Geography Game Using Google Earth

This is fun. And a productive time-waster. Where On Google Earth is a game using Google Earth. Those that run the site pick a spot on the globe and you are supposed to guess where it is.

From the game web site:

To participate, just make your guess in the comments section for each photo. Guesses will be held until the end of the contest, when they will all be made public. Anything and everything is fair game for getting a correct answer. Each contest will last 2-3 days, so submit your guess as soon as you have an idea.

Mapping Human Impact on Oceans

Today's Science Times in the New York Times had an interesting piece by Andrew Revkin on the impacts of humans on the oceans. As is so often the case these days with the Times, there were some great graphics (see above). I especially liked the newsprint version of the shipping lanes map since it is a subject I've studied and written about in the past.

Without mentioning GIS by name, Revkin discusses how these maps were generated:

A paper in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Science is the first effort to map 17 kinds of human ocean impacts like organic pollution, including agricultural runoff and sewage; damage from bottom-scraping trawls; and intensive traditional fishing along coral reefs.

I tried to look up the Science article referred to by Revkin, but I don't have a subscription. It is called "A Global Map of Human Impact on Marine Ecosystems," by Halpern et al., 2/15/2008, p. 948-952, in case you're interested in sleuthing it out.

Another site referred to in the Times piece is the Census of Marine Life. The available map seems to be a work in progress but it is a place to watch for marine data and info.

Mac Tablet

Axiotron has a Mac tablet available with two pretty cool features: integrated GPS and DVD/CD combo drive.

Axiotron’s innovative design and manufacturing process integrates an Apple® MacBook® computer, state-of-the-art Wacom® pen-enabled digitizer technology and Axiotron's own proprietary hardware and software components into a complete tablet solution, the Axiotron Modbook.

I haven't tried Adobe® Photoshop® or Illustrator® on my TC1100 tablet. I wonder if those are pen-enabled. The Axiotron is clearly going for the graphic designer market here.

Software for the Mobile Mapping Lab Tablets

As stated previously, we've decided on two types of tablet PCs for our mobile mapping lab - two Panasonic CF-19 Toughbooks and 15 HP 2710Ps. Now we are loading the software. Here's what we're putting on the new tablet PCs to get them ready for mobile mapping and teaching with GIS and other geopspatial technologies.

• Windows XP - Vassar, like many other colleges and universities, is not yet supporting Vista. And the GIS software we use, is just at the service pack level of support for Vista OS.
• ArcGIS ArcView Desktop 9.2 with Spatial Analyst and 3D Analyst extensions. ArcGIS is tablet-enabled and has been since we've been using tablet PCs for mapping.
• XTools for ArcGIS
• Add a GPS receiver, which looks like this and integrates beautifully with the GPS toolbar in ArcGIS.
• Microsoft Office 2007 using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access.
• OneNote 2007
• PDF Annotator - easily annotate PDFs
• Classroom Presenter - useful for in-class slide shows that are easily annotated and shared with students
• InkSeine - described as Windows Journal on crack - great for inking
• Timbuktu - for in-class screen sharing
• Acronis for computer lab imaging. If anyone uses something a little more streamlined for imaging computers, I'd love to hear about the product.

For functionality while back at the office (the Earth Science and Geography department), we bought a couple of HP ultra-slim expansion bases, a couple of USB-connected DVD/CD drives, and a couple of USB mouse/keyboard combos.

For mapping in the field, we bought extra Li-ion 6 cell batteries, some battery chargers, and an AC auto charger. Cases are still an issue, we don't have one yet for the HP tablets. We got the Panasonic Fieldmate Always On case.

Excel, DBF files, and ArcGIS 9.2

I sent out an email to a GIS listserve asking for some help with a problem. Very quickly, I got back some great and helpful responses. All of that geospatial advice shouldn’t sit in my email archive, right? Here is a post that might help others who have the same question I had. To maintain anonymity, I signed their posts with their school affiliation just in case they didn’t expect their answers to be put out on the web.

Here’s was my question:
It seems that Microsoft Excel 2007 does not support the use of dbf files, either opening or "saving as". Is there a workaround that anyone knows of? On Microsoft's web site: "We have determined that a number of these older formats are seldom, if ever used. "...except for by GIS users!

Many thanks,
Vassar College

Here were the answers:

1) About working with Excel files in ArcGIS 9.2 - I found that by using Excel files in 9.2, it solved a lot of the problems that we would encounter with .csv, .txt, and .dbf files in earlier releases of ArcGIS. I wrote up a tip sheet to help my students out when working with Excel files, which some folks might find useful. I've certainly learned some new things following the discussion on this list. The Excel tip sheet is on the Tuft’s web page in the Working with Tables section.

