October 2012

2013-09-10

CENTER FOR GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS NEWSLETTER

October 2012

HIGHLIGHTS

Post-Doc position open at the CGA – Apply today
CGA Speakers & Events: Seminars, Geography Colloquium, ABCD-GIS Presentation
CGA Learning Opportunities: GIS Institute, GIS for Humanists & quick training workshops
Join the CGA’s ArcGIS Online Community & see WorldMap implementations
CGA Software, Products & Services – a sampling
Conferences, Calls, Events & Employment:
Hurricane Sandy Crisis Map; US Presidential Election Interactive Maps
News on GIS Research and Services
GIS Day is Wednesday, November 14^th!

CGA NEWS

Esri’s Jack Dangermond spoke at Harvard this week

Jack Dangermond is a pioneer in the development of geographic information systems as tools for envisioning and engaging urban environments and landscape architecture. A graduate of the Harvard GSD (MLA ‘69), in 1969 he founded the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri) to research and create mapping and data analysis technologies for environmental design. Esri is now recognized as the world leader in the development of GIS software integral to industries and urban design across the globe. He stopped in to see people at the CGA and GSD while he was here this week and presented at the EMR 21 course “Mapping Our World”.

CGA mentioned in “LETTER FROM THE DEAN”

“Situated within IQSS, the University-wide Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA) provides GIS infrastructure and services. In January 2012, CGA released version 1.0 of WorldMap, an open-source common platform for the integration of spatial data from diverse sources. With funding from HILT, the center is developing a new General Education course that will use GIS and WorldMap to introduce students to contemporary map design and GIS spatial analysis.” View entirety of Dean’s Annual Report.

Call for Applications: Harvard CGA Post-Doc Position

The position: Post Doctoral Research Associate at the Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA), Harvard University is now open. The primary responsibility of the appointee is to design and implement new spatial reasoning curricula at Harvard College and other schools at Harvard University. The successful candidate will interact with several different faculty members to customize new instructional content. S/he will provide instructional support in four distinct manners: 1) designing new geographic modules for diverse courses, 2) preparing learning materials, 3) training teaching assistants, and 4) providing learning support, including technical support in classrooms and tutorial environments. View more details on our employment page.

Call for Visualizations: Fisher Prize in GIS

The CGA is inviting “geographic visualization” submissions for our annual spring conference. These submissions may be in poster, video, 3d model, interactive website, or another format that can be set up in exhibit space. This year’s conference is “Creating the Policy and Legal Framework For A Location–Enabled Society” and will take place May 2-3, 2013. All registered attendees are invited to participate in the poster and video contest. The deadline is not until Friday, April 26 so this is a reminder to use this semester’s coursework for your submission. Learn more on our Fisher Prize pages.

CGA Events in November:

CGA Special Seminar

We will host a special seminar on Monday, November 5 @ 4:00 to 5:30 PM in the CGIS Knafel Building, room K354. Leif Isaksen, Lecturer in Digital Humanities, Deputy Director of the Web Science Doctoral Training Centre, University of Southampton, will speak about “Pelagios and Google Ancient Places: a Sea-change in Linked Ancient Data”.

Harvard Geography Colloquium

November’s Geography Colloquium will be held on Wednesday, November 7 @ 12 noon to 1:30 PM in the CGIS South building, room S050. Paul Cote, Geographic Information Systems Specialist @ Harvard Graduate School of Design will speak about “Information Ecology vs Entropy: Cybernetic Infrastructure for Place-Based Research”. Learn about our Geography Colloquium series.

GIS Day: ABCD-GIS Presentation

November’s ABCD-GIS talk will be held on Wednesday, November 14 @ noon in Room K262 of the CGIS Knafel building at 1737 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA. Presenter Carl Nylen from Esri will present “ArcGIS Online & Esri Maps for Office.” View information about our ABCD-GIS presentation series

GIS Day: New York Times Presentation

We will host a special presentation on Wednesday, November 14 @ 1:30 PM in Room K262 of the CGIS Knafel building at 1737 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA. Presenters Archie Tse and Jeremy White from the New York Times will present “Mapping the 2012 U. S. Presidential Election.”

GIS Day: Ignite Spatial Boston 4

Ignite Spatial Boston 4 will be held on Wednesday, November 14 from 6:30 – 9:30 PM in Tsai Auditorium, CGIS South Building, Harvard University 1730 Cambridge St Cambridge, MA. At the events Ignite presenters share their personal and professional passions, using 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds for a total of just five minutes. Register to attend and/or Submit a proposal to present.

New Software Available:

We now have ArcGIS Business Analyst version 10.1, both data and software. Esri’s business data gives you the best information to conduct trade area analyses and research current and future business opportunities. Get information about businesses by location and industry classification codes. Also access data on banking, crime, cable, shopping and traffic. Email us to request it.

Join the CGA’s ArcGIS Online Community

Create interactive maps and apps and share them easily with the public or a private group. Share your live maps and data on blogs, social media posts, or via custom apps. Do this quickly and easily with nothing to install or setup. Access a rich collection of basemaps, demographic maps, image services, and data. These maps are a great foundation for your work and are created only from the authoritative content from commercial data providers and the GIS user communities around the world. Read more on our ArcGIS Online page.

