Columbia County, GA Launches CitySourced and other Government GIS News

Columbia County, GA is using CitySourced's Citizen Reporter. After looking at the directions for download for the five different platforms, I wonder if it's time for HTML5, even if it must run on more than one browser.

- ABC 6

In Rancho Cucamongo, CA there's an iOS ony solution (Android coming): RC2GO "features directories of dining and shopping options within the city. Users can determine, for example, how many Thai food restaurants are in the city or the location of the nearest coffee shop." And, you can report potholes and graffitti, too.

The app was a joint project between the city and CyberTech, an information technology company with offices in Redlands. The city wanted to create an app that was useful and one that would make it easier to communicate with City Hall.

[Title]Embracing Google Earth

[Teaser] Five years ago, Google Earth worried government officials. But agencies have since realized that the benefits of high-resolution, up-to-date imagery of our Earth outweigh the risks.

That's how Jessica Mulholland, associate editor of GOVERNING, and associate editor of both Government Technology and Public CIO magazines, describes the use of platform in local and state government. 

- Governing

The New York State Liquor Authority launched its map that shows every current and pending liquor license in the state andany disciplinary actions taken by the agency against the licensee. The data used to require a FOIA request. (APB coverage). Tech: Fountains Spatial, ArcGIS Flex, Bing, Google StreetView. This is an interface I'd have my students explore! Did not work well in Safari.

- Times Union

Oregon is filtering data from Data.gov to its own state portal.

Locating data from the state and Data.gov portals can be cumbersome due to the abundance of data available, [Deputy State CIO Sean] McSpaden said. “What we’ve done initially is establish the connection. Over time, our plan is to work with Socrata on filtering so that only Oregon-specific [federal] data is present or accessible on our site,” he said.

To differentiate between what’s Oregon data and what’s federal data, McSpaden said Socrata is using icons on Data.Oregon.gov to indicate who owns what. 

- GovTech

Find Salaries of Nearby Pols and other LBS News

For The Good of Illinois, an open-government group founded by former gubernatorial hopeful Adam Andrzejewski, has a free iPhone and iPad app that, with the touch of a button, will show you the salaries of government employees in your area.

Using your device's GPS coordinates, the app will list, from highest to lowest, the pay of state and local government employees within a radius of five, 10, 25 or 50 miles. Or you can input a ZIP code, rather than using your current location. Employees also can be searched by name.

GIS Algorithm Cup and other GIS Competition News

With the goal of encouraging innovation in a fun way, ACM SIGSPATIAL is hosting an algorithm contest with winners to be announced at the ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS conference in November 2012. Contest participants will submit original computer programs to be evaluated by the contest organizers on a common dataset. The first place team will receive US$ 500 plus one NVIDIA Quadro 6000 (or similar) graphics card. Second place will receive US$ 400 plus one NVIDIA TEGRA tablet device. Third place will receive US$ 300 and one NVIDIA TEGRA tablet.

The 2012 contest will be about map matching, which is the problem of correctly matching a sequence of location measurements to roads. 

- contest page via @michael_d_gould

How about a game based learning contest? Ideas for teaching spatial literacy and/or geography would be valid!

In an effort to circulate innovative ideas about integrating electronic gaming in the classroom, the NEA Foundation, in a partnership with Microsoft U.S. Partners in Learning, is hosting a competition for the best ideas on "how interactive technology and game-based learning can improve teaching and learning," according to the Foundation's website. Game-based learning can mean anything from understanding physics through the popular Angry Birds app to delving into the structure of society in the computer game Minecraft.

The Challenge to Innovate (C2i) competition is open to educators, students, parents, or anyone who has an idea and has registered for free as a member of the U.S. Department of Education's Open Innovation Portal, which acts as a public forum for improving education. Participants post their gaming idea to the portal, and other registered members—most of whom are educators and parents—award points to the ideas they think are most innovative and helpful.

- US News

Aim: The main aim of the OneGeology Best Application competition is to demonstrate the wide range of potential applied uses and applications that the OneGeology Portal, and geological data/services that it provides, can offer for easy discoverability, access and use.

...

The registration of the applications developed for this competition will be accepted until the end of May 2012.

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The winner of the competition will receive a free registration for the 34th International Geological Congress, Brisbane, Australia (August 2012) and will also have the opportunity to present the new innovative application during the Geoinformation Symposium/ OneGeology Session at the conference.