Also go to ESRI’s page on using Microsoft Excel with ArcGIS 9.2.
From: Tufts University

2) If you have ArcGIS 9.2, it will accept excel files now. If not I would use a txt file.
From: California University of Pennsylvania

3) Fortunately, with Arc 9.2 we can use .xls directly (just make sure in Excel 2007 that you use that “compatibility” function that saves as an .xls 1997-2003 version), but when I had to revert to Arc 9.1 once last month (but still with Excel 2007) I saved as .txt and .csv and brought in to Arc without issues.
From: University of Redlands

4) It looks like that's only when Excel saves output; on input it will still read DBF files.

So with 9.2, the thing to do might be to join the Excel file (or a CSV file with 9.2 or 9.1) and then export the data as a new shapefile, which should produce the DBF for you.

Coincidentally I just stumbled across this trick in 9.2 (perhaps earlier, too): in ArcCatalog, right-click on a CSV file, and in its menu select "Export" and then "To dBase (single)...".

You can also open up an XLS file (in 9.2), point at a sheet or named region, and then do the same thing.
From: Amherst College

5) However if you use 2007 you need to save to the .xls 2003. But the 2007 does export to dbf too ... just hidden in their crazy menus.
From: Rio Hondo

6) And it seems the shape file must begin with a letter and not a number. We found that, for example, joining an Excel file to 1950_census.shp results in an SQL error. After renaming the file to census_1950.shp, everything behaves properly.
From: Wheaton College

7) I’ve heard that as well. I’m not using Excel 2007 yet, but the only workaround I can think of is to use ArcGIS to save your dbf as a text (CSV) file and then read it into Excel.
From: Middlebury College

8) Excel is still supposed to read dBase formats. A work-around, for the time it stops doing this, is to import the data into Excel through an ODBC connection or other database connection. It's possible you could also export changes to the data back out through the connection, but I haven't tried this.

There are subtle but serious problems using CSV files for data interchange, because they do not contain field type information. For example, string fields containing numeric strings (like zip codes, social security numbers, or US Census state/county/tract/block identifiers) will lose their leading zeros because Excel will assume these fields are of numeric type.
From: Haverford College


Meg here: I found that if I right click on the Excel file in ArcCatalogue (shown circled in red above), I will see the worksheets and then I can drag the table over to ArcMap.

Mapping History

I learn everything new about geospatial technologies from two sources. The first is Ogle Earth.

Stephen Geens blogged about the Time Space Map. It is billed as a geographic wiki. I think of the Google Earth Community BBS as that, so I think the Time Space Map is more elaborate. What a great concept and what potential this could have for academics.

Stephen writes: "Wouldn’t it be nice if all of Wikipedia’s historical events could be mapped to Time Space Map via some automated process? (That would avoid a lot of duplicated effort.) Wouldn’t it be nice if Google Earth’s timeline could be put to use exploring the history of any place you care to zoom in on, via a KML network link served by Time Space Map?"

I would take it further. Wouldn't it be great to share all places discussed in Wikipedia as KML files? Where is Poughkeepsie, NY? How about where is Poughkeepsie REALLY. James Baldwin grew up where? On the lower East Side? Battle of Normandy occured in the middle of France? You can zoom to locations in Wikipedia but it's not elegant at the moment and it is highly inaccurate. When you click on 'location' in Wikipedia, you should be able to launch Google Earth and fly there.

We have an ethnobotany professor working on a project in class this semester where the students will go out and map the locations of ethnic markets in the Poughkeepsie community. She wants the students to take photographs and upload them, with a description, to Panoramio and, of course, geolocate them, so that others can see these markets and what you can get there. Further, she wants the students to add content to the Wikipedia page for Poughkeepsie that will highlight the ethnic market community. If the two, Google Earth photos and Wikipedia entries, could be combined...that what be powerful. I'll post about this class later in the semester.

I mentioned two great geospatial sages. The other most-informed person I know about all stuff geospatial is Diana Sinton. She let me on to the fact (via a list) that the new book Placing History: How Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS are Changing Historical Scholarship edited by Anne Knowles (Middlebury College) and Amy Hillier (Univ of Pennsylvania) is out through ESRI press. Highly useful for those of us who support mapping, this book will be great to use for ideas for mapping in the humanities.

So, these two, seperate, unrelated topics are in the same post. Why? Because how cool it would be if Placing History could be designed to incorportate new tools like Time Space Map, right? That's the next book. Or I guess it would be an e-Book?