WorldMap News

BostonMap

BostonMap is an instance of the CGA’s WorldMap platform. It was built to assist academic research and teaching as well as the general public, and supports discovery, investigation, analysis, visualization, communication and archiving of multi-disciplinary, multi-source and multi-format data, organized spatially and temporally. It is a part of the new Boston Area Research Institute website and is being presented to the City of Boston. The CGA has developed “jump to” connectors to bridge between BostonMap and City of Boston GIS systems.

Twitter Feed:

The image at right is an image of a heatmap of tweets within the USA that include the word “ain’t ”. Those data were taken from 15.1 million geocoded tweets collected over period Jan. 25 to Feb. 13, 2012 This is just one of many ways people use our WorldMap platform. Explore and upload your own data to the WorldMap platform: http://worldmap.harvard.edu/

CGA Learning Opportunities:

GIS Institute Call for Applications – deadline extended to 10/30

Twice per year, the CGA offers a two-week program of intensive training in geographic information systems (GIS). It is offered in January and June, and meets daily for two weeks, 9:30 am to 5:00 pm. The program is designed for Harvard graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty who want to learn spatial analysis and apply GIS methods in their research. No previous GIS training required, but you must have familiarity with MS Office and Internet usage. Read more and register online.

GIS for Humanists Workshop Call for Applications

This full-day workshop will be held on Thursday, 12/06. It offers hands on instruction in basic GIS tools and techniques for Humanists addressing an array of questions for both their own research interests and class pedagogy. Learning will be framed around specific tasks and results as well as the technologies to achieve, document, and analyze those findings. Instruction will include basic tools and software, GPS devices, Google Earth marking and measurements, WorldMap, and Introductory ArcGIS. Read more and register online.

Free Two-Hour GIS Workshops:

Remaining Sessions this semester:

How to Create Google Maps Mashups: 11/02 in Cambridge
Open Source Desktop GIS with Quantum: 11/09 in Cambridge
Worldmap Training: 11/16 in Cambridge
ArcGIS Online & Esri Maps for MS Office: 11/30 in Cambridge
5. Getting the Most out of Google Earth: 12/07 in Cambridge

Check out some CGA Products:

· Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilization (DARMC)

The Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilization (DARMC) makes freely available on the internet the best available materials for a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approach to mapping and spatial analysis of the Roman and medieval worlds. DARMC allows innovative spatial and temporal analyses of all aspects of the civilizations of western Eurasia in the first 1500 years of our era, as well as the generation of original maps illustrating differing aspects of ancient and medieval civilization. A work in progress with no claim to definitiveness, it has been built in less than three years by a dedicated team of Harvard undergraduates, graduate students, research scholars and one professor, with some valuable contributions from younger and more senior scholars at other institutions. http://cga-3.hmdc.harvard.edu/darmc/

China Historical GIS (CHGIS)

The CHGIS project has produced a comprehensive series of datasets related to the administrative geography of Chinese History. The data layers include nationwide coverages (for the years 1820 and 1911), and time series (for the Dynastic period from 221 BCE to 1911 CE). The administrative features include Provinces, Circuits, Prefectures, and Counties as they changed over time. Supplemental datasets include G.W. Skinner regional systems, Buddhist sites, features from historic Russian maps of China, Tibetan townships, modern gazetteer layers for each province, and many others. http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~chgis

Check out some CGA Services:

· Plotting & Scanning of documents up to 42” wide

The CGA offers large format map and poster plotting services on our HP DesignJet Z6100 plotter. We can plot posters of any length, in color. We also have a large format color scanner, capable of scanning documents up to 42 inches wide at high resolution. Both these services are available for Harvard use. Email us to request use of this hardware.

· GPS Devices free for your use

The CGA maintains GPS devices which can be checked out on a first-come first-served basis by people with a Harvard affiliation. We offer a wide range of devices: accuracy varies from 10-meter to sub-meter, and features vary from camera-equipped to PDA to Bluetooth, etc. We’ll even train you on how to use your own smart phone as a GPS device. View our devices on our GPS page.

CONFERENCES, CALLS, EVENTS & EMPLOYMENT

CFP: 12th International Symposium on Web and Wireless GIS - deadline 10/30

CFP: TransNav 2013 – deadline 10/31

CFP: Special GIScience Research Session @ Esri UC - deadline 11/09

CFP: AAG: Integrated Natural Disaster Reduction and Sustainable Development in China - deadline 11/14

CFA: Esri and PCI Geomatics Natural Resources Imagery Grants - deadline 11/16

CFP: Call for Photos for GIS Day

Event: NEARC 2012: November 11-14

Event: GIS & Spatial & Spatial Thinking in the Undergraduate Curriculum: Nov 16-18

November Conferences in GIS (a sampling):

Understanding Land, People and Environment: Research and Teaching perspectives in Geography: November 10-11 in Bucharest , Germany
NEARC 2012: November 11-14 in Rockland, ME
GIS & Spatial & Spatial Thinking in the Undergraduate Curriculum: Nov 16-18 @ Bucknell University

Employment Opportunities in GIS in New England: