Many companies are on Twitter, but how are they using this social media tool? Glenn Letham of GISuser discusses how organizations, for example ESRI, use Twitter to keep their readers informed of industry and company news as well as a communication tool to their customers. Letham encourages other GIS/Geo Technology companies to use Twitter as a medium for customer relations and technical assistance. Follow us on Twitter!

Harvard launched AfricaMap. The map is based on the Harvard University Geospatial Infrastructure (HUG) platform and was developed by the Center for Geographic Analysis.  AfricaMap, a OpenLayers-based app, aims to expand existing initiatives for globally sharing spatial data and technology. 

Google Maps created a fun quiz where you get to test your geographic puzzle solving skills. To play the quiz, you have to rearrange letters in a map, using visual clues in the form of a Panoramio photograph, to spell a world capital or U.S. state capital.

The USGS National Geospatial Program Office launched a new version of The National Map website. Revisions include The National Geospatial Program and The National Map web site.

Discussions about the auto industry bailout have been percolating the blogosphere. How would this affect auto industry workers? CNN created an interactive map showing the number of auto industry jobs in each state.

Popularity: 24% [?]

The U.S. Department of Education has a link on their website to The Equity in Athletics Data Analysis Cutting Tool, which allows visitors to download spreadsheets that show financial information about equity in college athletics. The universities that the data accounts for are US college universities that receive Title IV funding. What that basically means is that these colleges participate in federal student aid programs, which a majority of college universities do.

Considering that I was a rower in college, I was pleased to find this data. I was particularly interested in seeing what it would look like if I mapped out the college universities that have rowing programs and then by using proportion symbols, I could see which colleges had the biggest revenues. The following map displays revenues of collegiate rowing teams for both male and female programs combined in 2007:

(Click Finder! to view the data set)

Now to give you an idea of what each college rowing program revenue looks like by gender, the following map is broken down by female revenue and male revenue using proportion symbols to show the amount of revenue comparatively.

(Click map or Maker! to view map)

Popularity: 24% [?]

Global economic crisis! Record level unemployment in the U.S.!

With our latest dataset on unemployment levels for select countries from 1995 to 2008 from the U.S. Department of Labor, I decided to take a look at what has been happening to unemployment in this economic environment.

The next three maps show unemployment levels for three different years at the same scale.

Then too see the more short term effects of the current crisis on unemployment rates, I made a map based on the percent change of unemployment rates from the first quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of 2008.

It is clear that globally things have worsened since 2000, however they still have not reached the levels seen in 1995. Also, the U.S. still has much lower unemployment rates than many European countries, such as Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, Greece and Italy (this may change with the latest figures for the fourth quarter of 2008).

Although comparatively, the U.S. has lower rates of unemployment than many European countries; it is important to note that the U.S. has a much less significant safety net for the unemployed (in the area of health care for example) so that the social effects may be as devastating.

The U.S. is also one of the countries that has seen the largest percent increase in unemployment rates since the beginning of 2008. Only Spain, Portugal and Ireland have had larger increases in unemployment rates than the U.S. (Italy does not have data after the second quarter of 2008). Since this data is based on self reporting from each country, figures may be inflated or deflated, such as the case of the U.S. It is important to note that this data does not represent unemployment in poorer countries where increasing unemployment may be more devastating.

Take a look at these maps yourself or go to Maker! and make your own maps from the dataset.

Popularity: 17% [?]

It’s the holidays and what is one thing that is on the minds of everyone? Shopping! Yes, and this year with the economy slumping people are trying to not only find the perfect gift but the perfectly-priced gift. As I myself have pondered this question a thought entered my head. What if I were to do my shopping in a state that has no sales/general tax? Yes, these states do exist and Finder! and Maker! have a dataset that show sales tax across the USA by state. The map is below:

The states that are a very light cream color (Oregon, Montana, Delaware, New Hampshire) are the states that have no sales/general tax. The darker the state the higher the sales tax rate is in that state.

Now my next question is this. If I am to go to one of these states to shop will I really end up saving more money? I may not be spending money for a sales tax but I certainly will be spending more money on gas to travel the extra distance. I will set up a hypothetical situation using Finder! and Maker! to see what my answer will be.

Let’s say I live in the lovely state of Washington in the city called Castle Rock. In Washington the sales tax is at a rate of 6.5%. Next door to me is my neighbor Oregon that has a 0% sales tax. Now on Finder! I can load major shopping centers that are around me in my area. The map below shows that I have two major shopping centers right by me that are relatively close off of Interstate 5, one in Centralia, WA (Centralia Shopping Center, 34.4 miles away) and the other in Portland, OR (Jantzen Beach SuperCenter, 50.4 miles). These will be the two places that I will compare and the map is below of the two with Castle Rock right in the middle. The map is shown below:

Now let’s do some math. My holiday shopping expenses look like this:

Wife = $70, Mom = $60, Dad = $60, Sisters = $120 = = Total of $310 on gifts

In Washington, with shopping tax this equals 310 x 6.5% tax = 20.15, 310 + 20.15 = $330.15. So the difference between the two states is $20.15.

Now let’s look at gas expenses:

Let’s say gas in Castle Rock is $2.00 a gallon and my car averages a rate of 25 mpg. If my round trip from Castle Rock to Centralia is 68.8 and my trip from Portland and back is 100.8 miles, then my gas costs will look like this.

Castle Rock to Centralia: 68.8/25 = 2.75 g x $2 = $5.50

Castle Rock to Portland: 100.8/25 = 4.03 g x $2 = $8.06

By going to Centralia I will end up saving 8.06 – 5.50 = $2.56

Now as we put these two savings figures together we see that overall our trip to Portland would be a wiser choice. You will spend more money on fuel ($2.56), but you will save much more on your shopping expenses ($20.15). Together it will provide us with a savings of $17.59.

I would like to mention that this is very hypothetical. Often, other circumstances (county taxes, municipal taxes, toll roads encountered, different mpg rates on the trips, and many others) may enter into the equation and change figures. All in all this might be a solution to save money, so create your own hypotheticals using Finder! and Maker! and see if it will help. Below are links to Finder! datasets that show major shopping centers (malls, outlet malls) in a few 0% sales tax states. Happy Holidays and good luck shopping!

• Oregon
• Delaware
• New Hampshire

Popularity: 13% [?]