The World Trade Organizations (WTO) has created a map of that identifies the outstanding disputes between members. The map shows whether an individual country has been a respondent to or has issued a complaint against a specific country. The map at right shows the number of complaints (red) and responses to complaints (blue). By clicking on any individual country where a relationship has been discerned will display a list of the specific complaints. [The map reference is courtesty of Gary D. Price, Librarian and Editor, ResourceShelf and DocuTicker.]

Sports Illustrated writer Andy Staples validated a theory of his that when recruiting highly prized talent for college football programs "geographic distribution isn't a quirk." So, when he received a spreadsheet of 422 nominees for the annual U.S. Army All-American Bowl to be held next January in San Antonio, Staples went about "mapping" the location of each of their hometowns.

Now, the map itself is not that well constructed. The Yahoo Map has the location of each hometown and the nominee's basic bio information such as high school and position. I was hoping to see more information such as proximity to nearest big time football program or schools that actively recruiting them.

More interesting was Staples' assessement of how Pete Carroll of USC could field top talent within 119 miles of the school; or how Randy Shannon of Miami "should never waste a penny recruiting outside South Florida, has 30 nominees within 79 miles of his campus." Now that's good information. I wonder just how many coaches employ a geospatial analysis of the top talent. Oh, perhaps intuitively they understand the proximity of their talent pool. But, I'll play the skeptic...I want to walk into the coach's office so he can "show me the map!"

And what about the recruit? Talented football recruits typically don't look much further than a few hundred miles away from home anyway. Perhaps they like the support network to be close by or have grown up in proximity to the region's favorite big time school.

And we need to talk about weather as well. If you're recruited by Notre Dame and USC do you choose to play in the warm or the cold? There's a theory that many of the big time schools of the east, north and plain states lose out to the south, west coast and southwest and that over time, weather is a major factor in the migration of talent and the success of each program.

In the end, it's all about geography in may cases to both the recruited and the recruiter.

The New York Times has created a map of foreclosures in the New York region and found that they are highest where high minority populations exist. An interactive slider bar allows you to see the results from past years and you can zoom it to see the results by Census Tract. Dots on the map represent the location of foreclosures or multiple foreclosures. The basemap is by Google Maps and the data is from multiple sources. The region of coverage includes not just the boroughs of New York but also several counties in New Jersey as well as Suffolk County, N.Y. north of the city and the New Haven, CT area.

The May 11th issue of Time Magazine is dedicated to the 100 most influential people in the world. You may have missed the map of "where they are from" as it is hidden in the double page fold-out section just after page 42. You won't find the map online unfortunately but it is quite a compilation of information because it maps all 553 of its Time 100 from this year as well as past years. I wouldn't say there are any patterns other than the geographic distribution is not a surprise. The state of New York has the most of any followed by California. The UK has more than any other European country; China has the most in Asia/Pacific. So, forget looking for a pattern...just enjoy browsing the fold out map and finding out more about those who touch our world in unique ways.

Several publications this week noted the closing of hundreds of car dealerships across the United States. Once the backbone of the American dream, the auto industry is drastically paring its dealerships. CNNMoney.com provided a map (at right) of the Chysler dealerships closing their doors, nearly 800 or one-quarter of the total number. Meanwhile, GM announced that 2600 dealerships were being eliminated. The closings will have a near immediate ripple effect across the country as many lose their jobs and communities will feal the impact of additional unemployment.

Need to know where your favorite entertainers are and when? The Washington Post has created an interactive map to show in both time and space (or is that time & spatial?) the location of photos, video, and news articles about celebrities. You can navigate the map by date and a slider bar at the bottom of the map can help you to narrow the time window when the images were taken. The technology uses Google Maps.

MSNBC has created an "Adversity Index" map of 381 metro areas in the U. S. In conjunction with Moody's.com, the maps displays a thematic map of whether a state is either in "recession," "at risk," "recovery," or "expansion." By clicking on each state a table will be displayed showing the largest metros and the economic indicators for each such as "employment," "single family housing starts," "housing prices," and "industrial production." Hover the mouse over each state and it will show you the aggregate indicators for each.

