Building Permits Mapping Mashup
The New York Times building permits map is another Google web map mashup created by the newspaper as a public service. The mapping data is supplied by the NYC Department of buildings.
The New York City Building Permits map lets you search by borough, neighborhood, time, and type of permit. The results are mapped on Google Maps above a clickable list of those meeting your criteria. The building data includes address, location, permit issue date, filing status, and expiration date.
The New York Times seems to be increasing its online news mapping efforts in recent months. News is very much location specific. Mapping the news adds the third dimension that flat paper reporting often lacks. The NY Times building permits map is an example of what can be accomplished when combining news and maps online.Google Maps News Archive Demo
Mapping the news gives an added dimension to the old New Media by combining two of the most popular uses for the web, news and maps. The New York Times website has some thirteen million articles in its online archives, dating back to 1851. Rather than take the NewsMap online mapping route, the New York Times is trying to map the actual text of its news archives.
Free Mapped News Archives
Still in experimental phase, the Times and Space news map site is a Google Maps mashup work in progress. In fact the code for the Times and Space map is available for free download. Like the pre-1923 New York Times archives the mapping code for Times and Space is in the public domain which means you can modify it for your own web mapping services.
Online news has taken away readership from floundering newspapers throughout the world. The New York Times Times and Space news map mashup is a step in the right direction for newspapers that want to compete on a global scale in new media.
Mapping Baby Names with Google Maps
The Baby Name Map is a Google Maps mashup where you can easily browse the most common baby names by location. Expecting parents can visually see the most common baby names in their area with a click on the map. You can also upload pictures of people you know who have a certain first name and comment on your favorite baby names.
You Still Have Your Baby Name
The name your parents chose for you sticks for your entire life. The handy map of baby names gives parents the ability to quickly scan their area and choose a baby name that has quality but also relative uniqueness.
Baby name maps are a unique and interesting use of Google Maps. The Baby Name Map is further proof that when you put the means to map in the hands of the masses they will reproduce at an ever growing rate. Reproduce maps, that is.
Google Earth Census Explorer
The Google Earth Census Explorer is a web mapping service mashup that displays graphical United States census data. All you need is Google Earth installed on your windows enabled computer and access to the internet.
Google Earth Census Explorer will show color coded boundaries related to US census variables, as well as 3D boundaries, bars, pie charts, statistics, histograms, and scatter plots. You can save data sets as KML, KMZ,CSV and DBF files.
The census mapping software runs as a toolbar from your desktop and a browser based version is planned. Because the Google Earth Census Explorer mashup is freeware you can modify for your own uses. This means you can tweak it to map the census data of countries other than the US.
Map Gigapan Multibillion Pixel Panoramas
Turn an ordinary off the shelf digital camera into a panoramic camera with billion pixel resolution. Geocode your panorama and map the image onto the Google Earth web mapping service.
How Gigapan Panoramic Images are Made
Gigapan enables even inexpensive digital cameras to take hundreds of overlapping digital images that are then programmatically stitched together into a single panoramic image. Because each image can be composed of billions of pixels, the resolution is astounding. Gigapan images can be panned and features zoomed to amazing detail not available on ordinary digital images.
Gigapan images are created using a robotic camera mounted on a tripod and software developed by Carnegie Mellon University and NASA Ames Research Center. The Gigapan system can be combined with web mapping services to give detailed views of geographic features.
Gigapan and Google Earth
There is also a Google Earth Gigapan layer that allows mapping enthusiasts to fly into the panoramas during online geodiscovery expeditions. Exciting educational and buisiness possibilities abound with combination Gigapan panoramas and web mapping services.
Minimap Sidebar for Google Maps on FireFox
The MiniMap Sidebar extension for the FireFox browser puts powerful mapping tools within easy reach. For those of us who frequently use online mapping services the Mini Map mashup adds an easily available level of functionality to our online browsing.
A Variety of Web Mapping Services
The MiniMap Sidebar allows you to easily switch between several of the most widely used internet mapping services including:
- Google Maps
- Yahoo Maps
- Windows Live Local
- Google Earth
Geodiscovery with MiniMap
With MiniMap mapping addresses is as easy as highlighting the address and then dragging and dropping addresses onto MiniMap from the web page you are on. The location is then kept on the mapping interface so that you can easily navigate to the same spot later on.
