[update: there's a great new post on worldchanging.com about this. -cb ]
I spent some time today searching for sailboats in satellite imagery, looking for signs of computer scientist Jim Gray. The story is covered here.
The significance of using this technology to do this work is obvious. Using satellite imagery to find a particular lost person is a dramatic, symbolic moment indicating some maturation of the approach — I can only hope that it will be applied on a larger scale in the coming years.
Likewise I was so deeply impressed by the Katrina PeopleFinder project, and I am eager to see extensions of this type of “humanitarian-tech” project. It just seems that there are so many people who are willing to help do data entry or pattern recognition from their home as volunteers … not to mention the 34,153 geek-brain-hours wasted on programming .ASP shopping carts or similar byte-drivel every day …
And, without being critical of the people involved in setting this up (seriously, cheers to those involved in getting this going!) I think it is interesting to note that the person we are looking for is a famed computer scientist. Besides the contextual irony — he had a lot to do with making this search possible — we should be conscious of the need to broaden our collective altruism. There are so many people that right now could benefit from having a project dedicated to analyzing their needs from above. They just don’t make the newspaper when they disappear.
I have a love for maps because they can be the most rich, yet easy-to-understand communication tools. ReliefWeb, a website devoted to distributing time-sensistive information about humanitarian crises, is an excellent resource for insightful maps and infographics. You can sign up to receive email updates of all their new maps. Suff like this map showing displaced persons in the DRC.
Maps in the mailbox? Wonderful.
This Washington state map is an example of what nonprofitdesign.org is creating for my local (NC) biofuels community website (in the works).
This new biofuels website, I hope, will have a map that functions better than most of the buggy hatchet-jobs out there (above site excepted, of course).
There are a lot of directions that can be taken regarding an interactive map, i.e.: Google API (AJAX) vs. Yahoo API (Flash), local vs. national, user-editable vs. administrator-operated. I’m currently soliciting help from other programmers online and of about our options, because I don’t have a lot of advanced Javascript under my belt. Personally, I want to see two major features:
1. Images of the pumps included in each “pin” on the map (for orientation).
2. Community-editable, not completely administrator-run.
As for the NC Biofuels community website as a whole, I hope to achieve three things:
1.) Share technical information about their experience in making + using biofuels. I would like to include references, for example, to articles in academic journals. (Using RSS syndication, this could be largely automated, and it would be as current as can be.)
2.) Find information about current local legislation, and easily email relevant legislators. This is easy enough to implement with PHP.
Lyle “Energy Blog” Estill at Piedmont Biofuels.)
We could syndicate all of their posts on the community site so you can read everyone’s posts in one place. Likewise we could create a tag for use in Flickr, Technorati and delicious. (Something like NCbiofuels.)
(Using tags to create a close community online has certainly worked well for the nptech folks in recent months, though it is easier because we’re all geeks. But even if just a few people used it for photosharing it would work well enough.)
And we could also have a more traditional bulletin board for on-site conversations. (Probably using PhpBB, if I have my druthers.) And I think that a really comprehensive “Upcoming NC biofuels events” page would be an important result of this online community building.
I know that all of these things are happening already online in the community, but I want to magnify and multiply the network. I don’t want to replace, just republish and distribute widely.
This is minor news in most contexts: Google Earth (the software power tool that feels like a toy) has been released for the Mac.
Aside from the obvious usefulness of this release, this signals a money-where-their-mouth-is confirmation thae Google isn’t just reinforcing Microsoft’s monopolistic dominance.
Google has offered a wealth of opportunities for open source, multi-platform development. But their unusual business model (offer almost *everything* for free) means that they’ve been targeting the largest mass of computer users — Microsoft-bound users, that is.
As (Open Source Journalist) Glyn Moody wrote recently:
Google’s software is heavily weighted towards Microsoft Windows. Programs like Google Earth and Picasa are only available under Windows, and its latest, most ambitious foray, the Google Pack, is again only for Microsoft’s operating system. This means that every time Google comes out with some really cool software, it is reinforcing Microsoft’s hold on the desktop. Indeed, we are fast approaching the point where the absence of GNU/Linux versions of Google’s programs are a major disincentive to adopt an open source desktop.
Glad to see that little bit of criticism go so out of date so quickly. Now, Google, a Linux release, please.
Via: The Map Room: Google Earth for Mac Officially Released
Key system requirements: OS X 10.4 (Tiger), a 400-MHz processor, and 16 MB of video RAM, minimum — essentially, even a G3 iBook from mid-2002 should be able to handle it — but they recommend more than 1.5 GHz, 32 megs of video and a fairly speedy broadband connection. I’ve been restraining myself from acquiring the leaked beta, but I’m going to download it now.
I have spent an awful lot of (relative) time writing about maps in this space over the last month, but this one really caught my eye.
Declan Butler has recently worked with the journal Nature to publish a map of the H5N1 avian influenza virus outbreaks over the last two years. He used some data from various government sources, an MS Access database, and the ever popular (astoundingly fun) Google Earth application.
