From CCA:
Socioeconomic Data and Applications Centre, or SEDAC, is a branch of NASA that offers geospatial on human interactions with the environment. World datasets that are available for download include population and urban development and wilderness areas. Other data focus on a specific area of the world. Most of the datasets seem to be in some sort of grid or e00 format. Some of the sites also offer maps of the data.http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/  SEDAC Projects are designed to help users synthesize and apply earth science and socioeconomic data and information in their research, educational activities, analysis and decision making. These projects include data products and applications that address various types of interdisciplinary data integration."

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Just ran across this interesting book related to GIS and Social Science applications.


http://www.csiss.org/best-practices/siss/
CSISS Best Practice Publications:
Spatially Integrated Social Science

Edited by Michael F. Goodchild and Donald G. Janelle
Oxford University Press, 2004

Table of Contents

Foreword: Norman Bradburn
Preface

Chapter

1. Thinking Spatially in the Social Sciences
   Michael F. Goodchild and Donald G. Janelle
2. Inferring the Behavior of Households from Remotely Sensed Changes in Land Cover:
   Current Methods and Future Directions
   Bruce Boucek and Emilio F. Moran
3. Geo-visualization of Human Activity Patterns Using 3-D GIS: A Time-Geographic Approach
   Mei-Po Kwan and Jiyeong Lee
4. Agent-Based Modeling: From Individual Residential Choice to Urban Residential Dynamics
   Itzhak Benenson
5. Too Much of the Wrong Kind of Data: Implications for the Practice of Micro-Scale Spatial Modeling
   David O'Sullivan
6. Identifying Ethnic Neighborhoods with Census Data: Group Concentration and Spatial Clustering
   John R. Logan and Wenquan Zhang
7. Spatial Analyses of Homicide with Areal Data
   Steven F. Messner and Luc Anselin
8. Spatial (Dis)Advantage and Homicide in Chicago Neighborhoods
   Robert J. Sampson and Jeffrey D. Morenoff
9. Measuring Spatial Diffusion of Shots Fired Activity Across City Neighborhoods
   George Tita and Jacqueline Cohen
10. The Spatial Structure of Urban Political Discussion Networks
    Munroe Eagles, Paul Bélanger, and Hugh W. Calkins
11. Mapping Social Exclusion and Inclusion in Developing Countries: Spatial Patterns of São Paulo in the 1990s
    Gilberto Câmara, Aldaiza Sposati, Dirce Koga, Antonio Miguel Monteiro, Frederico Roman Ramos,
    Eduardo Camargo, and Suzana Druck Fuks
12. Business Location and Spatial Externalities: Tying Concepts to Measures
    Stuart H. Sweeney and Edward J. Feser
13. Updating Spatial Perspectives and Analytical Frameworks in Urban Research
    Qing Shen
14. Spatial Analysis of Regional Income Inequality
    Sergio J. Rey
15. Shaping Policy Decisions with Spatial Analysis
    Ted K. Bradshaw and Brian Muller
16. Geographical Approaches for Reconstructing Past Human Behavior from Prehistoric Roadways
    John Kantner
17. Time, Space, and Archaeological Landscapes: Establishing Connections in the First Millennium BC
    Patrick Daly and Gary Lock
18. Spatial Perspectives in Public Health
    Anthony C. Gatrell and Janette E. Rigby
19. The Role of Spatial Analysis in Demographic Research
    John R. Weeks
20. Spatial Interaction Models of International Telecommunication Flows
    Jean-Michel Guldmann
21. Planning Scenario Visualization and Assessment:
    A Cellular Automata Based Integrated Spatial Decision Support System
    Roger White, Bas Straatman, and Guy Engelen

Just ran across this interesting book related to GIS and Social Science applications.


http://www.csiss.org/best-practices/siss/
CSISS Best Practice Publications:
Spatially Integrated Social Science

Edited by Michael F. Goodchild and Donald G. Janelle
Oxford University Press, 2004

