Another good pointer from the Canadian Cartographic Assoc.
A TechNews (and a number of other news sites) story talks about the directions some of the larger online map providers are heading. With the release of Google Maps, Google Earth, Microsoft’s Live Local and upgrades to other online mapping sites such as Yahoo! Maps all in the past year, the online mapping industry has become very competitive. With many such sites offering a similar product, the key is to differentiate oneself from one’s competitors by offer new information or presenting existing information in a unique manner. States the article: “Microsoft Corp. is working on a mechanism that would have avid mountain bikers, for example, collectively plot good trails. Yahoo Inc. is appealing to its users to add information on local businesses and places of interest. Yahoo even recently bought Upcoming.org, a collaborative calendar of events.”

Interestingly, Mapquest “estimates that driving directions cost [the] company a penny apiece and a static map much less -- expenses recouped through sales of ads displayed at the site.” The article goes on to discuss the online map sites’ different approaches to the problem of determining the right driving directions."

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Should you not be lucky enough to read a daily that carries Wiley's "Non Sequitur" comic strip, we're taking the risk of passing this along.  Note that you can buy a copy suitable for mounting at the UComics Store.
It might make an appropriate poster to hang in the window of an about-to-close newspaper.

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The Rocky  took a bold swing at developing an interesting web server application this month.  And the editor sees that this attempt is extensible.

-- From Adena Schutzberg, executive editor, Directions Magazine http://www.allpointsblog.com/archives/957-guid.html

"Rocky Mountain News Editor: Web Mapping Isn't that Easy

"The Rocky Mountain News gets a lot of coverage due to its strong online presence. Some 42 "hubs" cover local news and encourage citizen journalism. So, it was quite interesting to read editor, publisher and president John Temple's discussion of attempting an interactive map of Christmas lights in his editorial  from December 24 higlighting the paper's accomplishments.

I hope you feel it in this newspaper and on our Web site every day. A passion. A passion for trying new things to serve you better. A passion for telling stories.

Take our new mapping service for Christmas light tours. This year, instead of just printing maps in the paper, we're offering personalized maps on our Web site.

In the newspaper, we have to give everybody the same map. On the Web, you can create the map that best suits your needs.

Go to com and click on "Holiday Lights" and you'll find an offer to "Get directions to light displays in your area."

It will take you to a page where you can enter the address where you want to start your tour. Click on "Find Nearest" and you'll get a listing of the best nearby displays. In my case, there were 16 within three miles. Choose the ones you want to visit and click on "Find Route" and you'll get step-by-step directions and a map of the entire route. Print it and you'll have a guide for a fun excursion.

We developed this service as an experiment with ESRI, a Boulder company that specializes in Web mapping. We wanted to see what was possible.

It wasn't as easy as we had hoped. For example, I'd love - yes, love - for people to be able to post their own pictures of their lights on our Web site and to have them show up with the addresses when others call up a map. I'd like for you to be able to e-mail the light show creators. And, of course, you should be able to get our maps and photos on your cell phone while you're driving, maybe even with a soundtrack to make your journey more fun. And how about coupons or special offers from coffee shops or gas stations for participating? But those ideas will have to wait for future years.

This mapping effort, believe it or not, is linked to our plans to help you decide how to vote in the 2006 election. We're going to build our deepest election Web site ever, where just by punching in your address you'll be able to find links to all our stories and data, such as campaign finance reports and information about the candidates and issues you'll find on your ballot.

We hope you'll walk into your polling place next November with a printout from RockyMountainNews.com as your sample ballot.

"Of course ESRI is based in Redlands, California. I'm sure that the local office worked their butts off in developing the app. Still, he's right - the hodgepodge of voting for lights displays (which linked to PDF maps???), routing by RouteMap IMS, and a grid to find local displays were quite challenging to navigate."