You must be under 35 to enter.

- website via @jeffharrison

Through their Google+ page, Google Maps announced the inaugural Map Your University competition for all students in the U.S. and Canada. Through the use of Google’s Map Maker, Google is asking current students to create detailed maps of their campuses that will be viewable on Google Maps and Google Earth. Winners of the competition will be award fun Google-y prizes such as Android tablets, phones, GPS devices, and more.

- Web Pro News

New York City kicked off voting today in its third annual BigApps competition, which rewards apps that use some of the city’s open data sets to build apps. But one of the most popular resources appears to be Foursquare, which is in use in more than half of the top apps in early voting.

- GigaOm

New Malaria Risk Maps and Data and other Health GIS News

In a study published in the Malaria Journal, a multinational team of researchers from the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP), funded mainly by the Wellcome Trust, present the results of a two-year effort to assemble all available data worldwide on the risk of Plasmodium falciparum malaria, the most deadly form of the disease. Using computer modelling and data on climate and human populations, they have revealed the complex landscape of malaria across the globe. The maps build on the first ever Atlas of Malaria-Eliminating Countries published earlier this year.

Malaria continues to exert an huge burden of illness and death worldwide but, after decades of neglect, the war against the disease has entered an unprecedented era: it is high on the policy agenda, international funding is beginning to translate into real increases in populations protected by bed nets and other key interventions, and a growing body of evidence points towards important reductions in illness and death.

The maps have been made freely available, along with a wide range of other malaria resources via the launch of a new online portal at www.map.ox.ac.uk. The research was led by Dr Pete Gething from the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford. He says: "These new maps and our online portal are really aimed at everyone involved in the battle against the disease: from the major international organisations and funders, to other scientists, to those actually doing the disease control work on the ground."

- press release

PulsePoint, the mobile app that notifies those who are registered and CPR certified when help is needed is moving on from its home in San Ramon, CA to San Jose. 150 other agencies are interested. No word yet on if it's saved any lives yet.

- CIO

On Tuesday Massachusetts announced plans to shut down one of the state mental health hosptials in Taunton. The Massachussets Nurses Association quickly put out a press release calling it a travestry, in part, because of geography.

"Their plan makes no sense," Coughlin said. "Our system has been operating well over full capacity for years. We can't provide the care people need even with our facility open.  The other issue is geography.  We are now forcing patients and families to travel to Worcester, Tewksbury or out to Western Mass for their mental health care. It's a travesty."   

- press release

New Geo APIs - 1/24/12

China Historical GIS API: The service maintains a geographic information database of historical information related to placenames in China. The placenames are cross-referenced by spelling variants comprising 250,000 or more records referring to more than 175,000 locations, including 50,000 places significant in Chinese history. Information provided documents historical events linked to the places specified.

API methods support queries against the same database accessed by search tools on the CHGIS website. Queries can specify placenames as romanized ASCII strings of UTF-8 encoded Chinese characters (either simplified or complex glyphs). Responses can be limited for particular date ranges, if desired.

CartoDB API: CartoDB is a geospatial database on the cloud. CartoDB allows users to make their data geolocal and map the data, as well as import geospatial datasets to create location-aware applications.

The CartoDB API allows developers to access and integrate the functionality of CartoDB with other applications and to create other applications. CartoDB offers a SQL API, as well as tile maps API. Example API methods include creating maps, performing queries of geospatial data, and rendering maps.

GeoGratis API: GeoGratis is an online platform that holds geospatial data, maps, documents, and other geographic resources from Canada.

The GeoGratis API allows developers to access and integrate the data and functionality of GeoGratis with other applications and to make other applications. Some example API methods include searching maps, retrieving maps, and retrieving geospatial data.

EPA Station API: The EPA Station API provides information for all monitoring locations within a user-determined geographic bounding box. The API allows users to quickly pull station locations for mapping, return station counts for a given geographic area, or obtain detailed station information.

Jotly API: Jotly is an application that allows users to rate everything. Users of Jotly can rate photos, places, and view other Jotly users that are nearby with a map view. Originally, Jotly was a parody of all of the rating apps out there, but then they actually developed the application.

The Jotly API allows developers to access and integrate the functionality of Jotly with other applications and to create other applications. Some example API methods include retrieving user information, signing up for Jotly, and accessing lists of "Jots."

- Programmable Web