Dan shares this interesting resource with me… an organization devoted to giving Geography its place! The GGiP Campaign (http://www.passion4geography.co.uk/) has two key aims: 1. To raise the profile of Geography as an academic subject in all forms of the media (newspapers, magazines, the internet, tv, radio, advertising, etc). 2. To increase awareness of the importance of Geography and the vital role that it plays in schools, colleges and universities in preparing young people for the complexities of life in the 21st century. The group wants to recruit devoted followers that will help the cause to give geography and geographers the recognition they deserve. Check out the Guardian anti-geography quotes that they’ve compiled… its quite funny, however, its also amusing that the group is trying to put them in their place… kudos! Add your name to the growing list of supporters. See http://www.geointeractive.co.uk/petition.htm
Archives for October 6, 2006
use Office Templates for just about everything
A tip: We all use Microsoft Office for some things… here’s a hint to help make your life a bit easier. Did U know that MS makes available a TON of Office templates. Everything from resume, press release, product flyer, newsletters etc… it’s all here. Select from a host of Word, Excel, and Access templates. There’s ever shopping checklists, greeting cards, and numerous financial templates … see http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/default.aspx
Alabama GIS data resources
Looking for Alabama GIS data? Start your search at at Alabama State Clearinghouse (free DRGs) at http://www.gsa.state.al.us/gsa/GIS/clearinghouse.html. Some other useful Alabama county and city GIS Data resources where you can locate freely available GIS data products:
Forbes on Google – the road ahead, LBS ads, radio, and a formal developer program
Forbes online has just published an interesting piece that looks at the direction of Google.. this coming from the latest Zeitgeist event the company hosted. Some items of interest include the company’s lead in their advertising solutions and the penetration they’ve made with mobile ads – great click-through due to the location sensitive aspect of this space. Also, the company’s newspaper ads and coming soon Google radio ads… yes indeed, all keyword based as a focal point. And how about this little tidbit… the company will soon come up with a formal program for developers using its open interfaces Apparently the plan down the road is for the developer program to become more centralized and orderly in an attempt to standardize and simplify it.. makes sense. For more see this great read at Forbes – http://www.forbes.com/business/2006/10/05/google-advertising-zeitgeist-tech-cz_qh_1005google.html
Late night Billiard dominos
off topic… A little Late night reading and something kinda fun from youtube… ok this dude has way too much time on his hands… enjoy!
Art of the Start in Waterloo
Guy Kawasaki is giving an Art of the Start speech for Communitech Friday, October 6th at 11:00 am in Fed Hall on the University of Waterloo campus. Anyone in or near Waterloo (that’s in Canada eh!) might want to go see Guy… he’s a great motivator! See details
chacha search engine… searching the web with a real, live person helping you!
I just read an article about a new search engine called ChaCha. It offers up basic search apparently using the dmoz open directory results (I think). It also has a guided search where a real person holds your hand and helps with your search. Apparently these are staffers (paid inn the area of $5 hr) to help you locate what you need. I had ChristinaL helping me but I have to say I’m still on the fence. In a test for “california Digital raster graphics” I enter the string in an “IM-ish” dialogue box and wait for my helper to come up with some hits. Using their vanilla search the results I find are weak to say the least. My CA DRG search which should comme up with CASIL you would think, has the state of Californa as #1, the CA constitution as #2, and the CA Libertarian party as #3… I think I’ll stick with Google for now! Oh… I’m still waiting for my helper to get back to me with something useful… LOL – see www.chacha.com and try for yourself, it’s quite amusing… apparently they need guides too! Oh, now my guide tells me to wait while she finds something for me.. about 4 minutes later I’m still waiting. As I wait I go and check out their blog… to my amazement this commpany has recently been written up in countless magazines and was even featured on Good Morning America… Jesus man, for what??? Obviously they have a great PR team working for them. I have no idea why this would garner so much attention… reminds me of the dot.bomb days of the 90s! I decide to give the engine a second test this time looking for “symbian S60 freeware”… i wait about 2 minutes and my guide “LaShanna” finds a few results and the one I expected came up number 1 (from SymbianOne.com) … ok, kind of cool I guess but do people have time for this? Not sure, although the feelilng of having a real person with you is kind of interesting. I have to wonder how often they get propositioned though!
Minnesota ToMO Service
DNR “Tons of Maps Online” or ToMO service. Here you can browse every USGS 1:24,000, 1:100,000 and 1:250:000 quadrangle for Minnesota. This is currently an experimental application at the time of posting. See http://maps.dnr.state.mn.us/tomo/
Minnesota Land Management Information Center
The LMIC has been responsible for developing a strategic plan for the Minnesota GIS – Minnesota’s Spatial Data Infrastructure. Recent success stories include the acquisition of 2003 orthoimagery for the entire State (cooperatively funded by the state and the National Aerial Imagery Program of the Farm Services Agency) and they made data available at no cost to users. LMIC maintains the MN Geographic Data Clearinghouse – a LMIC program that serves as a “One Stop” source for geospatial data needed to power Geographic Information Systems. Be sure to see the raster clipping project for DOQQs, NAIP data, and other othophotos… see http://www.lmic.state.mn.us/chouse/index.html – for DRGs see here
Maryland Mapping Resource Guide (MMRG)
The Maryland Mapping Resource Guide (MMRG) provides you with an easy, convenient tool to search and retrieve contact information for Maryland State Geographic Information Coordinating Committee (MSGIC) members, maps and geographic data relating to Maryland, information on GIS and mapping projects, and other resources related to mapping. Links to Open GIS Consortium (OGC) Web map services are available for previewing data via the Web. Data available for viewing in the interactive mapping application from the MSGIC include aerial photos, POIs, census data, protected areas, transportation data, and much more. The application was developed by the CGIS at Towson University. See http://www.marylandgis.net see also http://www.msgic.state.md.us/