blog de notas de juan freire

Algunos ejemplos:

Colaboraciones científicas

Altura de las olas durante el tsunami en Japón (NOAA)

Proyecciones de mapas (xkcd)

… A few methods of mapping time and space that I am interested in exploring in my own work:

“Solidarity Map” AREA Chicago 2006 - methodology: the power of naming places

“Superimpositions” Dan Mills 2007 method: scale comparison of Iraq and United States – this also reminds me of the power of the If It Were My Home Oil Spill Map.

“A Historical, Chronological and Genealogical Chart” Bostwick method: mapping geographical location with change over time.

“Evolution Charts” Loewy 1933 method: mapping change in forms over time.

“Los Angeles Urban Rangers Official Map and Guide” LA Urban Rangers 2004 method: subverting conventional NPS map symbology

“Memory Map” Ellis Nadler 2007 method: drawing things as we remember or imagine them — which reminds me that I need to add Kevin Lynch to my reading list.

“Polish American System of Chronology” Elizabeth Palmer Peabody 1850 method: total geometric abstraction of time.

“Water Line” Maya Lin 2002 method: showing 2-d representational methods in 3-d.

CrisisCommons is a global network of volunteers who use creative problem solving and open technologies to help people and communities in times and places of crisis. We seek not only coders, programmers, geospatial and visualization ninjas but collaborative, smart and savvy folks who can lead teams, manage projects, search the internet, translate languages, apply intuitive and universal access interfaces. We embrace innovation and open systems. We believe an idea can change the world. As they say, it takes a village. Won’t you join our tribe?

It all began with a lunch. Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the world wide web, was invited to Chequers in spring 2009. A government taskforce had just published a report aimed at making Britain a digital world leader and technological reform was in the air. Even so, Berners-Lee was surprised at what came next. “The prime minister asked me what Britain should do in order to make the best use of the internet,” he told Prospect in early January. “I said, you should put all your government data onto the web. And he said, let’s do it.” A month later, Berners-Lee flew in from his base at MIT in Boston for a meeting, this time a cup of tea with Brown in the garden at No 10. He brought with him his friend and colleague Nigel Shadbolt, a professor of artificial intelligence at Southampton University, who works on next generation web technology and has piloted his work on public data. Sitting in wicker chairs, they hatched a plan for a new government team, led by Berners-Lee, to unlock Britain’s public data.

On 21st January this year, less than 12 months later, the government launched a website to do just that (you may have seen the television adverts). Modelled on a similar effort by President Obama, data.gov.uk brings together over 2,500 public data sets, ranging from abandoned vehicles and A&E stats to child tax credits and carbon indicators. And Brown has promised, in a few months’ time, to open up the jewel in Britain’s data crown: the maps made by Ordnance Survey…

Crisis Mappers from around the world have been working around the clock to create maps and other tools for relief workers in Haiti. The earthquake caused tremendous damage to the road network and updated maps are necessary to enable food and volunteers to traverse the island.

The volunteer-driven Open Street Map project has become a central data source for the Crisis Mappers. It is regarded by many as the most up-to-date map of the area. It combines UN damage assessment, digitized imagery, Public Domain Topos and other base data. In the wake of the tragedy Google quickly released Haiti data gathered from its MapMaker program. DigitalGlobe has made itssatellite imagery of Haiti freely available as well (as did GeoEye).

Shortly there will be a free iPhone app with maps of Haiti coming to the App Store. Andrew Johnson and Jeffrey Johnson (no relation) have adapted an existing iPhone app (www.gaiagps.com) to provide offline maps to for relief workers. It combines Digital Globe (1m resolution), GeoEye (.5m resolution updated on 1/13), and OpenStreetMap (constantly being updated).

This version of Gaia GPS is intended to aid disaster relief for the Haitian earthquake. The app can be used to download maps and satellite imagery of the earthquake area, including up-to-date overlays of disaster sites, hospitals, and other relevant waypoints. The map data is provided by Digital Globe, GeoEye, OpenStreetMap, and the maps are hosted by the New York Public Library. 

The app also provides other features that might be relevant to disaster relief efforts: 

1) Recording of GPS tracks, waypoints, and geo-tagged photos 
2) Import/export GPX tracks and photos 
3) Guidance to waypoints and along tracks.