Michael Goodchild on "Geography Prospers from GIS"

I must have missed mentioning this great turn of events back in April of this year. Michael Goodchild of U.C. Santa Barbara discusses in ESRI's ArcWatch how geography departments across the country are flourishing as a result of the attraction of GIS. Vassar College is no exception on this front as our geography major numbers continue to rise.

"These are good time for the discipline of geography." Check it out if you haven't already.

Google Earth, Google Maps, Second Life and First Life

Back into the academic fold and catching up on a little geospatial reading materials, I find a couple of interesting pieces that I’d like to comment on and encourage anyone to take a look at. There will be more as I sift through all the Ogle Earth’s entries that I’ve missed, so I’ll slip off the summer gear and step into serious work mode.


I once had an idea about Google Earth. I had gotten so into using Google Earth that I wanted to write an Op-Ed piece about its use and overwhelming popularity. I’m not so much a techy, geek-type and I thought I could write a coherent piece that could be interesting and understandable to regular folks from age six to 106. Well, like many things, I never got around to it.

Two articles that came out at nearly the same time in July, a piece in Wired and another in Technology Review, attempt to explain the wonderful workings of Google Earth (and Google Maps) and Google Earth (and Second Life). These essays are not what I had in mind with my Op-Ed fantasy, but they do go far to explain some of the interesting notions that come up concerning Google Earth.

In "Google Maps is Changing the Way We see the World," Evan Ratliff gives a terrific overview article on not only Google Maps but Google Earth. (I guess that in the on-line world, the writer doesn’t get to write the headline just as in the print world!)

Ratliff answers some frequently asked questions like:

1. What is KML?
2. Why "Earth"?
3. Does Google 'smudge' the sensitive locations?

Read the article to find out the answers.

I cannot agree more with Ratliff’s point that these on-line map services put the power of maps into the hands of non-specialists thus changing what gets mapped, from what scientists find useful to what everyone else finds useful. Sometimes these data overlap, often they don’t, and we move closer to the democratization of geospatial data.

"Second Earth," by Wade Roush in Technology Review takes my beloved Google Earth a step further. He wants to squeeze avatars into Google Earth, or better yet, he wants to recreate Earth in Second Life. This is a noble idea, one that I have stated to my colleagues here at Vassar before (well, the first idea, not the second), but as we all know, the co-mingling of Google Earth and Second Life is not to be happening anytime soon. But the prospect of merging geospatial technologies and virtual worlds is titillating and compelling, especially in the realm of higher education. (The image above is taken from Unype's web site).

With loads of interesting little bits about this and that related to Second Life, this essay is well-worth reading, though a little over-long. But when Roush tells us that “if you take a few months to explore Second Life” you’ll be hooked, I'm thinking that he's been drinking the kool-aid. He also describes Second Life as "beautiful." I read this and I smirk. I'm partial to this life's beauty and I suppose I'm one of the Second Life skeptics. I think that the best thing about Second Life is the notion that we could one day take our little self-representations that we so painstakingly create and breeze them into the First Life. It is lost on me why NOAA would want to bring real-time weather data into Second Life for true, real-world locations, when it is so much more, well, REAL in Google Earth. Why re-create topography and aerial photography when the real thing is already available? Why re-create Machu Picchu when you can see it now in Google Earth? And Google’s server farms make the viewing experience a giddy joy.

So, I read the whole article, hoping to get clued into the mythic allure that is Second Life. What I found is what I already know. There are people who LOVE Second Life and know in their hearts that the personal connections made in an on-line sim environment are very appealing, perhaps life-changing. Second Life is an "eternal garden party" in an unreal, yet altogether not unattractive space. Google Earth, with 250 million downloads, is hugely more popular on so many levels, but primarily because of its ease of use. There is nothing intimidating about using Google Earth and no one will come up to you in Google Earth and pinch you or drop a smoke bomb on your head. And please do read the article, but something missing (pointed out by Brownian Emotion blog) is the why do an integration at all question, even if it could be done?

Neither Google nor Linden Labs (Second Life's creators) have any plan to merge their two cool web apps, unless there’s something they’re not telling us. And the only thing possible at the present that comes close to what Roush is looking for is Unype, and we already know about that too.

I guess the long and the short of it is that I should re-think my Op-Ed idea. I haven’t been scooped yet. Maybe over October Break!

Tablet Toolbar for ArcGIS 9.2

Using the Tablet toolbar for digitizing is great for use with a tablet PC, but it's also fine with a desktop PC. Get the tool by going to View -> Toolbars -> Tablet

With the Windows desktop version of ArcGIS 9.2, we found that we could not digitize like we could with the Windows Tablet PC version of ArcGIS. Here's how to make sure you can use this great digitizing tool.

