Wednesday, March 17. 2010

Warning: Time Wasting March Madness Geo Game

ESPN has a free locate the schools in the bracket game. You were warned. [Link updated per comment.]

Census Tracts (aka Tidbits)

DeSoto County, MS [corrected per comment] is gearing up for the Census but there are concerns looking ahead:

Some supervisors questioned whether the county's GIS department could handle all the Census data, once it returns next year.

Officials decided to get estimates to see how much a planning consultant would charge to help analyze the data for the county's redistricting plan.

- The Commercial Appeal

The word from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press is that Census awareness and expected participation is up since January based on a poll of among 1,500 adults reached on cell phones and landlines during the second week of March. 77% vs. 49% in January said they'd heard something about it recently. 87% now say they definitely or probably will fill out and return their forms, or have already done so, a six-point increase in likely participation since January. There's age and education breakdowns, but nothing geographic.

- Pew

The word from Las Vegas, in an poll by Fox5 is that the letter saying that the census forms were coming was a waste of money. 93 percent of respondents to a Web poll told a FOX5 Web poll it was unnecessary to mail out notifications telling people they would soon be receiving their census forms in the mail. Fox did not report how many respondents there were.

- Fox 5

Local GIS Tidbits

It's been nine years since the West Virginia Addressing and Mapping Board was created to convert addresses from rural to city-style addressing to aid in public safety, among other things. To date, 13 of 55 counties have been converted.

- Clarksburg Exponent-Telegram

There's disagreement in Winona County, MN as to whether view shed analysis should be required in its zoning regulations because of concerns it won't be consistently used.

County leaders have batted around the idea to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) programming to help identify the blufftops and areas that would be most visible from below to assist in protecting those views. Called a viewshed analysis, the tool can help determine from where a proposed development site could be seen, thereby assisting county planners and landowners in finding the least visible building sites.

But there has been disagreement among both the County Board and county planning staff about how objective the tool could be, and whether its use would provide data that could be fairly applied to all bluff building proposals. After the board debated its use and county planners claimed they didn’t yet have a formula to use the programming in an objective way, board members voted earlier this month to pull language about viewshed analysis use from the proposed zoning ordinance.

Instead, the board asked that staff study the mapping tools at a later date, then present the board with the information within three months of the zoning ordinance final adoption.

- Winona Post

Lincoln, Nebraska received a number of grants from the Woods Charitable Fund. Among them, one to the University of Nebraska Department of Community and Regional Planning for $25,000. The Enhancing Citizen Engagement in Community Assessment with Innovative GIS Technology project, in collaboration with NeighborWorks Lincoln and the City of Lincoln Urban Development Department, will use the funds to involve residents of two of the city's vulnerable neighborhoods in a neighborhood-wide property assessment to help set goals for improvement.

- The Journal Star

This article in the Philadelphia Inquirer got coverage at BusinessJournalism.org for its use of GIS in tackling unemployment in Phildelphia. "Jane says the story started as a look at unemployment in a different area, but changed direction once graphics editor John Duchneskie mapped the data using ArcView software. For a step-by-step look at how he did that, view this PDF."

- Business Journalism

The City of Fernley, NV will be updating some existing addresses for commercial and residential parcels. It turns out owners/users of those parcels are using different addresses than those on file in the official city database. The change will be to the ones in use.

According to a staff report prepared by Jennifer Derley, GIS coordinator, "Staff has discovered a disparity between the City's official addresses and what businesses are using for 15 commercial parcels located on east and west Main Street"»Staff has also discovered a disparity between the City's official addresses and what property owners are using for 18 residential parcels within Fernley."

The change is anticipated to occur on ore before July 1, 2010.

The changes are expected to cause no grief for owners/users and enhance 911 response. I wonder how/if that will impact geocoding databases?

- Reno Journal-Gazette

DMTV #9: The GeoTech Center-The Link Between Academia and the Workforce

The National Geospatial Technology Center of Excellence, the GeoTech Center, is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Advanced Technology Education (ATE) center that was started in 2008. Directions Media's Editor in Chief, Joe Francica, interviews Dr. Phillip Davis, the center's director, about the center and its involvement in developing the Geospatial Technology Competency Model (GTCM) for the U.S. Department of Labor. The GTCM is an effort to define the core competencies of the geospatial professional to support curriculum development at colleges and universities, and to promote workforce development. The GeoTech Center, then, is a vital link in helping prepare students to become the next generation of geospatial professionals and to meet the demands of a growing industry in geospatial technology.

Tuesday, March 16. 2010

Twitter Geocoding Data by Maponics

MediaPost helps explain why some Twitter posts are not being geotagged with the correct locations (nothing new here) and in doing so notes that Maponics has provided the dataset against which lat/longs are geocoded. Among the company's other customers: Google, Citysearch, Bing.

- MediaPost

Update: Quote of the Week

Update: It seems Michael Jones of Google found the Wayne Independant story and updated the one way street on Google Maps. Per the paper, he looks for such stories everyday. Apparently MapQuest has also been notified.

By the way, the original story didn't even mention Google or Google Maps, just "GPS." Notes the paper in updating the story: "While Google Maps is not used in most vehicle GPS devices, Google Maps is used in about 270 kinds of mobile phones, Jones said."

Also, comments from the original article include one from a NAVTEQ rep who confirmed the change had been made in their database, too. That was not mentioned in the update article, which is too bad; good job NAVTEQ! So, it looks like Google and NAVTEQ are "watching" for such issues; anyone else?

- Wayne Indepenant

--- original post 3/12/10 ----

"No one told the GPS satellite about Honesdale’s new one-way traffic pattern."
"Attempts to find someone in charge of GPS has not been successful."

- Peter Becker noting how local officials in Honesdale, PA are not being successful in finding someone to update maps in GPS devices to reflect one-way streets, in the Wayne Independant

These explanations may help Mr. Becker and Coucilman Jennings find satisfaction:

The GPS system is run by the Air Force. It uses twenty odd satellites that send signals to devices called GPS receivers. The receivers use the signals to determine the location of the receiver. Then, maps and software on the receivers create the routes.

So, the people you really need to contact to get the maps updated are the two main companies that provides those maps: NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas. Both have online tools to report such errors, but you might want to talk to someone.