measures the true affordability of housing based on its location.

And now, you don't have to go to class tomorrow!

National Geographic "The World" iPad App Review

2011-09-26T20:03:00.000-07:00

It's video app review time!

Red Borders No More

2011-09-19T16:41:00.000-07:00

I generally avoid simple geo-news regurgitating on this blog. I want this to be a component of the interweb that explores things and their impact on people and place rather than something you can find in a thousand different places. On occasion, the poignant issues to me and the things you can find in a thousand places cross, and today's post is an example of that. Having said that, if you haven't heard about the attack at a bar in Bujumbura, google it. So few of us ever hear about stuff like this and that's a travesty. I feel it's incumbent upon me to encourage people to learn more on their own. It makes me wish I was back in seventh grade discussing current events.

It's official, South Sudan has come to Google Earth. Gone are the days of a red line border. In the eyes of Google Earth it's a bona fide yellow border country. I was quite pleased by this news. We've all been following the quest for independence and as trivial as gaining full recognition on Google Earth may seem, to me it's an awfully big deal.

Here is a picture as it appears today

And here is the article as posted on the Google lat long Blog.

Google continues to excel in Africa, both in bringing information in and working to educate people on Google's products. How cool would it be to be invited to one of these?

Finding Pommern in Rural Tanzania

2011-09-12T16:08:00.000-07:00

It took a while, but I finally discovered Pommern in the Kiloli District of Iringa in Tanzania. Even though I had developed a specific search area, I didn't have a very good way of methodically eliminating areas. I came across a building that appeared to be the secondary school I worked in, but the lay of the paths and roads and other buildings didn't match up. The building, however, provided me a point of reference so I could zoom out a little further and still be able to find a building of similar size. When I finally did stumble upon the Village, I couldn't believe it.

After years of looking...boom, there it is. Unfortunately, it falls outside of the area with the really nice new imagery, but it is clear enough that I was able to mark a couple key sites on my trip. It goes without saying (but not without mentioning) that this will be great for geotagging pictures. I'll be able to add many within 50 feet or so, which is amazing for extremely rural Africa. I also hope that someone who has or is planning to go to Pommern with Global Volunteers will be able to use this as a resource. I know I would have appreciated this.

So here it is. It doesn't look like much, but for me it's endless stories and memories. Certainly worth all the effort to find it.

In case you'd like to look around and see exactly where it is, you can use this map.

View Larger Map

Yea....I need to get back.

A Weeklong Search Party for Pommern, Tanzania

2011-08-30T19:15:00.000-07:00

After returning home from Tanzania in 2009, I quickly took to Google Earth only to be disappointed by the fact that the image quality was poor and I couldn't pinpoint my location. The resolution was so poor I couldn't even find the Village of Pommern.

Even a few years removed from my trip I have a pretty good mental map of the area. When I returned home I estimated the location based on blurry images of maps, estimated travel times, and the turns I remembered on our ride from Iringa to Pommern. I thought I was close, but the imagery was so bad that I had no way of knowing. Now I've lost that Google place mark and so it's like starting from scratch.

This weekend I discovered that the majority of the Iringa Region in Tanzania has new, clear, crisp imagery for a large area.

Up to this point it has been unbelievably difficult to locate the village. While the other village in Tanzania associated with Global Volunteers (Ipalamwa) shows up, Pommern never has. Given that I was teaching geography and computers in Pommern it's frustrating that it's nearly impossible to locate the village in Google Earth. Although it's not as if there is internet in Pommern. For that you need to go to Iringa, where the chicken is much smoother.

I found a Facebook Group that said the secondary school, which I worked at, is 58KM from Iringa. I'm inclined to believe that distance is via the road network. Going out 58KM as the crow flies would lead into the adjacent Region of Morogoro.

I knew that Pommern was in the Kilolo district of Iringa, one of seven districts but I can't find any maps that show those district lines. That is particularly disappointing. I guess the internet is not yet complete.

I've challenged myself to find Pommern and locate it for others. Based on the information I've gathered I've developed a very generous search area of approximately 1,000 square miles. I'm very confident that Pommern is within the search area.

Admittedly, this seemed like a much easier endeavor when I first drew the search area. It's sort of like being able to stumble upon my subdivision from a map of metro Detroit.

When I do find it I'll be able to greatly increase the accuracy of some geotagged photos in the area. Bonus!

It's quite a challenge but I think I have it in me and THAT means next week you can bet there will be a post and a link to all the features I've found and remembered. Hopefully it will give more of a voice and online presence to a great area, a great Place.

Belle Isle

2011-08-22T19:04:00.000-07:00

This weekend I took a drive to Belle Isle, the 1,000 acre mega park in the Detroit River just a couple miles from the center of downtown. It's a pretty cool place despite being a tad run down. It seems to be utilized for family reunions more than anything else, and really, that's not so bad. From time to time, the park does attract special events and even large events, such as the old (ol') course for the Detroit Grand Prix. Unfortunately, while it's a destination for many, the fact that it doesn't generate enough money to sustain itself is an issue for a city facing annual multimillion dollar deficits. Not that a park should be revenue neutral, but rather, based on the adjacent land use and its proximity to...things, it'd be hard to find an equal benefit.

Another reason that Detroit should be the studio/capstone class for any urban planning program.

View Larger Map

Even though Belle Isle is in need of a sprucing up, I can imagine the cost of upkeep is still very high. So there is the constant back and forth arguing over whether or not to charge admission to the park (or a toll for the bridge) and whether that will price people out or dramatically reduce utilization.

If you're interested, go ahead and take a peek at the recreation budget for Detroit. Belle Isle Operations account for about 1 million out of 19 million. Although in fairness to my naivety, I feel like I'm missing something in my reading of the Recreation "budget".

It's a park...parks belong to the people...It's part of being a civilized society...don't charge.

It is, however, just another example of the great things Detroit has going for it. Just think, Detroit has an island park bigger than Central Park...yea...I didn't realize that either. The potential is amazing and there is no shortage of ideas. But it sits, in more or less the same state it has been in for years. Aging.

The gem on the gem is the Conservatory. An interesting building indeed. I don't know if it's beautiful, or just art deco, or what. The lighting wasn't perfect on Saturday, but I created this from a few pictures I took on Saturday. Pretty cool, eh?

Conservatory

Obviously, this Detroit stuff is occupying my mind, and it's a GREAT thing to be talking about. I want to point out a great response to last weeks post. Check out the comment by Matt. Spot on. Kudos.