GIS in UK Elections

The Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm), the professional association for ICT managers working in and for the public sector in the UK, rated local councils on their ability to share election results quickly and effectively. This on GIS: “Most councils used maps or diagrams to show summary results, and the better ones offered ‘drill down’ facilities to give detailed results. However, those apparently using GIS systems suffered from real response problems, and some were essentially unusable on a dial-up link. Several actually indicated that this would be so, and offered text versions as an alternative. Those using simpler technology for their maps had much more success, and this is all that is necessary for such a simple application.” Another interesting comment: Of the one quarter of councils that didn’t do well “the results tended to be there but were late, or poorly displayed, or details were buried in ‘pdf’ files.” Finally, the councils were criticized for lack of commentary on the results. I recall a U.S. commentator making the same criticism on TV election coverage.

String and the Westernmost Point in the Contiguous US

An Oregon paper noted some months ago that Cape Mendocino did not deserve its “position” as the westernmost bit of land in the lower 48. According to Stephen Cunha at Humbolt State University, the cape does not take the prize, since as longitude goes, another cape is further west, Cape Alava. George Albert, cartographer and GIS specialist with the U.S. Forest Service says that logic is flawed and offers that string and a globe are a better indicator the true distance of each cape from the Prime Meridian. The paper did the experiment and by a hair or two put Cape Mendocino at the top of the list. If nothing else, this is a nice point on which to teach some basics of the globe to students.

Mapping Search Results

There have been many attempts to present the relationships between search results in a graphic. I covered many of them in GIS Monitor in past years. It seems they not taken off. On Monday, Grokker changed its business plan to replace a $49 download required to see the maps with a free Java app. The hope is that uptake will increase on its offering, which visualizes Yahoo results. One expert, Oren Etzioni, a University of Washington computer scientist, quoted in the New York Times (registration may be required) notes that “A lot of these fancier visualization systems look appealing, but they are pretty confusing. Even for expert users they don’t enhance productivity.” One big issue with new visualization offering? Finding a place to put the ads!

GIS in Japan and China

Reader Diane sent links to two articles in ICT Spaghetti about the state of GIS in Japan and China. I had to contact the publisher find the dates on them: “Issue 29 was published in March of this year.  The research for the articles was started in August 2004 and went through to October 2004.” The publisher also asked that I refer to this website.

Google Acquires Dodgeball

Google’s on the move again, this time acquiring “location-based” social contact service dodgeball. The service has members text their locations to a server where the information is used to “hook up” with others in the same geography. Several commentators suggest this is part of Google’s plans to move into location-based services. Q&A here.