A interesting mapping project today from Abuquerque's DWI Resource Center. A map showing a surprising clustering of the city's DWI-related events. Wouldn't it again be an interesting reporting tool -- and a draw for readers -- if a newspaper were to create a dynamic and regularly updated map of this sort for its market area?

crashmap.shtml

The Bernalillo County DWI Crash Map is a new tool to help citizens avoid drunk drivers by assisting them in locating the more dangerous roadways in and around Albuquerque and allowing them to plan alterative commuting routes and times. The DWI Crash Map indicates locations around the county with the highest incidents of alcohol-related crashes, and the areas in the county with the highest concentrations of alcohol establishments. The map also contains charts showing alcohol-related crashes and DWI arrests by time of day.

Although a citizen's best defense against a drunk driver is to always wear a seat-belt and drive defensively, this map can assist you in planning your daily commute to avoid high-risk intersections and times of day when alcohol-related crashes are most likely to occur.

To view the map, you will a need free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

DOWNLOAD the DWI Crash Map (PDF - 4MB)

Leave Comment | Permanent Link | Cosmos

Making money from the archives

by Tom Johnson on Thu 21 Sep 2006 01:39 PM MDT

Here's another example of how most any newspaper could (a) create a database helpful to reporters and (b) generate revenue for the organization. Not much, perhaps, but revenue.

Earlier this week, BT (formerly British Telecom) announced that it was partnering with Ancestry.co.uk to post "more than a century of its telephone books" online. This will be of special interest to geneological researchers, of course, but surely reporters would find it a helpful tool to research individuals or companies. To the extent that street addresses are available, this is also a potentially rich source of GIS data for historical mapping.

And here's the revenue connection: "Publishing the BT Phone Books Archive, which is most complete set of phone directories in existence, represents a coup for Ancestry.co.uk who are establishing themselves as a leading proponent of family and social history research on the internet." A subscription to Ancestory.com (though it is not easy to find the cost) is £69.95 (US$132) per year. Surely, BT is going to get a cut of the phonebook-specific searches.

Obviously, all newspapers could do something similar.

Leave Comment | Permanent Link | Cosmos

Library on the moon

by Tom Johnson on Thu 21 Sep 2006 01:16 PM MDT

Friend Laura Soto-Bara posts the following to the NewsLib listserv:

Library on the moon
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/20/library_on_the_moon.html
Wednesday, September 20, 2006

The moon might be a good place for a massive storehouse of digital
information, sort of a Lunar Library of Alexandria. That's the idea
proposed by NASA scientist David McKay, who ten years ago led the team
that announced that a Mars meteorite contained evidence of life.
According to the New Scientist blog, McKay says the lunar library could
be stored on computers buried in the ground, placed inside craters, or
located in hollow lava tubes.... From the post:

The benefits of lunar storage are that there is no oxygen to erode the
material, constant sub-freezing temperature and the Moon is currently
free of all of the havoc wreaked by humankind...

Families could even pay a fee to preserve photographs in the lunar
library for future civilizations. McKay calls it the "ultimate time
capsule."

Leave Comment | Permanent Link | Cosmos

Guests are encouraged to browse and search through all of this blog and its subdirectories. Please sign in or register and then add comments to the blog.