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Kingfisher is a visual mapping tool that helps individuals and teams understand, explain, and collaborate on complex information. Based on years of applied research on how we think and learn, Kingfisher works the way your brain does: by organizing parts that can be combined and connected to each other to form a complete picture.

MapLight is a nonpartisan research organization that reveals money's influence on politics. We research and compile data about the sources of campaign contributions in U.S. presidential, congressional, state, and local ballot and candidate elections. We provide journalists and citizens with transparency tools that connect data on campaign contributions, politicians, legislative votes, industries, companies, and more to show patterns of influence never before possible to see. These tools allow users to gain unique insights into how campaign contributions affect policy so they can draw their own conclusions about how money influences our political system. MapLight was founded in 2005 by Thomas Layton, Jaleh Bisharat, and Daniel G. Newman. Daniel, MapLight's President, was recognized as one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2010 for his work at MapLight.

ClimateWizard enables technical and non-technical audiences alike to access leading climate change information and visualize the impacts anywhere on Earth. The first generation of this web-based program allows the user to choose a state or country and both assess how climate has changed over time and to project what future changes are predicted to occur in a given area. ClimateWizard represents the first time ever the full range of climate history and impacts for a landscape have been brought together in a user-friendly format.

Welcome to Economic Mobility of the States. This interactive tool captures the findings of the first analysis of Americans' economic mobility-their ability to move up or down the earnings ladder-on a state level. The study investigates Americans' mobility prospects during their prime working years-the 10-year span between ages 35-39 and 45-49. Our research focuses on individuals born between 1943 and 1958, with the most recent data coming from 2007 (see the Methodology to learn more). The interactive tool displays data for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, identifying where in the country Americans experience the best and worst mobility outcomes.

In a world filled with ever-more-complex technological, sociological, ecological, political & economic systems... a tool to make interactive simulations may not be that much help. But it can certainly try.

Atlas of Care connects personal and professional scientific inquiry with community-based development theories and practices. We design experiences and practical tools that help people see, connect, and collectively inquire about their care (giving and receiving) activities in everyday life. Though care is central to our ability to thrive in our lives, it is often not seen or recognized. By learning how to see the invisible - visualizing care ecosystems and other aspects of living - people can be more intentional about how to build, strengthen, and expand the capacity of the various lived communities.

The "Los Angeles Research Collection" empowers citizens and researchers to use the tools of interactive "time mapping." With HyperCities, you can explore social, cultural, and political history in Los Angeles over time. The site can be accessed from a web-browser in any school, community center, government office, home, and academic setting, allowing citizens to delve into and create their own collections of mappable knowledge and cultural heritage. Community-generated content exists side-by-side with scholar-produced research data, thereby creating new interactions between traditionally separated domains of knowledge.

Government transparency is an important issue to many in today's political environment. The recent controversy in the US over health care reform is just one example of how hard it can be to see the realities behind the rhetoric. As researchers, we believe we can help by giving people the right tools to understand, explore, and communicate about government data.

The real-time city is now real! The increasing deployment of sensors and hand-held electronics in recent years is allowing a new approach to the study of the built environment. The way we describe and understand cities is being radically transformed - alongside the tools we use to design them and impact on their physical structure. Studying these changes from a critical point of view and anticipating them is the goal of the SENSEable City Laboratory, a new research initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mission We're developing new tools in the spirit of Grassroots Mapping, meaning: low cost data legibility (including a preference for maps and other rich visual means of representation) ease of use/low barrier to entry public participation high quality, environmentally and socially relevant data creative reuse of consumer technology open source and user modifiable design