Insight, analysis, and research about location-based technologies including mapping and geohacking.
"Mapping and location data are driving some of the most intriguing new web applications. Geohacker alpha geeks are building wickedly clever mashups. Established companies are integrating location data into all manner of workaday applications. And the location industry is growing into the Web 2.0 era. We're tracking it, and showcasing the most significant work at Where 2.0."
Based on the 2009 Horizon Report, Geolocation will be fully adopted in 2-3 years. This .pdf from Educause is a nice overview of "Location Aware Applications" in an educational perspective.
The Spatial History Project at Stanford University, a part of the Bill Lane Center for the Study of the North American West, is made possible by the generous funding of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is an interface for doing global or US comparisons of different indicators. Military spending, IKEA, Number of Gold Medals, Crops, Energy, are just some of the indicators that can be mapped.
This web mapping site allows you to view the foreign languages spoken in all 50 states based on Census data, viewable by total, percentage, or zip code.
Are you looking for foreign languages of the world that are in danger of extinction? UNESCO has done an extensive job of mapping and categorizing the world's languages with the aim of cultural preservation.
This webpage is from the folks behind geocommons finder and maker. I like this economy dashboard because it is simple and it appears to have up-to-date information (as of March 2009). The other nice aspect about geocommons in general is the access to the tabular data, and also to shapefile format for use in GIS.
This NYTimes map allows you to explore immigration in the United States over time. It also allows you to choose a country and view data relating to that countries immigrants in the United States.
Looking for ways to use that handheld GPS? Here is a nice article focusing on GPS and all the different activities and resources that have developed around the device. This is one of the best summaries that I have seen in a while, highlighting resources that can provide hours of outdoor entertainment. Go explore!
Do you like some of the New York Times maps and graphics? If so, you can view some of the projects here. Also, at the bottom of the page is MapShaper, which looks like it could be very useful for simplifying shapefiles for KML use.
My impression of this site is "Data 2.0." I like that the data is organized by category, you can upload and download data, and it has graphing capabilities. It could be a little stronger on the mapping aspects, but if you find the data you are looking for here then it is worth it. Also, there may be social aspects to this site that I have not explored yet. Similar to the geocommons finder without the mapping component.
Mapping out the UN Millenium Development Goals is a great feature of this website. If you are not familiar with these goals and indicators, it is worthwhile to become familiar with them.
This is a global map viewer that includes many global datasets and images in a fairly intuitive viewer. I also liked that you can go to the Statistics tab on the left hand navigation Table of Contents, and you can see the UN Millennium Development Goal Indicators mapped. Very straightforward.
