Today I was on a panel at the InterAction Forum, which is a conference for member organizations within InterAction.  InterAction is an coalition of NGOs with over 180 member organizations.   In the past few months at FortiusOne we’ve been assisting them in tracking their projects and sharing their geographic data. The panel I participated in was titled “Mapping the Haiti Earthquake: Open Geospatial Data and Transnational Social Collaboration.”  It was moderated by Andrew Schroeder of Direct Relief International with the other participants being Christiann Adams from Google, Kimberly Konkel from the Department of Health and Human Services, Nathan Heard of the State Department and Salim Sawaya from ESRI.

One of the points the panel wanted to highlight was the collaboration after the Haiti earthquake between corporations, government institutions and newer participants such as Ushahidi and OpenStreetMap.  As someone who participated early on in the collaboration it was interesting to finally meet people who previous I only knew through phone calls and emails.  One of the questions coming out was is Haiti special or will this happen again?  Was there something about the particular incident or has something fundamentally changed?

I think there are multiple sides to this question.  There is the technology, the people side, the geographic side and the sheer magnitude of the disaster.  I think as far as technology goes things have changed, people can find collaborators in a way that wasn’t possible before.  By finding collaborators individuals were able to make a difference far away from the scene of the actual crisis.  I think the people side is more complex, there was something compelling in the United States with Haiti being so close.  Though now people have formed powerful networks and know that when others need help there is often something they can do.  As far a geography the proximity of Haiti to the United States I believe made the government and its citizens respond in a way they haven’t before.  Then there was the size of the disaster which compelled many people to help.

I think all these factors have changed how people will respond in to a crisis in the future.  Now when an earthquake or flood hits I immediately see the various networks activate, seeing if they can do anything to help.  In some cases such as with the oil spill there is something the technology community can do.  In others there are other factors that either prevent people from helping or the help is unneeded.

Response also will change as groups continue to plan better for the future.  One example of this is the CrisisCamp and the Random Hack of Kindness this weekend.   Another was the Understanding Risk Conference at the World Bank earlier in the week.  I’m still participating in capacity building for OpenStreetMap in Haiti with the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team.  Data will continue to be available on GeoCommons when other events occur such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  And technology will continue to improve making collaboration easier.

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Recently in the news there have been stories of worker strikes in South Africa that are affecting the construction of stadiums that are to be used in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The workers are demanding pay raises and are halting their efforts in constructing stadiums until their demands are met. Organizers of the 2010 FIFA World Cup are confident that the issue will soon be resolved. I decided to look into this further and see just how much work is being done to make the 2010 World Cup happen as planned.
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Above is a map of all the stadium sites for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. (Use the interactive map to zoom in/out and explore information about each stadium by clicking on the different flags). So how much construction is needed for all of the stadiums to be completed and ready for the World Cup? Below is a map that shows which stadiums are being newly built, having major upgrades, having medium upgrades, and having minor upgrades. (click on the map for a larger view)

Stadium Construction Type, 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africa

From the map above you can see that 5 of the 10 stadiums that are being used in the 2010 World Cup are going to be brand new stadiums. One will go through major upgrading, two through medium upgrading, and two through minor updating. All and all, there is a lot of construction that needs to be done before the start of the cup. Another issue is the size of the stadiums. The map below shows the gross capacity that each stadium will have during the 2010 World Cup.

Stadium Gross Capacities, FIFA World Cup 2010, South Africa

These are all fairly large stadiums that will require a great amount of work to be completed. Will the work be done? Let’s hope so, because if it is not, it may dampen the atmosphere of the world’s greatest soccer tournament in 2010.

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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.

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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)

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