The CCA has posted a link to this neat animated GIF showing, state-by-state, the occupant of the White House's approval rating.  This wouldn't be hard for a newspaper to do, and it's  easily updated.

Following
the 2000 and 2004 U. S. presidential elections, the red-blue divide has
frequently been talked about and mapped, so much so that the map has
become ubiquitous on the Internet (see 1, 2, 3 and so on). Radical Wit has posted an animated gif map
of the country showing George Bush’s approval ratings using the same
partisan colours as the election results maps. The map begins with the
2004 election and changes every five seconds to the next month. Maps of
individual maps are also available as static images.

Martin Dodge, he of “Mapping Cyberspace” realm, sends along this helpful post:

“Hello, I've just
been browsing through a fascinating new book on maps and spatialisations, many
of networks, info spaces and online conversations.

“It has many interesting
essays and a rich array of illustrations.

“Else/Where: Mapping: New
Cartographies of Networks and Territories edited by Janet Abrams and Peter Hall
see http://design.umn.edu/go/project/elsewheremapping“

And Martin's e-mail took
us, eventually, to The Design Institute at the University of Minnesota.  Drill down in the DI site a bit: a lot of
interesting resources and topics for those of us interested in data, networks,
infographics, user interface, IA, etc.

The Design Institute (DI) develops advanced
research, educational programs and interdisciplinary partnerships to improve
design in the public realm.

Established as one of the University of Minnesota's
Strategic Interdisciplinary Initiatives, with recurring funds from the
Minnesota Legislature, the DI addresses products, systems and environments, as
well as the underlying social processes that bring our everyday material
landscape into being.

The DI is particularly interested in the design
implications of emerging technologies — in the nexus of communications media
and public space.

Looking beyond issues of styling, the Design
Institute regards design as a strategic mode of thinking, a form of conflict
resolution whose tangible outcomes express successful negotiation of diverse
values and interests.

The Design Institute's Fellows program, workshops,
publications and events foster new models for collaboration between diverse
fields of inquiry.

By supporting the development of new prototypes,
and enabling young practitioners to create their next significant work, the DI
champions expanded design choices to enhance citizens' lives, in Minnesota and
nationwide.

==========================================================

The Google Earth blog carries this reefer to a fine set of tutorials for using, what else, Google Earth.

March 18, 2006
Tutorials for Google Earth

For an excellent collection of video tutorials on Google Earth I recommend this collection
created by Richard Treves. These are Quicktime files (podcast
compatable) videos with audio which show how to do basic things with
Google Earth including: “Flying with GE”, “Using Placemarks”, “GE
Tips”, “Overlays”, and more. Richard has a pleasant voice with a
british accent, and patiently explains each step, with clear visual
cues, on how to get more out of Google Earth. I'm adding this
collection to my Google Earth Basics collection. Richard seems to be adding to his collection each week, with plans for 10 so far.

Given this we're in the final days of Sunshine Week in the U.S., this post on the Mapping Hacks blog suggests that things are stirring elsewhere.

“movement around public access to geodata

By Jo on open knowledge

Public Geodata published an Open Letter regarding the INSPIRE Directive to the Members of the ENVI committee in the European Parliament
this morning. I got to sleep after dawn after hitting
’send’ – collaborating with people in Europe from an East
Coast base means a lot of very late nights or very early mornings.

When i woke up this afternoon, i had an inbox full of people
excitedly sending me references to today’s Guardian article on What Price Information? which gives a good shoutout to publicgeodata.org
and represents the first time I’ve seen the debate around the
proposed INSPIRE Directive in mainstream media. Inspired by so many
efforts to gain public access to publically funded information in the
UK, perhaps sensing a movement in the air, the Graun have started their
own campaigning effort to Free Our Data.
Geographic information is what most people are really keen to get
access to – not only because it has so much potential economic and
research value if it’s made openly available, but also because
geodata provides a key to unlocking the meaning and the value of many
other kinds of public sector information.I can’t express how much
luck i wish them in their galvanising efforts.

Chris Corbin wrote to the Euro-GI-Policy
list today about questions finally being asked in Parliament about how
the Ordnance Survey is approaching the INSPIRE directive. I look
forward to seeing the written answers provided to Parliament, and hope
they come through before the crucial vote on the INSPIRE second reading amendments next Tuesday, 21st March… I’ll add a reference to the appropriate TheyWorkForYou Q/A listing here, when the answers appear.”

From the Google Earth Blog….

March 17, 2006

Sierra Club Shows Public Land Sale Proposal in Google Earth

The
Sierra Club has created a Google Earth file providing information about
a proposed plan by the US government to sell 800,000 acres of its own
public lands to fund a program. While the program may be important
(funding for schools), I don't think I'm the only US citizen who thinks
selling our public lands is the way to fund government programs.
Especially when you view the number of parcels and exact locations of
the proposed lands in the satellite and aerial photos of Google Earth.
Most of the proposed parcels of land fall within National Forests and
are pristine areas with primeval forests with mountainous terrain and
untold amounts of wildlife and other plants and organisms important to
our environment. See for yourself, load this Sierra Club GE file
and you can easily see the extent and type of land we would be giving
up. There's no better way to see what this land sale proposal consists
of other than driving out to see the lands yourself.