This is why the new breed of online maps are such wonderful tools for creating understanding: With a little technical work (and perhaps a lot of fact-checking), you can create simple yet information-rich presentation of a pandemic that is affecting millions.
Good writeups of the new map can be found on the Nature website and at WorldChanging. (You can find details of the programming side on Declan’s Blog.)
The trendiness of “mashups” is frustrating to me when I see it only being applied to giving superfluous but super-detailed information about movie times and local gas prices.
In this anticapitalist, curmudegonly spirit I appreciate journalist Glyn Moody’s alternative description of Google Earth “conceptually simple scaffolding for other data to be brought together and displayed.” As he points out in his bioinformatics/open source blog, this type of platform has incredible implications for the sharing of scientific resources. Like all open source concepts/applications, this has the greatest impact on science in the developing world, where resources remain scant.
All state-collected geographic information should be shared, for a myriad of reasons. Now you can add your name to a growing list of folks that agree.
Geodata is a public good. Open access to it, under a ‘Commons’ (ShareAlike) license, is the best way to see its full benefits realized by industry and citizens. At the same time such an arrangement, by requiring users to redistribute updates and improvements to the data, promises to deliver more and better data for less.
Visit: Open Access to State-collected Geodata
The Community Mapping Network (CMN)provides an online mapping application that allows folks in British Columbia, Canada, to create and edit information about environmental resources in their areas.
The application is used for sustainable city planning efforts and other types of environmentally-sensitive decision making.
Perhaps more interestingly, the CMN also hosts a directory of international projects, which you can contact and volunteer with if you’re so inclined. These are mostly intended to “collect natural resource information about fish and wildlife species and sensitive riparian, fresh water and marine habitats.”
It’s a Canadian grassroots effort, and it’s a wonderful thing to see. I especially like their broader mission to empower communities environmentally:
Mapping typically takes place in rural and urban areas to assist planning sustainable communities and should also be used as a vehicle for empowering community conservation and stewardship of natural resources.”
I love this site and their model (although some of their Macromedia ColdFusion mapping applications didn’t work on my computer.)
I believe that this type of project might be feasable for other types of community projects or collaboratives. Perhaps GPS cellphones and some server-side GIS could make a popular urban system investigating, perhaps, an environmental justice problem.
Just discovered a beautiful resource of maps (mostly environmental info, especially soil) for most of the countries of Africa. (Found via Kikuyumoja’s realm.)
This is an incredibly thorough, high-quality resource, with scanned resolutions that will knock any map-lover’s socks off. The pages are easy to navigate, with appropriately-sized thumbnails and then really large downloadables.
Suitable for framing. And repurposing with overlaid data.
Here’s a bit from their intro:
“Data and information are essential building blocks of science. Many types of data, including extant historical data which have newly appreciated scientific importance for the analysis of changes over time, are not being used for research because they are not available in digital formats” (International Council for Science, 2004).
Maps made in the past remain the backbone for present and future studies. … Less and less new, fundamental soil data are being produced these days; the older data and information are being pumped around more and more. Therefore it is vital to preserve the older data (in this case maps) as they are building blocks of most current soil information. The user of present-day, derived information should have easy access to the source material, if only to assess the reliability of the derived material.
But, in many countries, soil maps are being lost because of lack of proper attention to storage and retrieval … This problem is acute in developing and transitional countries where valuable data, currently only available on paper, must be digitized before they are lost forever… The digitization of the African maps will enable the African countries to recover and re-use their soil information.
Translation of soil information from paper maps and reports into digital format is a prerequisite of the next step - the development of a digital information system on soil and terrain that may be drawn upon for manifold applications.
And now you can jump straight to the maps.
How do you make a regular cellphone location-aware? Apparently, you monitor the records indicating which tower the phone is on. Movement from one tower to the next can give highly accurate readouts on the movement of individuals and crowds.
I wouldn’t think that this would give you manageable data that was accurate enough to do anything with, but it turns out that, yet again, profit motives will find a way. Companies are working with cellphone carriers to track traffic patterns to prevent traffic jams. You will sign up for a fee and get readouts of the general direction of people.
This seems more significant, however, because of the general applicability of this method. Apparently it is even possible to tell with some accuracy wether the cellphone traveling — which doesn’t even have to be turned on (!) — is in the pocket of a person traveling by bike, by foot, or by car. This would allow, perhaps, for sophisticated monitoring of disaster relief efforts, for example.
Fascinating, but also, for some, Orwellian. Privacy advocates are worried about this emergence of broader monitoring applications, particularly in the instance of a developing protests. Recent spontaneous protests in Latin America and China come to mind. Police would theoretically be able to tell where protesters were convening just by looking at changes in the traffic patterns of cell phones.
It’s hard not to imagine some hollow volcano where we’re all being tracked like so many schools of fish, but there must be some useful applications here as well. We’ll see how the market develops.
“Maryland and Virginia are testing technology that allows them to monitor traffic by tracking cellphone signals and mapping them against road grids.”