The map also has a slider bar that will allow you to move along a time line from 1995 to present to thematically display the conditions at any particular time.

This is an extremely good representation of the data that is highly useful to any company looking at moving into or expanding existing operations in any given region.

There has been an unprecedented decline in the publishing business as a result of declining advertising sales due to the sluggish US economy. So hard hit has the publishing industry been that such stalwarts of the business like the Rocky Mountain News have closed shop while others cancelled their print editions entirely, slashed staff or moved to an online-only version. This map by the Wall Street Journal chronicles the bad news. This only tells part of the story as the remainder of the publishing business has not been without equal or worse devastation. Entire magazines have been discontinued and publishing companies like Taunton Press have gone so far as to eliminate the job of "publisher" and has reorganized staff into "content," "sales," or "marketing" with everyone reporting to a vice president.

Thanks to Paul Overberg at USA Today, he clued me into a very comprehensive map the newspaper published showing the projected job growth through 2010. The job forecasts can be displayed by metro area or by state.

You can click on the map of the metro areas and see, by quarter, the projected employment picture, both the number of jobs and percent change from previous quarter. Click on the list of metros and the metro is highlighted on the map.

Jobs and employment can be segmented by industry sector and likewise illustrated geographically.

As usual, USA Today always seems not only to have the best research but the graphic "eye" by which the location-based data can most easily be portrayed.

The mainstream media is now behind in their coverage of the H1N1 (i.e. Swine Flu) coverage. Maps are not being updated with the latest outbreaks. None of the media outlets I cited in yesterday's blog post has kept up with the locations of the latest outbreak. HealthMap however is doing a good job.

As the World Health Organization moves to alert level "Phase 5 " for the H1N1 Swine Flu, various media outlets published interactive maps of the outbreak. Here is a list of the mapping websites that the media outlets have created:

• Wall Street Journal
• New York Times
• CNN
• The Guardian (UK)
• USAToday
  
• A Google-based has been published based on news reports of the outbreak. (created by someone named niman [source All Points Blog]
  
• HealthMap is a mashup compiled from various (non-media) sources on all types of viruses
  

Recently, I posted a link to maps by the Wall Street Journal about how they mapped the unemployment rate by state and they provided some useful metric from past years. However, the New York Times has taken it a step further by mapping the unemployment numbers by county. What the NYT has done exceptionally well is to "tab" through by metro, rural or manufacturing areas plus highlighting those counties where the "housing bubble" burst! A tool tip provides the county name, unemployment rate and one-year change. In looking for some spatial correlation among the data, the most surprising comes by looking at the one-year change map. I would not have expected to see such a high change in the south. The shift in manufacturing jobs southward and the accompanying increase in population density has certainly contributed to the higher unemployment picture of the "new south."

Some of the more recent pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia have been mapped by the Wall Street Journal. The interactive map provides a location and mouse-over tool tip about the details of the pirate's latest escapade.

I received information about a newly released report from LSU and authored by Ben Wasike is entitled "The diffusion of GIS in journalism." The abstract is as follows:

"The purposes of this study were to determine the likelihood of reporters to adopt Geographical Information Systems and to predict the future of the diffusion of GIS in the journalism industry using the diffusion of innovations theory. The study used two data collection methods: in-depth interviews and a Web survey. The indepth-interviews revealed factors that will influence the diffusion of GIS, including the availability of map data, competition between media agencies, the ease of getting management to buy GIS once its functionality has been demonstrated to them, and the general use of secondary GIS products. The Web survey showed that 63% of the reporters were aware of GIS but only 11% of the reporters surveyed currently use GIS. OLS regression showed that men were more likely to adopt GIS than women, while younger people were more likely to adopt GIS than their older counterparts. The results also showed that reporters who used other technologies in their work were more likely to adopt GIS on a trial basis."

Last night while viewing a segment on CNN, they displayed the location of an event. In this case is was the lockdown at Radford University in Viriginia due to an off-campus fatal shooting whereby the suspect fled onto the campus grounds. During the report, in order to orient the viewer with a geographic perspective, CNN used Google Earth, as they do on so many occasions.