Table of Contents

Foreword: Norman Bradburn
Preface

Chapter

1. Thinking Spatially in the Social Sciences
   Michael F. Goodchild and Donald G. Janelle
2. Inferring the Behavior of Households from Remotely Sensed Changes in Land Cover:
   Current Methods and Future Directions
   Bruce Boucek and Emilio F. Moran
3. Geo-visualization of Human Activity Patterns Using 3-D GIS: A Time-Geographic Approach
   Mei-Po Kwan and Jiyeong Lee
4. Agent-Based Modeling: From Individual Residential Choice to Urban Residential Dynamics
   Itzhak Benenson
5. Too Much of the Wrong Kind of Data: Implications for the Practice of Micro-Scale Spatial Modeling
   David O'Sullivan
6. Identifying Ethnic Neighborhoods with Census Data: Group Concentration and Spatial Clustering
   John R. Logan and Wenquan Zhang
7. Spatial Analyses of Homicide with Areal Data
   Steven F. Messner and Luc Anselin
8. Spatial (Dis)Advantage and Homicide in Chicago Neighborhoods
   Robert J. Sampson and Jeffrey D. Morenoff
9. Measuring Spatial Diffusion of Shots Fired Activity Across City Neighborhoods
   George Tita and Jacqueline Cohen
10. The Spatial Structure of Urban Political Discussion Networks
    Munroe Eagles, Paul Bélanger, and Hugh W. Calkins
11. Mapping Social Exclusion and Inclusion in Developing Countries: Spatial Patterns of São Paulo in the 1990s
    Gilberto Câmara, Aldaiza Sposati, Dirce Koga, Antonio Miguel Monteiro, Frederico Roman Ramos,
    Eduardo Camargo, and Suzana Druck Fuks
12. Business Location and Spatial Externalities: Tying Concepts to Measures
    Stuart H. Sweeney and Edward J. Feser
13. Updating Spatial Perspectives and Analytical Frameworks in Urban Research
    Qing Shen
14. Spatial Analysis of Regional Income Inequality
    Sergio J. Rey
15. Shaping Policy Decisions with Spatial Analysis
    Ted K. Bradshaw and Brian Muller
16. Geographical Approaches for Reconstructing Past Human Behavior from Prehistoric Roadways
    John Kantner
17. Time, Space, and Archaeological Landscapes: Establishing Connections in the First Millennium BC
    Patrick Daly and Gary Lock
18. Spatial Perspectives in Public Health
    Anthony C. Gatrell and Janette E. Rigby
19. The Role of Spatial Analysis in Demographic Research
    John R. Weeks
20. Spatial Interaction Models of International Telecommunication Flows
    Jean-Michel Guldmann
21. Planning Scenario Visualization and Assessment:
    A Cellular Automata Based Integrated Spatial Decision Support System
    Roger White, Bas Straatman, and Guy Engelen

Just ran across this interesting book related to GIS and Social Science applications.


http://www.csiss.org/best-practices/siss/
CSISS Best Practice Publications:
Spatially Integrated Social Science

Edited by Michael F. Goodchild and Donald G. Janelle
Oxford University Press, 2004

Table of Contents

Foreword: Norman Bradburn
Preface

Chapter

1. Thinking Spatially in the Social Sciences
   Michael F. Goodchild and Donald G. Janelle
2. Inferring the Behavior of Households from Remotely Sensed Changes in Land Cover:
   Current Methods and Future Directions
   Bruce Boucek and Emilio F. Moran
3. Geo-visualization of Human Activity Patterns Using 3-D GIS: A Time-Geographic Approach
   Mei-Po Kwan and Jiyeong Lee
4. Agent-Based Modeling: From Individual Residential Choice to Urban Residential Dynamics
   Itzhak Benenson
5. Too Much of the Wrong Kind of Data: Implications for the Practice of Micro-Scale Spatial Modeling
   David O'Sullivan
6. Identifying Ethnic Neighborhoods with Census Data: Group Concentration and Spatial Clustering
   John R. Logan and Wenquan Zhang
7. Spatial Analyses of Homicide with Areal Data
   Steven F. Messner and Luc Anselin
8. Spatial (Dis)Advantage and Homicide in Chicago Neighborhoods
   Robert J. Sampson and Jeffrey D. Morenoff
9. Measuring Spatial Diffusion of Shots Fired Activity Across City Neighborhoods
   George Tita and Jacqueline Cohen
10. The Spatial Structure of Urban Political Discussion Networks
    Munroe Eagles, Paul Bélanger, and Hugh W. Calkins
11. Mapping Social Exclusion and Inclusion in Developing Countries: Spatial Patterns of São Paulo in the 1990s
    Gilberto Câmara, Aldaiza Sposati, Dirce Koga, Antonio Miguel Monteiro, Frederico Roman Ramos,
    Eduardo Camargo, and Suzana Druck Fuks
12. Business Location and Spatial Externalities: Tying Concepts to Measures
    Stuart H. Sweeney and Edward J. Feser
13. Updating Spatial Perspectives and Analytical Frameworks in Urban Research
    Qing Shen
14. Spatial Analysis of Regional Income Inequality
    Sergio J. Rey
15. Shaping Policy Decisions with Spatial Analysis
    Ted K. Bradshaw and Brian Muller
16. Geographical Approaches for Reconstructing Past Human Behavior from Prehistoric Roadways
    John Kantner
17. Time, Space, and Archaeological Landscapes: Establishing Connections in the First Millennium BC
    Patrick Daly and Gary Lock
18. Spatial Perspectives in Public Health
    Anthony C. Gatrell and Janette E. Rigby
19. The Role of Spatial Analysis in Demographic Research
    John R. Weeks
20. Spatial Interaction Models of International Telecommunication Flows
    Jean-Michel Guldmann
21. Planning Scenario Visualization and Assessment:
    A Cellular Automata Based Integrated Spatial Decision Support System
    Roger White, Bas Straatman, and Guy Engelen

