CENTER FOR GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS NEWSLETTER
April 2008
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HIGHLIGHTS
- Political Data Opportunity
- Howard T. Fisher Prize in Geographic Information Science
- Call for GIS Book Requests
- CGA Workshop Material Available
- Making Sense of Spatial Data Workshop
- AAG Harvard Field Trip
- UCGIS Summer Assembly
- Google Spreadsheet Mapper
- Mapquest API
- United Nations Data
- We Tell Stories
- More…
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CGA NEWS
Political Data Opportunity
Polidata.org contains publications, maps, election reports and histories, and analyses based on a comprehensive set of political and demographic data:
http://www.polidata.org/data/default.htm
Is there interest in obtaining this data for research projects at Harvard?
Please let us know by emailing: contact@cga.harvard.edu
The Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond used this data to put together some great map animation videos showing population trends over time:
http://dsl.richmond.edu/VotingAmerica/
Call for GIS Book Requests
The CGA has acquired funding to purchase GIS books for inclusion into the Harvard Library system. What books are of interest? Please visit:
http://gis.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k235&pageid=icb.page144303
to browse a list of potential books, add a book of interest, and submit feedback. Harvard login is required.
CGA Workshop Material Now Available
CGA’s GIS-training workshop materials are now available online at our Workshops & Training page. Powerpoint presentations, PDFs of Lab exercises, and data files to work with for all four workshops are available:
http://gis.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k235&pageid=icb.page24711
Making Sense of Spatial Data Workshop
CGA’s next free GIS-Training workshop is an introduction to spatial analysis for various kinds of problem solving in a GIS environment. Examples of both raster and vector data-based spatial operations like overlay, buffering, and interpolation will be covered. This non-credit workshop is the fourth in CGA’s series, and will be offered May 2 in Cambridge and May 9 in Longwood. To register scroll to the bottom right of this website:
http://gis.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k235&pageid=icb.page24711
CGA download area for GIS tools
As CGA develops tools they will be posted to this site. teKml and HGL Desktop tools are available now.
https://cga-download.hmdc.harvard.edu/publish_web/Geo_Tools/
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HARVARD GIS COMMUNITY NEWS
Howard T. Fisher Prize in Geographic Information Science
The competition for the Howard T. Fisher Prize for Excellence in Geographic Information Science offers an opportunity to all students at Harvard University, including both undergraduates and graduates in good standing, to submit their work in geographic information science and be considered for an award of $1,000 in each of the two categories – undergraduate and graduate – at Commencement. For submission deadlines, requirements, and more information:
http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/academic/fellowships/prizes/gisprize/
AAG Harvard Field Trip
The CGA and Harvard Map Collection hosted a field trip for attendees of the 2008 American Association of Geographers conference in Boston. The field trip concluded in the Pusey library reception area where posters showcased work performed by members of the Harvard community involving geography, mapping, or geographic analysis, and tours of the Map Collection were given. All posters will be published on the Center for Geographic Analysis website.
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CONFERENCES
UCGIS Summer Assembly
The University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) is a non profit organization of over seventy universities and other research institutions dedicated to expanding and strengthening geographic information science. The organization will hold its Summer Assembly from June 23 – 24, 2008 at the Hubert Humphrey Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Summer Assembly has a call for papers deadline of Sunday, April 20. There is also a research award, with a submission deadline of May 3. For more information see the topic on our Conferences site:
http://gis.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k235&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup7644
And view the flyer:
http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic35229.files/2008_SumAssem_papercall.pdf
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NEWS ON GIS RESEARCH AND SERVICES
Google Spreadsheet Mapper
A very slick way to add address, latitude, longitude data with images, web links, or other content directly from a spreadsheet to Google Earth.
http://earth.google.com/outreach/tutorial_mapper.html
Mapquest API
Mapquest is rolling out unlimited maps, geocoding, routing, and lots of other things in their new API.
http://devblog.mapquest.com/
United Nations Data
This UN site is a good new source for global datasets
http://devblog.mapquest.com/
MetaCarta Introduces GeoSearch News
http://www10.giscafe.com/nbc/articles/view_weekly.php?articleid=512842
National Archives, Library of Congress Highlight Mapping
Select National Archives holdings now are searchable from the Geospatial One-Stop (GOS) Historical Collections Channel, which the National Archives and the Library of Congress jointly manage.
http://www.geoplace.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=E06AE3DCE85444BBADF79835A8C48655
ArcGIS 9.2 Service Pack 5 now available
This patch is necessary for ArcGIS running on Windows Vista.
http://support.esri.com/index.cfm?fa=downloads.patchesServicePacks.viewPatch&PID=16&MetaID=1379
Demographic and Health Survey Data
A good source for Health and Population data, most with latitude longitude for import into GIS:
http://www.measuredhs.com/
The Geography of Gasoline Consumption
http://austinzoning.typepad.com/austincontrarian/2008/03/ive-done-some-m.html
Web 2.0 and GIS: From Ptolemy to Tufte and Beyond
Brian DeLacey, a former senior researcher at Harvard Business School, gave a talk at the Emerging Tech Conference in Philadelphia, PA on March 27, 2008. View his presentation:
http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic133949.files/Brian_DeLacey_Web2.pdf
Public Commend Solicited for Geographical Questions
The U.S. National Research Council’s Committee on Strategic Directions for the Geographical Sciences in the Next Decade is now receiving public comment on some very important/high profile questions, in which geographic information science has a role. Check out the questions and input your 2 cents:
http://dels.nas.edu/besr/SD_questionnaire.cgi
The Open Geography Journal
http://www.bentham.org/open/togeogj/index.htm
The OGC approves KML as an Open Standard
http://www.opengeospatial.org/pressroom/pressreleases
We Tell Stories
A neat combination of Google Maps and paths that communicate a story geographically.
http://wetellstories.co.uk/stories/week1/
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Editor of this issue: Jeff Blossom
The CGA Newsletter is published monthly. View previously published issues.
For the latest information, please visit our website http://gis.harvard.edu
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