Additional web mapping functionality includes obtaining latitude and longitude, generating the code needed to embed a map into a web page, sending a link to the map via email, and route directions using several of the web mapping services.
Some websites now include positional information in the form of geotags, and the MiniMap Sidebar allows you to quickly view the geographical locations. The MiniMap interface also gives the ability to view Google Earth KML files before opening the map service.
The Geolocative Web
The Minimap Sidebar is another excellent web map service mashup that shows great promise as the internet becomes more geolocative. This is good news for the web mapping community and those of us who use maps for work and play. Nice work Spatial Views!
Google Maps API vs Microsoft Live Maps API
Should you use Google Maps API or Live Maps API for your internet mapping? I have wracked my brains about which web mapping service to use.
Comparing the recency and resolution of satellite imagery and aerial photos it is obvious there are differences between each web map service, and these vary according to location. In addition the web map services provide varying degrees of functionality and support beyond simply viewing the maps that can be important to your mapping projects.
Choosing the best internet mapping API is a tough call and the issue is being discussed on Slashdot. This informative discussion also brings up the possibilities of using MapQuest, Yahoo Maps API, and even OpenStreetMap.
So is it Google Maps API or Microsoft Live Maps API? Maybe you should be using both for your online mapping!
OpenStreetMap Completes Netherlands Mapping Project
The Netherlands is the first country to be completely mapped by OpenStreetMap. This milestone is hoped to spur a further interest in the open mapping project.
Throughout the world most maps come with strings attached. Even supposedly free maps are usually hobbled with trademarks and copyrights. The OpenStreetMap project aims to change all that and has a wide following of users and contributors.
OpenStreetMap is an open mapping project where anyone can contribute to an editable map of the world. The “Free Wiki World Map” is an ongoing mapping project of the masses, a collaborative mapping project that makes its geographic data freely available to anyone, anywhere, for any purpose.
The OpenStreetMap mapping project was recently granted 12,000 euro to create 10 mapping groups to focus on Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and the Hague. With the Netherlands OpenStreetMap project a great success I am looking forward to seeing my favorite areas mapped and available.
Google Earth and the Sierra Club 52 Places in the US
The Sierra Club is using Google Earth as a mapping aid for its America’s Wild Legacy effort. The club has chosen one place in each of the states and Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia as national treasures that need protection. These 52 places have been mapped on Google Earth and are available in a Wild Legacy kmz file.
Unchecked development has devastated many of the special lands throughout the United States. Unsustainable development threatens to destroy America’s Wild Legacy at an ever increasing rate and robs us all of irreplaceable natural resources. The Sierra Club wants to protect these 52 places over the next 10 years.
I know this to be true as I am fortunate to live in a beautiful area where poor development choices have taken many wonderful places from public access and harmed irreplaceable resources that are far more valuable as public treasures.
The Google Earth map of America’s Wild Legacy contains placemarks with description bubbles containing photos and links to the Sierra Club website and the America’s Wild Legacy 52 Places Report.
Because maps are intuitive to most people, Google Earth can be used to convey a large mount of information at a glance. Anyone who visits the American's Wild Legacy web page is going to click on the Google Earth location for his state and probably explore other legacy areas throughout the United States.
Geovisualization Tool for World Freedom Statistics
The World Freedom Atlas is a geovisualization tool that maps the statistics of freedom throughout the world. This online mapping mashup is programmed in Flash8 Actionscript 2 with help from PHP and the MySQL database.
The World Freedom Atlas geovisualization tool takes world statistics from a wide range of datasets and maps them according to three broad categories according to the Quality of Government Institute.
What it Is maps datasets that measure human rights, democracy, and good governance.
Data mapped include:
- What is It - the level of human rights and freedom as mapped within each country.
- How to Get it - maps factors that lead to the increase of freedom, democracy, and development.
- What You Get - maps the tangile benefits free societies bestow upon their citizens.
The World Freedom Atlas currently covers the years 1990 to 2006. The data required a great deal of processing in order to create the map.
The central object for The World Freedom Atlas is for the better understanding of freedom, democracy, human rights, and good governance through the power of mapping or geovisualization. If you enjoy this map you may also be interested in the World Bank Online Atlas of the Millennium Development Goals.
