In the U.S. we are still waiting to see how we might use Geoplatform.gov, but in Singapore the Land Authority (SLA) not only has its own OneMap, but now it has beta tools for government departments and non-governmental organizations to collect data via crowdsourcing via that map. One of the first users is a cat-focused organization which uses the map to have people map stray cats to address the issue. SLA has added a business query tool that will enable online purchases. This is not a private company; this is the government of Singapore.
- FutureGov
by Adena Schutzberg on 05/24 at 03:45 AM |
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A unit at the State Deptarment has been working with the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) to explore the use of OSM and its community in times of crisis. This week there's a proof of concept exercise mapping refugee camps in the Horn of Africa.
How to help: We are going to open access to the imagery on Monday 21 May 2012. We would like to spend two 24-hour periods tracing the areas of interest, which will include 11 refugee sites. All work will be done through the HOT Tasking Manager (http://tasks.hotosm.org), a microtasking platform that will split up the image tracing into ‘tiles’ that will require approximately 30-45 minutes to map.
Accomplishing this task will require that volunteers become familiar with OpenStreetMapand the basic concepts of mapping. But, don’t worry, there are plenty of resources out there to help. For more information on the OpenStreetMap (OSM) process, see the “Beginning OpenStreetMap Tutorial” available from the LearnOSM website (http://learnOSM.org), specifically Chapters 1,2,3,6. For more information on HOT’s work in Somalia see the HOT Somalia project page, and other HOT related materials on the HOT wiki.
- Disruptive Geo Blog via @disruptivegeo
by Adena Schutzberg on 05/21 at 12:09 PM |
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Locals in and around Saugerties, NY will add to iMapInvasives, New York’s online invasive species database, via a mapping party on May 8.
The event starts at the Town of Saugerties Library for an orientation and brief training. Next the volunteers will carpool to the Esopus Creek Conservancy’s Esopus Bend Preserve (EBP) to walk the woodland trails and map invasive species and will return to the library to view their real-time contributions to the database. Invasive plant ID guides and trail maps will be provided.
I think that last bit, about seeing their contributions added to the state database is vital.
- Suagerties Times
In Altadena, CA (always like the name of that city) the local Patch is asking readers to help build a map of dog attacks, after one earlier this week. The map is Google-based (still waiting for a MapQuest-based one!) and there are guidelines: don't use exact addresses and only post actual attacks. Patch is doing a lot of this work. I wonder if they are studying how well it works across its many papers?
- Altadena Patch
The Miwaukee paper asked readers to map their sentiment yesterday during the recall primary. I want to encourage Google or developers to build a decent legend solution for such maps.
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
by Adena Schutzberg on 05/09 at 05:06 AM |
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Update: The winners were announced.
The winners, Frankford High School athletic director Jack Creighton and information technology analyst Jennifer Yuan, relied on old-fashioned shoe leather. Each found more than 400 AEDs, and Penn announced Thursday afternoon that each will receive a grand prize of $9,000.
Equally important, Penn researchers have lowered the number of AEDs they think are in the city from 5,000 to about 2,500. The contest mapped about 1,500.
I for one am totally jazzed at how well this contest/crowdsourcing effort seems to have worked out!
- Philadelphia Inquirer
--- original post 3/28/2012 ---
The MyHeartMap Challenge which we noted back in December (APB coverage) just ended. The competition relied on a mobile application from Azavea, to crowdsource automated external defibrillators (AEDs) location. After a two week extension to the original March 13 deadline the final tally of AEDs is more than 1300.
- Technically Philly
by Adena Schutzberg on 05/04 at 04:44 AM |
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The AAG has announced
that the Association of American Geographers (AAG) will undertake one of the most ambitious and potentially far-reaching publication projects in the recent history of the fields of geography and GIScience. This will be a 15-volume work, to be published both in hard copy and online, tentatively entitledThe International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology.
It'll be huge and the organization is looking for suggestions on experts to tap to edit and write various sections. The effort dates back more than three years.
- ArcNews
- AAG
The Stamford Mercury in Britain has a campaign "Let's Clean Up!" to clean up the area. There's an interactive map of activity but to submit an area with a mess you can either tweet, use Facebook or old fashioned e-mail.
- Stamford Mercury
Ready to map the moon? I've written about crowdsourced moom mapping before ("as good as experts"), but this is a new project - with a full moon challenge deadline of finding 1 million craters by May 5!
CosmoQuest.org is a group of astronomers, run by my friend Dr. Pamela Gay, who have created a series of projects where people like you can perform needed tasks that are real science… in this case, measuring craters on the Moon! Using MoonMappers, you can identify and measure craters using images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a spacecraft currently circling our Moon and taking thousands of high-resolution pictures.
- DIscover Magazine Blog
by Adena Schutzberg on 05/01 at 05:27 AM |
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