From Complexity Digest:

Semantic Descriptors To Help The Hunt For Music, ( Innovations-report)

Excerpts: You like a certain song and want to hear other tracks like it, but don't know how to find them? Ending the needle-in-a-haystack problem of searching for music on the Internet or even in your own hard drive is a new audio-based music information retrieval system. Currently under development by the SIMAC project, it is a major leap forward in the application of semantics to audio content, allowing songs to be described not just by artist, title and genre but by their actual musical properties such as rhythm, timbre, harmony, structure and instrumentation. This allows comparisons between songs to be made (...).
Source: Semantic Descriptors To Help

Should this come to fruition, might there be stories in patterns -- regional patterns -- in music?  How could we map this?  And when?

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Marylaine Block, at Ex Libris, suggests:

"The 2005 Dubious Data Awards (http://www.stats.org/record.jsp?type=news&ID=534)  Courtesy of Stats at George Mason University, "a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to improving public understanding of science and statistics." Also check out the polling category on the navigation bar for some useful skepticism: "Skewing a Poll Result: Knowing Who Paid for the Poll," "Caveat Samplor - Unrepresentative Samples Skew the News."

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GIS Cafe Editor Susan Smith interviews Robert Welch, president of Synergos Technologies, Inc. (STI) about the GIS-based models his company is using to estimate the New Orleans population after Katrina.  Welch's models are of interest and also underscore the importance of "ground-proofing."  (When you reach the page below, scroll down to read the interview.)


Estimating Post-Katrina Populations with STI: PopStats
By Susan Smith

As we move into 2006, we are well aware that entire populations have regrouped or moved as a result of Hurricane Katrina and Rita. With the loss of homes, businesses and schools, not only an entire way of life, but an extraordinary amount of data was also lost.

In an interview with Robert Welch, president of Synergos Technologies, Inc. (STI) this week, I learned about the company's STI: PopStats product, which is the market research industry's only quarterly population estimating product. The first 2006 release of STI: PopStats will include population estimates for those areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina and Rita.

How is Synergos able to come out with population estimates every three months? “Our STI: PopStats product is radically different from every other population estimating product,” claimed Welch. “We're the only the only company that can do an estimate every three months.”

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Philip Meyer Award Winners
Read more about the 2005 Philip Meyer Award

The National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, a joint program of IRE and the Missouri School of Journalism; the Knight Chair in Journalism at Arizona State University; and IRE announce the winners of the Philip Meyer Journalism Award, a contest to recognize the best journalism done using social science research methods.

The awards will be presented March 10 at the Computer-Assisted Reporting Conference in Newark, N.J. The first-place winner will receive $500; second and third will receive $300 and $200. The contest, for work published or broadcast between October 2004 and October 2005, attracted 28 entries from across the country in its inaugural year. The judges noted it was extremely difficult to pick winners because so many of the entries were very strong. Stories are available to IRE members through the IRE and NICAR Resource Center — just contact us at 573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org.

First Place

Steve Suo, The Oregonian, for "Unnecessary Epidemic"
This series of articles over the past year show how Congress and the Drug Enforcement Administration could have stopped the growth of meth abuse by aggressively regulating the import of the chemicals necessary to make it. Lead reporter Steve Suo's work included sophisticated statistical analyses of data on hospital and treatment center admissions, arrests, meth prices and purity, and chemical imports. (Story #21638)

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Second Place

Chris Adams and Alison Young, Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau, for "Discharged and Dishonored"
This yearlong series of stories revealed how disabled veterans were being harmed by the bureaucratic inefficiencies of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Reporters Chris Adams and Alison Young analyzed survey data and the VA's own database of 3.4 million claims to discover that more than 13,700 veterans died while waiting for their claims to be resolved, and as many as 572,000 vets may be missing out on their rightful disability payments. (Story #22132)

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Third Place

Matthew Waite and Craig Pittman, St. Petersburg Times, for "Vanishing Wetlands"
This project demonstrated that 84,000 acres of Florida wetlands have been destroyed by development since 1990 when President George H. W. Bush declared a national policy of no net loss of wetlands. Waite and Pittman penetrated beyond the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' poorly-documented records of development permits by using before-and-after satellite imagery and geographical information systems software to accurately measure the loss. (Story #22127)

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