Mapping County Health Rankings: Mapnik, Node.js and PostgreSQL. The third launch of County Health Rankings has been the most exciting out of any of the three due to the mapping component that serves as the primary way to access the rankings.
Having a map on the home page isn't new for County Health Rankings, each version of the site has had one. But where those were done in Flash and used only for navigation the new one is completely interactive. Some of the challenges that prompted changing how it worked were: Portability — Flash doesn't work well in a large number of mobile devices. Color Psychology in Logo Design. Lightweight Maps for Mobile, Part 1: Introduction to Map APIs and Libraries. When it comes to building interactive maps for desktop web, most of us are quite comfortable using APIs like Google Maps or Bing Maps.
But when we need to port or build something for mobile, it often feels like we’re crumpling a clean sheet of paper into a paper ball. Certainly, dealing with a smaller screen size, slower processor, and less memory can feel like a frustrating step backwards. But if you consider that mobile devices have touch screens, cameras, microphones, accelerometers, wireless and GPS capabilities on top of being portable, mobile devices are in a way better place than desktop PCs. So if we take the time to understand their limitations and features, we can build lightweight applications that are more like origami — compact, elegant, and functional — instead of like a crumpled paper ball that you’re ready to throw in the trash can.
So where do we start? Bing Modest Maps. Mondara – Online Maps for the Other 99% Wikipedia ditches Google Maps for OpenStreetMaps after price change. Citing synergistic principles with OpenStreetMaps and an end to Google's free ride for high-volume map users, Wikipedia has dropped Google Maps.
The foundation has instead turned to OpenStreetMaps for its mapping needs, a UK-based, open source mapping website which has fittingly been billed as the "Wikipedia of maps". OSM is completely free and relies on the support of its 400,000+ users who supply location data and updates. Previous versions of our application used Google Maps for the nearby view. Placing Users on a Map in Drupal 7 - with Openlayers, Addressfield and Geocoding. Here is what I was trying to achieve: Allow users to sign up, fill in their profile with various bits of information including address info - geocode that to get a longitude and latitude and place a markers on a map to show where users are in relation to each other.
You will need: Addressfield - the state of the art in Drupal when it comes to getting address information. 7 Free Geocoding APIs: Google, Bing, Yahoo and MapQuest. Almost every app that uses a mapping API needs some latitude/longitude points.
If you don’t already have those “geocodes,” you need to find them, which usually means converting an address to a point on the earth. That’s where you’ll need one of the 54 geocoding APIs in our directory. Fun with GPS! (part 1) My wife and I enjoy walking/hiking around our beautiful Cape Ann, as well as kayaking on the lakes, inlets, harbors, and even “ocean” (although we do stay very close to shore to see the rocks).
I have always wanted to get some type of GPS (Global Positioning System) unit that would allow me to show, on a map, where we go. Additionally, I really like “dancing the dance” – accomplishing 6 or 7 errands to 6 or 7 different locations as quickly and efficiently as possible (a library or two, dump, paper recycling, Post Office, CVS, grocery store, etc), and I would love to see my tracks on a map when I’m done. Once upon a time I had an iPhone, and there was a great little app called Footsteps, but it used a lot of power from the iPhone, plus I traded it to my daughter last Christmas for her “not-smart” cell phone. Does the commute matter? Visualize your commute for the first time. What happens when you combine government transit data, a designer and a few engineers?
At Trulia, you get the ability to dynamically visualize your commute. Understanding PostGIS Spatial Queries. In this tutorial you will familiarize yourself with PostgreSQL geometry tables and PostGIS functions.
PostgreSQL is a database that can store GIS data. PostGIS is the extensions that allow PostgreSQL to store GIS data, as well as many GIS functions to analyze and manage your data. You will practice writing SQL and visually see the output from a PostGIS query to help you understand the power of using spatial queries. Crowdsourced crisis mapping: How it works and why it matters. Originally published by Marta Poblert and Pompeu Casanovas on theconversation.edu.au on 16 May 2012 under a Creative Commons License.
Web 2.0 tools and mobile technologies have lowered the barriers not just for people to access the internet but to create and share content. Through open-source, collaborative programs such as wikis, the creation and distribution of information has effectively been crowdsourced. Syria crisis: the violence mapped by the UN. But can this democratisation of the production of information and the expansion of networked global communities lead to action in solving real-world problems? Welcome to the Anthropocene. Mapping the World’s Biggest Airlines. The map above shows the routes flown by the top 7 airlines (by international passenger distance flown).
The base map shows large urban areas and I have attempted to make it look a bit like the beautiful “Earth at Night” composite image produced by NASA. You can clearly see a relationship between where people live and where the big carriers fly to across Europe and the US but India and much of China have relatively few routes. I expect much of the slack is picked up by smaller airlines in these countries but they must represent key growth areas the world economy becomes increasingly driven by the east.
