What have we here? Cooperation between two academic departments in the same university? Largely unheard of in most schools, but it has happened with positive results in Hong Kong.

23 Nov 2007 http://www.hku.edu/press/news_detail_5671.html

Power Distribution of the Four Political Camps, Seeing the 2007 District Council Election Results with Maps

The Department of Geography and the Journalism and Media Studies Centre of The University of Hong Kong (HKU) announced today (November 23) an analysis of results of the 2007 District Council Election of four political camps from the spatial perspective.

Dr. P.C. Lai, Associate Professor of the Department of Geography, and her team applied the Geographic Information System (GIS) to analyze results of the District Council Election. The GIS technology was used to explore the power re-distribution of the four political camps or affiliations - pro-government, pro-democrat, moderate (Liberal Party) and independent candidates - of the said election. [more]

Who says radio can't do stories on something as image-rich as maps. 
See this from NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17173936&ps=bb2 

'Cartographia' Showcases Maps as History, Art

Talk of the Nation, December 12, 2007 · Vincent Virga's Cartographia is a rare collection of 250 color maps and illustrations drawn from the world's largest cartographic collection at the Library of Congress. The collection spans everything from maps of ancient Mesopotamia, to maps of Columbus' discoveries, to contemporary satellite images and maps of the human genome.

Virga says that maps are like time machines — they reveal as much about the society that created them as they do about the geography of the places they describe.

Virga discusses the collection, which he culled from the Library of Congress' millions of maps and tens of thousands of atlases.

"Maps always have and always will help us communicate our physical, mental, and spiritual journeys," Virga says.

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A good tip comes our way from the Librarians' Internet Index, which is something of a venerable digital resource these days.  Social Explorer has put a good front end on census data and generates dynamic maps.  There is a fair amount of free material, but a subscription fee is necessary to slice and dice data to meet your specific needs.  Still, the price isn't too high for what you get if you're in an organization kicking out a lot of maps.  (Wow, where was this tool when, 40+ years ago, we were trying to figure out the best location for Volkswagen dealerships?)

Social Explorer

This site "provides easy access to demographic information about the United States, from 1940 to 2000," by featuring "thousands of maps and hundreds of reports with thousands of variables." Includes interactive census maps (showing population, age, race, occupation, and other factors) and related reports. Additional features are available for a fee.
URL: http://socialexplorer.com/
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/25076

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The 9th Crime Mapping Research Conference has issued its Call for Papers for the 2008 conference. The deadline is January 18, 2008. Feel free to pass the information along to your colleagues. All of the important information is on NIJ's Crime Mapping website– http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/maps/ Call for Presentations– http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/maps/presentations_neworleans.pdf Call for Workshops– http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/maps/workshops_neworleans.pdf

And even if you're not inclined to give a presentation, it's a great conference.