National Geographic has an article today about blogs and maps, highlighting—once again—the growing prominence of maps on the webs and the movement towards more map output. However, we're still stuck here wondering when people will become less interested in maps and more interested in having access to the underlying data. Although it's nice that you can create a map easily, there are few sites whose stated objectives are to actually share the data for analysis and further study. It is interesting that the map craze spawned by the availability of raw data and free mapping services may well …

The results of the annual National Geographic Society survey of geo-literacy are in and we are once get a country that is largely "geo-illiterate". The results indicate that despite fighting a war in Iraq for several years, 63% of 18-24 year olds can't locate Iraq on a map. Other major news also failed to have an impact on our geographical knowledge as 3/4 of all respondents couldn't locate Indonesia (Tsunami) on a world map and that 1/3 couldn't find Louisiana and 48% couldn't locate Mississippi on a map. For more depressing news about our country read the article …

Although I live in a very landlocked area of the U.S. I am fascinated by the ocean and sailing upon it. Now my fascination has a new place to manifest itself in the form of Sailwf.info. This site provides a live tracking map of ships locations around the world, powered by the World Meterological Organization's Voluntary Observing Ship service. The site allows users to select different areas of the world as well as different classes of ships (Tall Ships, Cruise Ships, Research Vessels, etc ..) for viewing. In addition, users can query for specific ships as well and chart …

For those of you who spent too much time reading comics in their youth, or still do, there is a new map project being undertaken to map all of the Marvel Comic world. Entitled the Marvel Atlas Project (MAP), the project is the work of Sean Kleefeld and it currently encompasses quite a few maps from around the world of Marvel Comics. While the navigation is a little clunky at times (you can't click on the maps to view other maps) it is nonetheless an interesting site. In addition to maps there is a lot of interesting information relating to …

The London Times has an article describing a phenomenon that you almost can't believe. Apparently, a few people a day have been needing a tow out of a ford in Luckington, UK due to paying more attention to their GPS Nav systems instead of road signs and conditions.

Amazingly, despite my gadget freak nature I had largely avoided getting an iPod until very recently. However, a few short Weeks ago my family (thanks again) gave me a new 5G 60 gig do everything you ever wanted and more iPod. While I spent a week or so playing with the music and putting video on it (Get Eye TV 2 if you don't have it already), I finally got around to trying to put USEFUL maps on my iPod. As with everything, there are various different alternatives, some good, some not, some free, some not. Read more after the …

While Gawker has been providing celebrity sighting information for years in their "Stalker" section, they have recently started using Google maps to provide mapped locations of the celebrity sightings. Interestingly, once they put them in map format, everyone decided to freak out. Notably celebrity manager Ken Sunshine has said "It invites weirdos, if not dangerous weirdos, to physically come in contact with anybody they choose to expose on this site". While, I agree that people are a little celebrity obsessed, the information is hardly stalking as it is presented and not worthy of all the negative publicity it has been …

While we are still years away from live tracking by satellite in applications like Google Earth, Wired magazine has an article about how several companies are busy launching new satellites to improve both resolution and image refresh. In particular, the article discusses the plans of companies like GeoEye and DigitalGlobe are launching new satellites that will allow for users to view objects as small as 1.3 feet across and to capture more imagery more often. All of these new features will provide enhanced imagery that will help allay some of the complaints about old and blurry imagery currently used …

My third and final installment about AAG 2006 concerns mostly my own selfish interests in the mapping of crime. Although we didn't do much advertising of the presentations and the times were bad (Friday 8:00 and 10:00 a.m.) in a converted guest room in the middle of a labyrinth maze, the audience was solid. Moreover so were the presentations and the discussion. More after the jump. As a researcher who focuses almost exclusively on the spatial aspects of crime in all of its many facets, our small, by comparison, presentations on Friday were important for a couple …

Although it is actually several days since day 2 of my AAG experience, I am only now getting around to blogging about the days events. While day 2 involved some of the same problems as Day 1, namely over crowded rooms and too many good presentations at the same time slot, there was one presentation which was quite notable involving Google Earth and its impact on spatial perceptions. More after the jump. The best presentation of Day 2 for me was in session 3514 "Geography v2.0: Internet-based Virtual Globes". The session dealt completely with new internet based products from …