Maps on the Web

When I'm asked to help people (read: college professors) make maps in classes, increasingly I refer to web mapping sites. I've mentioned some of these before in this blog, and if you want to know of some of the great ones, look on this blog's links under Web Mapping Tools. I was asked again for demo-ing the use of GIS software to show some world demographic data, but I have to say that the best way to show these data, in my mind, is with some of the slick web mapping sites out there.
Remember the days when web maps were very clunky because they drew so slowly? Web maps have alwasy been pretty cool because you could see mapped data and sometimes you could download those data, but the effect was lost with the slowness and unattractive visual display. Maybe it’s the advent of virtual globes or map mash-ups, but I'm finding more and more web mapping sites that are fast, have loads of data to play with interactively and look very pleasing when you are in the map interface. Here are some I like.


GapMinder is a web mapping site that Diana Sinton mentioned months ago, but I keep coming back to it. Easy to use and visually striking, it really makes the world of encouraging academics to use maps in classes a lot easier (than teaching them GIS software or finding the data myself and making the maps for them in class). As shown above, click on the Map tab to look at global maps or use the Chart tab to plot variables. For more ideas, you can view the video below.

Use the Chart feature (circled in red above) and you can do things like this map which shows the life expectancy per percent women in the workforce. Press the Play button and you'll see the how the variable for the countries changes through time; GapMinder makes trails of the country. I've highlighted the U.S., Bangladesh and Nigeria which shows that life expectancy trends upward for all countries, but the biggest gain in life expectancy of these three is Bangladesh.

Again, see the video below of GapMinder in action at a 2006 TED conference.


"Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen"
posted June 2006 (thanks Beth Feingold for pointing this out to me.)

“You've never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called "developing world" using extraordinary animation software developed by his Gapminder Foundation. The Trendalyzer software (recently acquired by Google) turns complex global trends into lively animations, making decades of data pop. Asian countries, as colorful bubbles, float across the grid -- toward better national health and wealth …"

I couldn't figure out how to embed the video, sorry.


DataPlace has a wealth of US Census data. When you first see the page, it isn't all that attractive. But search on a city and press go and then click on Maps (circled in red above) and you have so much data at your finger tips. Seems you can plot 2000 or 1990 Cenus data for the whole country and for what seems like any variable you might want. The data sources and coarseness (no blockgroup data) are listed.

The World Freedom Atlas "is a geovisualization tool for world statistics. It was designed for social scientists, journalists, NGO/IGO workers and others who wish to have a better understanding of issues of freedom, democracy, human rights and good governance. It covers the years 1990 to 2006." Click on Take me to the maps. On the left side you'll find loads of data and the sources, and an explanation of what the numbers mean. If the data for that variable exist for past years, you can change the map.

Cool Google Earth Video

Came across this nice Google Earth video by EarthOutreach. When you mouse over the bottom of the video, you'll see there are different "chapters" on the different and most interesting Global Awareness Layers in Google Earth.

Geospatial Technologies in K-20 Education

In eSchool News I noticed that one of the literacies being promoted or supported, along with Reading and Math and others, is GIS and Geographic Inquiry. It seems like ESRI has a bit of an influence on the page, but there may be some useful resources here for promoting and supported geospatial technologies at all schools. From the GIS and Geographic Inquiry page:

"The growing use of these tools in an array of social studies and STEM subjects supports authentic, problem-based instruction, helping students tackle real social and environmental research projects in their communities."

U.S. Politics and Campaiging: The Game

My nine year old showed this game to me. (Actually, he was playing it and I looked over his shoulder and was pleased to see that my interest in maps and in politics has rubbed off on him.) It's on the on-line game site MiniClip and it's called Campaign.

The game is about the current U.S. presidential campaign; you choose players who are currently campaigning for President. Then you choose your staff--Spinmeister, Operative, Hatchet Man, or Fundraiser. When you play, you need to choose your moves wisely because each one (attack ads, rally, new hire) costs you money.

Skidmore Regional GIS Conference for College Educators

As mentioned before, Skidmore College is holding a regional GIS conference geared towards colleges and universities on January 11. The agenda looks terrific. Get in touch with Alex Chaucer, if you're interested in attending. He can send you directions.

Skidmore Regional GIS Conference for College Educators

Friday, January 11th, 2008
Tentative Program

9:30 AM Welcome (Dana Atrium)

10:00 AM Todd Fabozzi: The Challenges of Sprawl and Smart Growth in the Capitol Region

11:15 AM Jonathan Cobb: GPS in the 21st Century - An Overview of Current GPS Capabilities, Modernization Efforts, and Complementary Networks

12:00 Noon Lunch Break

1:00 PM Robert Jones: GIS and the Time Dimension

1:30 PM Sharron Macklin and Jenni Lund: ArcGIS and Google Earth: Rules of Engagement

2:15 PM Discussion: Fostering a GIS Community: On Your Campus and Among Liberal Arts Colleges

3:30 PM Session Ends