Monday, November 2. 2009

TeleNav to File for IPO ($75 million)

- WSJ

ABC News Tackles CDC's Brown Map

ABC News did research and concluded exactly what the CDC notes on its nearly all brown (nearly all having reported "widespread" H1N1 Swine Flu activity) map: the map doesn't reveal severity. The article goes on to detail variance in severity across the country.

Health and Science Tidbits

New regulations are being proposed to help respond to lead poising in the state of New Jersey, but GIS is in use, too.

DCA [Department of Community Affairs]and DHSS [Department of Health and Senior Services] have created Geographic Information System (GIS) maps that identify where children with elevated blood lead levels live, where there is older housing stock, and neighborhoods where children are not screened. This information allows cities and community-based organizations to target the most at-risk children with their education, outreach, and prevention efforts.

- New Jersey Newsroom

In the U.S. the big issue related to H1N1 flu shots is simply having enough vaccine. In the York region of Ontario, the issue is where the clinics are. People in Markham are being asked to drive 45 minutes to the nearest clinic. But, the locations were determined based on the locations of vulnerable populations, using GIS.

According to Dr. Karim Kurji, medical officer of health for York Region, the locations of the clinics were determined based on some geographic information system (GIS) mapping to find the highest number of priority population such as health care workers, pregnant women and people under age 65 with chronic health conditions.

Dr. Kurgi said the plan is to have one small and four big clinics for the region, including the ones in Vaughan, Newmarket and Georgina (small).

- The Liberal

An article with research from many universities and studies about how the brain makes sense of large scale location challenges includes this suggestion that we use something like "image pyramids" in our brains:

"The maps are stored as extremely thin cards in a deck in the hippocampus, the area that is regarded as the brain's memory focal point," he [Edvard Moser, a leading expert on brain mapping at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology] said. "The deck is sorted by rank, so that the fine-grained detail maps are located at the top, with the biggest, most coarsely drawn maps further down in the deck."

- Kansas City Star

Maryland #1 in ARRA GIS Sites, But...

A Computerworld article lauds Maryland's use of GIS in reporting on the state of stimulus funding, but also notes some warts.

The article notes:

StateStat has the potential to show citizens the return on investment they get from get from government programs, and it could be used to hold agency chiefs accountable, O'Malley says.

During biweekly meetings with department heads, the governor uses GIS maps to track projects and the performance of departments. O'Malley says he uses GIS maps to quickly assess which divisions are performing well and which need new leadership. "That ability to recognize who the leaders are is what gets your entire organization to lean forward. That's what makes it go," he says.

The article does not explain how that potential to show ROI would be met, nor how GIS shows which divisions are performing well and which need new leadership. I hope Maryland staffers or the publication can detail those processes and share them with other states.

The daily challenges of the StateStat effort are detailed by Beth Blauer, director of the program. On her list are:

Data:
Says Blauer: "Those issues include data ownership, accuracy, age, how often data is refreshed and whether it will be meaningful to decision-makers."

Interoperability:
"Because the state agencies use many different GIS servers and databases, they export data in Excel format and give it to Blauer's staff, who must import it manually. It has been particularly difficult to maintain data integrity and get updates automated, she says."

Deeper Analysis:
"Another goal is to add performance data that could, for example, illustrate the impact of a program by showing the effect of spending on the unemployment rate.

Blauer says that eventually, StateStat will be used at all levels of government and available to the public. "You'll be able to see where we are spending money in education and whether the test scores are getting better.""
And of course, that means showing causation, not just correlation.

(Future) Public Participation:
"They will be able to engage in a dialogue with government using the data," she says."

Also on the Governors list: an app to show how state funds are allocated and downloadable data.

Hat tip to Computerworld for going beyond the shiny maps.

MapQuest to get Intermap Terrain

A press release notes that Intermap "has licensed shaded terrain products which leverage the nationwide NEXTMap 3D mapping database to MapQuest, Inc. Additionally, Intermap will deliver shaded terrain products for Europe and the remainder of the world
for subsequent releases on the MapQuest.com consumer Web site and Platform products."

NEURISA Tackles "Making Integrated Information More Accessible"

New England URISA is hosting a one-day event November 16, 2009 titled "Trends in Making Integrated Information More Accessible" at the
Sturbridge Host Hotel, Sturbridge, MA. The agenda includes three session exploring Citystat, Document and Permit Management and Web Mapping. The event is very affordable (registration) and includes presenters from large and small municipalities and discussions of proprietary and open source solutions. I'll be doing the keynote.