Using the Tablet tools Ink Settings button (circled in green above) you'll get the window shown below.

Make sure you check every box that you can check (especially "Render Ink Graphics as lines when projecting on-the-fly in ArcMap). Also, move the delay time to mid-way on the scale bar like it shows in the screenshot above.

If you are not familiar with how to digitize using a tablet PC or how to use the Tablet toolbar in general, please see a short tutorial I wrote up for a ArcGIS 9.1. If you scroll to page 7 or look for the text "Using the Tablet Pen as a Digitizer," there's a description to help you get started.

Weather and GIS
From her first post in her new position at the University of Redlands, we learn from Diana Sinton about a cool web page with loads of national weather data...NOAA's National Weather Service.

Plus, this is my first post of the semester. Yikes, is summer over already!!??

The ReDistricting Game

"As a mapmaker, I can have more of an impact on an election than on a campaign. The system is out of whack."

Here is a really cool redistricting game that "is designed to educate, engage, and empower citizens around the issue of political redistricting. Currently, the political system in most states allows the state legislators themselves to draw the lines. This system is subject to a wide range of abuses and manipulations that encourage incumbents to draw districts which protect their seats rather than risk an open contest."

Mentioned on NPR's Morning Edition June 14, and passed along in a post by NITLE's Jamie Carroll, this seems like a terrific way to teach about how the lines are drawn.

This is what the game looks like...

ArcInfo Loaded in Small Geospatial Lab

I've loaded ArcInfo Workstation (and, obviously, ArcGIS ArcInfo) on the 'door' computer in the former Rock Prep Room.

Another 'Niche' Market? A New Tablet Pen Option

The New York Times reported May 30 that there's a new pen option in the computing world. LiveScribe announced on Wednesday at the D: All Things Digital conference that they've come up with a real pen that uses real ink on real paper and yet the pen is also digital and can be connected to a computer for digitizing and saving notes. From The Tech Chronicles "The first smart pens will go on sale in the fall on college campuses for about $200 apiece, he said. It's easy to see that students, who have to take notes, can use something like this. But reporters are another likely market."

So, if you're wondering how the thing works and whether it is like a tablet PC (like the one I have in my brief case and use daily), you should look at this cute little video. It's pretty slick for the note-taking market.

But will it work for the mobile mapping market? No way. We'd be back to taking our map boards out in the field and post-processing.

And what about the traditional tablet PC market? The developer (the maker of kid-friendly LeapFrog products) claims that the pen on the tablet PC screen is too slippery to be comfortable to most users. Perhaps. I imagine that this little toy will be another niche product but time will tell.

One more thing that came from the Times article that rang true for me. "And while pen computing has finally gained a degree of acceptance with consumers through devices like the Palm line of personal digital assistants and tablet PCs, those remain niche products, not the general-purpose machines that some pen computer pioneers envisioned." (Italics are mine.) I've heard the same thing from the CIS crew here at Vassar. As long as tablet PCs remain "niche," they'll remain too expensive for the consumer who could use them the most...students. So, a $200 alternative may work for that note-taking market on a budget, so long as it isn't clunky.

Hiking Trails in Google Earth

So, I'm sitting around installing software which seems to take five times longer than in the "old days," but anyway, and I killed a little time by checking out Google Earth. Actually, I was going to look for a good place to eat (using Yelp Reviews) but I noticed something quite cool that I wanted to let on about. Under Layers -> Featured Content, I found Trimble Outdoor Trips. With that checked, you zoom into a place where you think you'd like to take a hike and see what shows up. Shown below is a suggested hike near where I live (and work). The icon shows the hiking trail path, photographs, information about where to park, and some of the hikes provide audio and video…sounds like virtual hiking. And of course you can use Google Earth to give you directions to the trailhead. Never a dull moment with Google Earth.

Workshop on the Impact of Pen-Based Technology on Education

Yes, okay WIPTE is a mouthful, but if you're interested in tablet PCs and you're interested in instructional technologies, this looks like a good conference.

But this is the really cool thing about the conference, there's yet another university out there using tablet PCs, and GIS and GPS to teach with. Check out the abstract for "TEACHING SOIL – LANDSCAPE INTERACTIONS USING RUGGED TABLET PCs IN THE FIELD" from Darrell Schulze and colleagues from Purdue University.

A little searching on Purdue's web pages finds that Schulze has been working with tablet PCs and soil mapping already. Sing it Prof. Schulze, "Paper maps, however, have limitations, especially in the field." See some mapping-by-mini-van below.

Question About the Availability of Google Earth Workshops

I gave a talk at the American Association of Geographers meeting last week on the use of Google Earth in higher education, and following the talk there was no time for questions. I did get one question emailed to me, and because I think it's a good one, I'd like to answer it here. I'm posting the question(s) and my response in case someone reads this and wants to add to the discussion. I won't include the professor's name and school.

