Tackling Geography, Science, Policy and Societal Needs at Harvard

Doug Richardson, Executive Director of the Association of American Geographers spoke at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government today. It was part of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project Seminar Series.

Richardson began with some opening remarks highlighting how science, technology and policy bring some limitations to the table. Science, he argued uses a "brittle" model that limits innovation. Technology moves rapidly and creates pressures that limit adoption (privacy and confidentiality issue have popped up recently, for example. Policy is limited because governments can be slow to value science and technology. 

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Paying for GIS Grant Writing and other Government GIS News

Cheyenne County’s Board of Commissioners [NE] will pursue a grant that will fund a new on-line venture into the county’s General Information System (GIS).

Following a Power-Point presentation from GIS Workshop Sales Manager Brenda Wilson, the board chose Monday to use the Lincoln-based company to prepare and submit a state grant that will seek up to $25,000 per project.

Do I understand that the county is paying the GIS consultant to write the grant proposal? I wonder how much is set aside for that work? I suspect the grant could not be used to pay for prepping the grant? 

- Sun Telegraph

The Center for American Progress offers a map that shows the state-by-state impact of a potental 10 percent reduction in spending for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, once knowns as "food stamps." Not only will it mean fewer meals, but also nearly 100,000 job losses, per the analysis.

- Center for American Progress

SeeClickFix and a local Patch news website, Kirkwood, are prompting change at Missouri DOT.

We took Meg’s comment to the Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT), who says they will give the light a second look. Over the next week, MODOT will study the traffic flow at Kirkwood and Big Bend roads and decide how to adjust the light to improve morning congestion.

- Kirkwood Patch

International Space Apps Challenge and other GIS Competitions

The International Space Apps Challenge is a 2 day technology development event during which citizens from around the world will work together to solve current challenges relevant to both space exploration and social need. The International Space Apps Challenge will take place on all seven continents – and in space - on 21-22 April 2012.

Locations in which events are currently planned to be held include San Francisco, US; Tokyo, Japan; Melbourne and Canberra, Australia; Jakarta, Indonesia; Exeter and Oxford, UK; Nairobi, Kenya; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and McMurdo Station, Antarctica. There will be additional events throughout the world and participation by Astronauts on the International Space Station.

How it works

The International Space Apps Challenge is a “codeathon-style” event. A codeathon is a unique event that brings together citizens interested in collaborating on the development solutions that address critical challenges. A codeathon celebrates software development in its most positive context—using minimal resources and maximum brainpower to create outside- the-box solutions in response to interesting problems. Codeathons are technology development marathons, drawing on the talents and initiative of the best and the brightest software developers, engineers, designers and technologists from around the world, who volunteer their time to respond to real- world problems with solutions than can have immediate impact.

At the events, individuals collaborate with others by forming teams focused on solving a particular challenge. The teams compete with other teams around the world to utilize publicly available space and data to design innovative “solutions” to a pre-determined series of global “challenges.”

- Challenge website

The Department of Veterans Affairs launched a new contest today to help the people who help the homeless. It challenges the developer community to create easy, mobile access to resources that the homeless need, when they need it and where they can get it. ...

Five finalists will pilot their mobile applications at JBJ Soul Kitchen, where diners can cover the cost of their meals either through donation or volunteer service.

The contest will be conducted in two phases. Finalists will be judged primarily on their ability to dynamically update information about housing and shelter near JBJ Soul Kitchen. Basic performance criteria is described in www.challenge.gov.

- press release via LBS zone

This contest is a bit easier to enter!

To enter, you must follow@RootMetrics on Twitter, download the RootMetrics Cell Phone Coverage Map app for iPhone or Android devices, run a test of mobile coverage and then post on Twitter EITHER a screenshot of the test results or the color and speed result.

Winners (five randomly selected) can win new mobile phones or cash toward breaking a contract. You can enter until April 2.

- Wireless and Mobile News

The Philippines Crowdsources Health Facilities and other Health GIS News

In support of Kalusugan Pangkalahatan, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) launches the first of its ‘Crowdsourcing for Health’ initiatives using GoogleMaps.

Determined to maximize the benefits of the social networking platform, PhilHealth is encouraging the online crowd to help map all health facilities in the Philippines, according to  the statement from the agency website.

In fact, the public is invited to put points on Google Map Maker or OpenStreetMap. PhilHealth will be combining the data and hosting it on its website. I'm pretty sure you can do that with OSM data (with attribution); I'm not sure about the Google licensing.

- Philippine Information Agency

Middle Georgia got an EPA grant to do lead testing via Head Start programs among other things. The other things:

The goals of the grant are to increase testing in the district’s 10 rural counties from 9 percent to at least 25 percent within a year; to educate primary care providers about lead risks and testing requirements; and to evaluate a geographic information system risk model in Bibb County that will identify high-risk neighborhoods and the children who live in them.

- Macon.com

A recent report [pdf] on health inequities in the San Joaquin Valley gives new meaning to the real estate mantra: location, location, location.

The report by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and Fresno State's Central Valley Health Policy Institute found that location plays a very real role in health -- so real in fact that life expectancy rates can vary by as much as 21 years in the valley, depending on the ZIP code.

- California HealthLine

Yandex adds Public (Crowdsourced) Maps

Yandex, one of Russia's top Internet portals, announced on March 5 that it has integrated maps of some 40 cities in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan created by its users to Yandex.Maps. If "professional" maps of an area are not avaiable, the Pubilc Maps are returned instead. In other areas, where both maps are available, the user can select which layer to view. Users can also edit and submit new data to the Public Map.

Is the the "lifecycle" of a mapping portal? Start with commercial data, then mix in user generated (sometimes open, but not always) data, then perhaps go 100% crowdsourced data? Google, MapQuest, Microsoft and now Yandex are heading along something like that trajectory.

- press release