Read it: Enlisting Cellphone Signals to Fight Road Gridlock
(Found on:NYT > Technology.)
Being a great way to communicate quickly, maps can also be incredibly dense with information. When they are put to a wholesome use, maps, like apple pie and puppies, deserve to have a special place in every home.
Take, for example, the incredible work coming out of the Dutch group Mapping Worlds. They’ve beautifully mapped global poverty, international migration, and civil conflict. They even have a special section of maps for Millennium Development Goals!
These Nederlanders have their act together.
This is their fabulous map of the failed funding effort being undertaken by the developed world for poverty relief. (You can find a larger one on their site. You know you want to.) It’s shameful, really.
If you enjoy this and have a second or two, be sure to toy with their animated, more robust version at the Center For Global Development, where they have mapped an index of international commitment to the Development Goals. No really, check that last link, it’s fantastic.
Here’s what they say about this project:
The Commitment to Development Index reminds the world that reducing poverty in developing countries is about far more than giving money. Trade, investment, migration, security, environment, and technology policies matter, too. Now in its third year, the CDI ranks 21 of the richest nations on their performance in each policy area, giving you the big picture. View the rankings in charts, learn what the Index rewards and penalizes, compare country report cards, and post comments or suggestions.
It’s an amazing bit of scripting, for sure.
Andy Carvin, director of the Digital Divide Network, recently posted a fascinating, heartbreaking perspective just how much damage has been done. He found the images at a strange condo site, condobuzz.com. The images are overlays of the flooding with other metropolitan areas. (Note this is just the flooding. The hurricane damages, if in the midwest, would reach from Detroit to Chicago.) Andy’s excellent, popular, collaborative Katrina blog is here:
http://katrina05.blogspot.com/
Below are Washington and Winston-Salem, NC. (My native state.) Click to enlarge.
Kathyn Cramer, based in New York, is doing great work with Google maps. The following information is quoted from her blog.
Step 1: Go to Google Maps and enter the address. Click on the button that says “Hybrid” on the upper right. You will get an image with a speech ballon pointing to a thumbtack showing the location of the address on the satellite photo.
[IMPORTANT UPDATE: Bless their hearts, Google Maps has added a "KATRINA" button to New Orleans areas searches, so they have automated some of the process I describe here! Yee haw!]
Step 2: Click up and down the vertical ladder-like bar to see the image at various scales until you feel you can find the place on a satellite image.
Step 3: Compare your image to this superimposition of the FEMA flood map on a New Orleans satellite photo, created by the Google Earth Current Events Community. Here is a small version. Click on it for a much bigger picture.
If the address you are checking is fairly centrally located, you can also check your address image against the DigitalGlobe satellite picture of the flooding.
For more detailed instructions, visit her blog.
With a nod to International Blogging for Disaster Relief Day (Friday, Sept. 2). … Crossposted on the DDN list.
I am beginning research into ways in which mapping technologies like GIS (wikipedia: GIS) are being used (and can potentially be used) to help avert or cope with humanitarian disasters.
The tragedy of New Orleans has given me some insight into the potential and limitations for this use of geospatial technologies. 
Thanks to Andy Carvin for applying his blogging/networking skills to this problem and prompting this line of thinking (The Katrina Aftermath Blog) . Recent discussion on the Digital Divide List of geocoded pictures has also been stimulating.
GIS is a sophisticated, robust technology that is being used to map and analyze data in numerous fields, especially environmental studies and public health. One of the most compelling features of GIS research is that it takes advantage of the contemporary wealth of data that is collected by all kinds of environmental monitors. (eg: weather is monitored constantly, and thus existing weather datasets can be mapped geospatially to discover, for example, patterns in flooding or to predict the best time to plant crops.)
New Orleans has for some time been the subject of extensive GIS research because of its precarious position below sea level. The availability of this technology has, I feel certain, prevented or alleviated numerous problems created by the hurricane (perhaps, for example, by helping prepare the safest evacuation routes years ago). I am interested in discovering similar, existing applications for GIS in poorer parts of the world. I would also like to find discussion/research of potential uses, especially, again, in the context of poverty.
Cusory searches of the internet find that there certainly exists a great deal of straightforward mapping going on in terms of humanitarian crises, most notably (according to my notes) the indexes on Reliefweb.int. These are extremely useful documents for creating awareness, but they are also rich, multilayerd doccuments for use by the aidworkers and activists that cope with these problems daily. A pdf file of the crisis in Niger, for example, can be a great way to understand the scope of the problem, but it also can direct the triage more effectively.
The center for New Orleans GIS research is at Louisiana State University; they have an excellent website that distributes their GIS data to the folks in the government that need the information. I doubt that there is any much more sophisticated model of GIS research. What fascinates me is that, although I am new to GIS, it appears that there is a strong “open source sensibility” about most GIS– the information is provided free (though sometimes to a limited set of users) and is intended for extended, unmonitored use. How can this be expanded and reproduced in a way that promotes human development?