The public comment period on the proposal is open through March 30.
If you are like me, a US citizen and against this proposal, then take
action now. There are more details on the proposed sale at the Sierra Club here. This also includes a place to sign a petition.
The file shows the congressional representatives and the number of
acres proposed in their districts. You should also contact your
congressional representative about your lands.

Posted by FrankTaylor at March 17, 2006 08:58 AM

Well, yeah.  We were pleased and appreciative of the mention Phil Meyer give to the IAJ in his op-ed in USA Today on Wednesday.  We're also impressed that Google Alerts picked it up and forwarded the item in less than 12 hours after publication.  Sure, the Google spiders no doubt have the newspaper high on its/their “revisit often” list, but much of the material we have been getting are somewhat dated.  Not this time.  So thanks for the mention, Phil, and Google.

We're usually careful to only report on the products that we can actually test drive, but just having invested in a Treo 650 (and we like it), we wish this reveiew by Hal Reid (Directions Magazine) of the Pharos Traveler GPS had come along a couple weeks back.  The device would appear to have promise for analytic journalists who are careful to always ground-truth their hunches.

“Product Review � Pharos Traveler GPS 525 Personal Navigation Device

by Hal Reid, Editor

Vendor
Pharos Science and Applications
411 Amapola Avenue
Torrance, CA 90501-1478
Phone 310-212-7088
FAX 310-320-1808
www.PharosGPS.com

Introduction

(Click for larger image)

For
the past month, I have been using the Pharos Traveler GPS 525 personal
navigation PDA. It has been to Nashville, Auburn University (Alabama)
twice, Georgia Tech (Atlanta), Ft. Steward (Georgia) and various other
places around central Georgia. My initial impression of navigation
systems in vehicles, prior to this review, was that they were probably
a �nice to have.� Frankly, I have
to admit that at first I questioned the validity of actually owning one.

My
month with the Pharos has taught me that these devices can take a lot
of the heartburn out of traveling and even navigating in your own
backyard. The Pharos has made me a believer in these devices.

This
device is targeted to the traveling professional who needs a versatile
PDA for mobile email, Web access, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built-in, Skype
for the
Internet telephone, plus integrated navigation. If I had a Bluetooth or
an infrared keyboard, I would have been able to experience even more
versatility with this product, as I could have written this review on
the device itself – while traveling. … Read
more

That's the hed on one of the pages for a relatively new academic offering at UCLA.  This may be the first time, at least in North America, that a university is officially recognizing that Complexity can indeed be the “linking” theory/methodology for the social sciences.  (And since we include journalism in the social science camp, especially Analytic Journalism, here we are.)  Yes, John Holland et al. have been officially working on complexity for years at the Univ. of Michigan, but he and most of the rest tend to cluster in physics, math and computer science. 

The UCLA site says: “
We explore complex systems inhabited by human beings.
These systems are biological, social, cultural, technological and creative.
Our method is to analyze the behavior of the inhabitants of
these systems and their interactions. Many interactions are indirect with
multiple causes and effects. Also, we construct computer models,
synthesize virtual worlds, and run simulation experiments.
“

“
From the October 2003 Department of Education report,

“The Use of Complexity Science”
:

“An interdisciplinary, whole systems approach is also being used to
redesign college and university curricula in the sciences, humanities
and social sciences. An interesting example of this is the UCLA Center
for Human Complex Systems.”

It's an informative read.

We should have caught this on Friday, but….

Patrick
Radden Keefe (The Century Foundation) offers up a good overview of the pros and cons of Social Network Analytis in last Friday's (12 March 2006) edition of The New York Times.  In “Can Network Theory Thwart Terrorists?” he says that “the N.S.A.
intercepts some 650 million communications worldwide every day.”  Well, that's a nice round number, but one so large that we wonder how, for example, to account for basic variables such as the length of call?  (You don't suppose the good folks at the N.S.A. have to wait while the “Please wait.  A service technician will be with you shortly” messages are being replayed for 18 minutes, do we?) 

We think Social Network Analysis is another of those tools in its infancy, but one with (a) great potential and (b) an equally great development curve.

The Canadian Cartographic Association today points us to another interesting application of data collecting, analysis and charting.  See: http://ccablog.blogspot.com/2006/03/index-of-economic-freedom.html

The
Index of Economic Freedom has been published every year for the past 12
years. It assesses each country’s economic freedom by evaluating a
country’s performance on a number of factors, including trade policy,
fiscal burden, government intervention, monetary policy and property
rights, among others. Using the latest results (available in Excel format), the index creators have also put together a map of the world (also in pdf format) that provides a quick overview of economic freedom throughout the world. Also interesting to view is a chart showing the correlation of per capita income and economic freedom. Individual country reports / analysis are also available.

The complete report, along with the methodology and process used, is available for download.