First, of course I appreciate the supporting element of geography to report the story. What is unnecessary is to use a satellite image to identify the location of the incident. Showing the terrain and vegetation is overkill and confusing. A simple map is all that is called for. With today's tools, the map can even be more cartographically pleasing than ever before. However, the use of a satellite image is of no more use to the viewer than it would be if you show an icon of a gun to depict that the event involved a shooting. It's overkill.

Moreover, I suspect that CNN seems to think that by showing a satellite image that it conveys some sense of "real-time." It doesn't. As we know, most of the imagery is two years old or older. Sure, the general public doesn't know this but let's just say the "geographically literate" understand better than most, and that population of viewers is growing every day.

And finally, the image used by CNN encompassed the entire state of Virginia. If you want to place the viewer at the scene, use an aerial image with better proximity to the event.

So, CNN, take my advice...use a more simplified map; augment with better, more accurate street network information; add an aerial image if you like and if you want to place the viewer at the scene, use Google StreetView if you can better locate the event details.

The satellite image from DigitalGlobe's Quickbird satellite shows a three-stage rocket on the launch pad at North Korea'sv Musudan Ri. The image was released by DigitalGlobe and Reuters and published in many newspapers including Japan's Mainichi Daily News.

The Star, a Malaysian newspaper, provides details on election results in the country by showing a map of poll results.

Today's front page of the Wall Street Journal shows a map of how lending by banks has increased in many metro areas during Q4. Leading the way is my hometown of Huntsville, Alabama. The maps shows the increase in loan balances, an indication that some banks are lending and that the cash crunch has not strapped all municipalities.

Forbes published (March 30 issue) a map depicting the loss of wealth among the world's billionaires. The thematic map shows the total losses among all billionaires in each country. The online map is a little hard to read so Forbes provided an interactive "magnifying glass" to see the results of each country. As interesting is the number of countries without millionaires and to see which countries did not suffer to many losses. Bill Gates remains the richest man in the world even though his net worth dropped $18 Billion!

It was bound to happen...a map of Twitter chatter. Several have been created so far. But the New York Times has put together a map of tweets during the Super Bowl between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals. And it has an interactive timeline...push PLAY and watch the volume of tweets change as the game progresses. There is a legend that indicated certain categories of tweets such as the name of players or tweeted emoticons. Now, the jury is still out as to the value of Twitter, but as a social network, it's gaining lots of followers.

WBUR in Boston hosted a segment for the "Living on Earth" show call Mapping Climate Change. The program interviewed Josef Kellndorfer, a researcher at Wood Hole Oceanographic Institute. It's nice to see the press giving a nod to remote sensing.

Thanks to a tweet from Dave Sonnen, CIO Magazine published the "15 Must See Sights from Google Earth." Now, the images are pretty cool, but what would possess the magazine to focus on geospatial technology, or are they just looking for pretty pictures? Unfortunately, I think the later is true as the caption above the series of images encourages the reader to be an "armchair explorer" if not a world traveler. I think this is all too often the case when those in the mainstream media offer up eye-candy to readers and miss the true value of geospatial technology.

USA Today published a map (Google Map-based) highlighting the cities that have seen a growth in construction projects located in or near city centers indicating a shift away from traditional suburban development. Was it the high gas prices of last summer, the economic downturn or something else?

Several media outlets published the Google Earth Imagery of the Royal Navy's submarine base. FOX News showed a variety of angles taken with satellite imagery. What's your opinion? Should supposedly secret military bases be off-limits to the peering eye of commercial satellites?

The New York Times has published an excellent interactive map of immigration patterns from the late 1800's until 2000 showing the migration of immigrants across the U.S. as well as the percentage of each group, region of origin, and where they settled. The county level detail map has tool tips showing the current total population from the U.S. Census as well as the population of foreign born residents. A slider bar allows the viewer to focus on a certain time period (in tens of years) and a drop down box allows the viewer to select a specific nationality of origin. Have fun playing with this one...it's one of the best interactive maps the NY Times has created.