Mapping Open Data With Open GIS. This post explores some cartographic features of QGIS while mapping the river network of Tirol, Austria. All data used is freely available. For the background, I downloaded NASA SRTM elevation data from CGIAR-CSI and created a hillshade using Terrain Analysis tools in QGIS 1.8. Indiemapper - Free yourself from GIS. Rhus - Open Source Mobile GIS for Community Ecology. Several months ago we were inspired to start building an open source mobile GIS platform for community ecology, and want to share the current state of our work.
We knew that there were a lot of applications out there for creating geo-tagged imagery and uploading to social media, but we wanted something that was more geared towards citizen science data collection. We saw the main goals as being offline usability, geo-spatial queries, open source customization, and visualizing change over time. For community projects, it's also important to have seamless integration between mobile apps and a community website to facilitate social data collection. Rhus consists of open source projects for iPhone, Android, and Web (see for sources_ which all sync transparently and don't require continuous wifi access. Mapping Google’s FUD. Mapbox/osm-bright. The GeoCommunity: Scribble Maps Pro Review. Scribble Maps Pro Review: There are many online applications available that encourage the creation, usage, and sharing of maps among professionals, classmates, and friends.
Scribble Maps Pro is one that not only targets both the novice and expert map creator, but unlike its similar counterpart Google Earth Pro, it doesn’t require any special downloads - and it’s free. Its ease of use and accessibility makes it one of the most popular applications in the education sector, offering users a wide range of capabilities, such as marking up maps, measuring distances, importing KMLs, Shapefiles, as well as tabular files, adding placemarks, text, images, shapes and more. Scribble Maps Pro also provides support for Open Street Map and Cloud Made, enabling users to utilize Scribble Map Pro features onto either of these two mapping applications. Similar to Google Maps, this product also offers search capabilities, so users can search for either a geographical area, or a business. MapTiler - Map Tile Cutter. Overlay Generator for Google Maps, Google Earth (KML SuperOverlay). jQuery Vector Maps - Resizable Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) Maps for Modern Browsers.
Maps and Drupal 7. 146 Location APIs: Foursquare, Panoramio and Geocoder. 3 Ways to Style Maps. It used to be you could change anything layered on top of a map, but you couldn’t change the underlying map itself. Now you have several options for changing the color palette and the visibility of different objects that make up your base map. The options vary on the amount you can customize and how much work is required. But all three of these APIs can have you map scripting with style. Google Maps: Styled With JSON The Google Maps API may be the granddaddy of mapping APIs, but it wasn’t the first to offer styled maps. Google has a wizard that makes it even easier to play around with styles. Until recently, styled maps had a low rate limit. Advanced Cartography in #GeoServer– #SLDs can make for very pretty maps « Smathermather's Weblog. Maptitude Version 2012. Summary: This article provides a product overview of Maptitude 2012 from Caliper Corporation.
Paul Amos, GIS manager for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, reviewed the product. He reports that the new features in this release provide inexperienced users with the ability to quickly generate presentation quality maps with an interface that’s user-friendly and intuitive. GeoData: a new age of geotagging on Wikipedia. Apple, Google, 3D and GIS. The next few days mark an interesting time in the geospatial industry. Powerful data visualization with Symbols and Heatmaps in the Google Maps API. The Google Maps API provides a robust platform in which you can add geographical context to your data in a variety of ways. GeoChalkboard » Blog Archive » Introduction to HTML5 for Web and Mobile GIS Developers. Today we’re beginning a new series of posts covering the use of HTML5 for web and mobile GIS developers.
Mapping Hacks English Counts. 10 GIS and GeoTech Mapping apps for the iPhone Power User. Uploading client data to perform thematic mapping on the server. You might have read this blog post about dynamic layers in ArcGIS 10.1 for Server that describes how you can change a map service layer’s symbology on a per-request basis. In this blog post, I’ll describe a JavaScript application that takes dynamic layers to the next step and allows server-side thematic mapping using data from your local machine.
Server-side rendering is useful, especially when downloading features onto a client’s browser is expensive. For example, in this particular app downloading all 3,000+ county polygons onto a client’s browser could be very slow, assuming the server is even allowed to send that many features at once. You can try the application here: Beautiful Set of Graphical Map Interfaces. Maps are a huge part of the modern-day user interface. These are useful in GPS navigation apps on mobile devices, but also in many of the mobile apps you’ll find within iOS/Android marketplace.
Publishing GIS Data to a Google Map Using Fusion Tables. Air Onlines: 5 Apps to Make Air Travel Sane. In my Scientific American column this month, I wrote about the irrationality of the Transportation Security Administration's rules that govern air travel. Maps for Office 1.0 Public Beta released! How Web Maps Work - macwright.org. Socrata.
Build Geographic Maps Out of Cloud-Based Data Using Mondara. MapWindow Open-Source Conference Coming Up. Open Source Research Tools. Fun with GIS 120: Five Fave World Maps. HTML 5 Geolocation with Infragistics jQuery Map. Map Satire Gets The Economist in Trouble. Google Earth to get radically better 3D images, new UI on iOS and Android. Map of Life goes live. Spreadsheet Mapper 3: More placemarks, advanced customization, and more. Google Maps Engine grants for nonprofits.
Using a mapmaking checklist for map design. Tutorial: Building a hover-enabled map using Tilemill.