Thanks to Michael Corey over on NICAR-L

Random find today for the geographically inclined:
http://finder.geocommons.com/
Library of spatial data, and the ability to convert it all to and from Shapefile, KML and CSV.

They also produce http://maker.geocommons.com/, a quick way to build visually appealing maps with all that data. Haven't experimented with it much yet to know the limitations/features

Sidenote: Anyone using QGIS? How intimidating is installing all the necessary frameworks if you don't already have them?

Thanks,

Michael Corey
Digital Projects Editor
DesMoinesRegister.com
515.284.8076 mcorey@dmreg.com