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One of the interesting and most challenging aspects of cartography is that of mapping ideas and their ebb and flow in populations.  Think of trying to dynamically map memes and at what scale.  How, for example, does the concepts of neo-conservatism or approval of national health care move through a society and what does that movement look like on a map?

Recently, following race riots down under, the Sydney Morning Herald took a crack at trying to map "tolerance."  While the results are not perfect, it's a good go at a difficult problem.  Here's how the CCA blog reported it.

"Mapping Tolerance in Sydney
Published Sunday, December 25, 2005 by CCAer

The Sydney Morning Herald has a story on a map produced after the Cronulla race riots earlier this month. The map is based on a survey of 1,800 respondents and was conducted by Associate Professor Jim Forrest, of Macquarie University, Kevin Dunn, of the University of NSW and others.

From the article: “Less tolerant areas include outer locations such as Gosford and Campbelltown, but also culturally mixed areas such as Bankstown and Ryde. Bankstown has a substantial Muslim population, while Ryde has many Chinese and Koreans. Culturally diverse areas such as Parramatta, Marrickville and Penrith, and the suburbs Hurstville, Randwick and Botany, are tolerant.”

The map itself is fairly generalized and could use a better colour scheme. Based on 1,800 respondents across the area, that means that less than 100 residents would determine how a neighbourhood is classed. Still, in light of recent events in Australia, an interesting map."

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The NYTimes online site has done a nice job of apparently utilizing some Google Map tools to gather and report news of the transit strike and related citizen stories.  See the "Interactive Feature" on the NYT opening page.

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Tamara Thompson provides yet another good pointer:

~ researching private companies ~

By Tamara Thompson Investigations

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Bird's eye view maps have long been an interesting perspective for mapmakers and users of maps.  (They have also been a splendid tool for hyping real estate and city development on America's spread to the west, but that's a story for another day.)  Comes today this interesting resource at http://ccablog.blogspot.com/2005/12/birds-eye-views.html

Tom Patterson of the U. S. National Park Service has published a 32 page paper on the creation of bird's eye views. The paper, published in NACIS’ fall issue of Cartographic Perspectives, is available on his Shaded Relief website and is in pdf format. Also available are numerous examples. From the abstract: “A brief historical review looks at the antecedents of current NPS products dating back to the Renaissance. The practical second half of the paper focuses on how the NPS now designs these bird’s-eye views with 3D software, with an eye toward cost savings. Topics include viewing parameters in a 3D scene, preparing DEMs, modeling buildings, designing trees, and creating environmental special effects.” Patterson points out in his paper that “If the output from 3D software has a visual fault it is the tendency for it to look hyper-realistic—too smooth, shiny, and simulated.” The paper contains numerous tips for the creation of a realistic bird’s eye illustration."

Thanks again to the http://ccablog.blogspot.com/

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From "Cartography," the Canadian Cartography Association's most
excellent blog at http://ccablog.blogspot.com/

"The self-declared goal of the Map Projections web page 'is to present on-line, as complete a collection as possible, historical published map projections.' Currently there are over 300 such examples, all as black line drawings in pdf format, classed into 7 categories. The map projections were produced using personally developed computer programs, some of which is available for download or by way of email request (see About - in pdf format)."
For the Map Projection page, see
http://www.ilstu.edu/microcam/map_projections/

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The LLRX newsletter reports:

Old and New

THOMAS, the legislative Web site from the Library of Congress, has received its second facelift in the space of a year. (For information on the previous set of tweaks, see my January 2005 column THOMAS: New Congress, A Few Changes.) The latest redesign, announced in a November 2005 press release, does not add much substantial content or functionality but gives THOMAS an updated look similar to the main Library of Congress web site and a consistent site-wide navigation scheme that certainly was needed.

[click to enlarge]

The current THOMAS website.

Beth Kopine, Resource Center Director at the Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc., has done some fast and insightful work creating a page of digital resources that will assist anyone in covering the NY City transit strike, and any other, for that matter.  See "IRE and NICAR Resource Page: NY Transit Strike"

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