Well it was an interesting first day at the AAG conference for me, starting with being part of a panel on Blogging organized by Jesse and Susan of Very Spatial and including seeing some good presentations on spatial analysis and Sprawl. As with any academic conference, much of the best stuff occurs in informal meetings with other attendees, in my case a discussion with a Walgreens Executive about how spatial analysis and modeling is used to determine store locations. Read more about each after the jump. The day began with a panel on Blogging by geography types that was organized …

Starting tomorrow I will be attending the Association of American Geographers conference in Chicago, making and attending presentations and generally getting my fill of all things spatial. Of note will be the panel I am participating on led by the folks at Very Spatial dealing with blogging about spatial issues. Look for a podcast of the panel sometime this week. I hope to post some articles concerning interesting presentations, books, etc... from the conference, but if it is too busy the posting may go down.

With the announcement today by Apple of the new Mac Mini and hifi stereo I thought it would be a fitting time to review the current state of GIS on Macs. As anyone who is familiar with GIS knows, the Mac has been virtually ignored by the GIS community in terms of software options. However, there are a few options that serve different markets and have different price points and thus a review was born. Read more after the jump. As some one who teaches GIS at the University level and is an avowed Mac user, GIS has been the …

According to Very Spatial and other sources, a patent issued February 14th to Neil Balthaser, a former Macromedia Executive, may cause problems for Google Maps and other sites that use dynamic movement. Apparently, the patent covers rich media such as Ajax, Flash, and Java, and could impact any web site that use dynamic movement, including video and animation.In particular the patent could spell problems for all of the major web mapping sites although it is unclear if the patent will stand up to legal challenge. Importantly, Very Spatial mentions that one of the options for the patent holder may …

In order to help viewers of HBO's Sopranos remember what happened in the story when it last aired nearly 2 years ago, HBO is teaming up with Google Maps and Deep Focus, an online marketing company, to show images and video footage from the last season. Using satellite images from Google, the map displays 15 icons that represent the locations where important points in last seasons storyline took place. When a user clicks on the icon the scene plays in a pop up window which also provides a description and list of characters. Apparently Google is allowing the use of …

According to a press release (formatted in an extremely ugly fashion due to the lame web site) from the Open Geospatial Consortium, the OGC has approved proposals for putting GML inside of JPEG2000. The specification (PDF) gives details on how this data is to be inserted into the image files.

GlobeXplorer, a major provider of satellite and aerial photo data, has just introduced a new feature to its ImageAtlas aerial/satellite map viewer that allows users to instantly pick, compare, and purchase images from multiple dates. In particular users will be able to use a pull down menu to select from all the different images available from GlobeXplorer. While the range of images available will vary greatly by the location, in some major metropolitan areas the images will go back 15 years or more. Although Google and others have gotten a lot of the press it is good to see …

Engadget Mobile is reporting that the new HP iPaq hw6900 series has a feature that is quite unique, but quite useful for many. Specifically, they are reporting that when the user takes a picture with the built in camera (1.3 mega pixel I think) that the hw6900 will automatically stamp the photo with the coordinates from the built in GPS unit. While I have seen specialized professional software that allows GPS coordinates to be attached to digital pictures this is the first consumer application I have seen. Although some might think this feature is gadget conversion gone awry I …

VerySpatial has a story about research papers from Ordnance Survey being available online now. The link comes from EdParsons.com, blog of the CTO at Ordnance Survey.

Next time your in Los Angeles and your thinking about going on a high speed police chase, almost as fun as Disneyland, you might want to re-consider. The L.A. Daily News has an article describing a new GPS technology developed by Virginia based StarChase that allows police to shoot GPS tracking pods at cars in a police chase. The pods are encased in some kind of sticky substance, relay location information to a monitoring center of some sort and are designed to help reduce car chase deaths. One cool feature is that these can be shot either from a …