April 21, 2007

Hi Meg,

I greatly enjoyed your presentation yesterday at AAG in SF. In terms of my current interests, it was the best presentation of the day. Thank you. (I wanted to talk to you afterwards but unfortunately had to dash to meet up with one of my students before the Lopez/Solnit session).

I am writing because I have a full sabbatical in the Fall to work on developing improved graphic teaching tools for my geography courses. Part of the sabbatical project involves learning to use the more advanced features of Google Earth. I would greatly appreciate it if you could suggest the best way to quickly get up to speed on making my own KML/KMZ files, uploading images, and creating movies/fly-throughs. Are there any workshops on these topics that you're aware of? Any especially good books or online tutorials? Any advice or help you may be able to offer will be greatly appreciated!

Warm regards,
Professor of Geography

My response:

Dear Professor of Geography,

Thank you for your kind words on the Google Earth presentation and your interest in some Google Earth sabbatical ideas.

First off, I don't know of any workshops or training sessions available for Google Earth. I'm self-taught. But as I said in the talk, it's pretty easy software to work with and you can't break anything when you're trying to figure things out. I think that Google Earth is new enough that there aren't any how-to books out there (that I know of) and that use is growing organically. Likewise, there are no resources available that talk about standards for use in a classroom setting.

Secondly, always get the most up-to-date version of Google Earth. I think I said that in my talk, but it should be restated. I find that I can do most everything I need to do with the free version of Google Earth. You mentioned making a movie; that would need to be done with the pay-for version (Google Earth Pro at $400/seat). There is a movie-making tutorial that you can follow.

When I give demos to faculty members on campus, I usually try to give them a copy of a Google Earth Users Guide is pretty useful, though I think it is very wordy. But all of the things that you mentioned that you'd like to learn are listed there.

Frank Taylor's Google Earth Blog has a nice short list of some things you can do with Google Earth, like describing the overview map and playing a tour, but also clarifying any confusion between a KML or a KMZ? I get that sometimes. And then the Google Earth Blog also points to tutorials.

And these seem to be video and audio podcasts Google Earth tutorials (I must admit I haven't tried these but they look useful).

Finally, there was a terrific KML that I stumbled upon and now cannot seem to dredge up. It was a great step-by-step on how to make a placemark with different types of text, with an embedded URL, and with an image that pops up in the placemark bubble. Where is that!? If I find that one, I'll send it along to you. Just keep in mind that the placemark "description" can be written in HTML. My guess is that I found that helpful KML back before I started the gisatvassar blog. Now when I find something useful, I stick it right on the links side (or post a note about it). So what I'll do with your email and my answer (leaving out your name, of course) is post it to the blog.

When you get into your 'free' time of your sabbatical, please get in touch with me if you have Google Earth questions.

Best regards,
Meg

Fifth Annual Teaching With Technology Forum

Another great year for Vassar's annual Teaching with Technology Forum, we had twelve interesting presenters showing posters and demonstrations of a variety of interesting uses of technologies in teaching. We also had a keynote speaker discussing the uses of visual images and (gasp!) getting presentation materials from Flickr. It was great.

As I mentioned in the Save the Date announcement awhile back, there were six posters given on geospatial topics. Five of the six had not presented at a Forum in the past. So, hurray for new users to GIS, mobile mapping and Google Earth!

Eventually, we in Academic Computing Services will put all of the lovely posters up on the web as we have done in 2006, 2005, and 2004. Please stay tuned. Until we get it together, please enjoy the posters that I helped put together. You'll notice one extra, non-geospatial poster, on the list. Yu Zhou talked about her use of Google Docs in class, a tool I love to use and love even more to promote. So check it out. Click on each for a larger jpeg to read. Here's the list in alphabetical order (with departmental affiliation):

Robert Fritz and Keri Van Camp (both in Biology), "Using Tablet PC Technology to Examine the Effect of an Invasive Species on Plant Diversity at the Vassar Farm"

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Brian Godfrey (Geography), "Making Maps with Census Data"

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David Jemiolo (Biology) and David Kennett (Economics), "Sugar, Rum and Squash: Going to Barbados with Google Earth"

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Lucille Johnson (Anthropology), "Field Archaeology: Tablet PCs and Digital Photography Enhance Research and Reporting"

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A. Marshall Pregnall (Biology), "Finding the Bathymetry of Sunset Lake and the Change Over Time Using Spatial Analyst"

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Jeff Walker (Earth Science) and Mary Ann Cunningham (Geography), "Analyzing Regional Agriculture Through GIS, On-Line Water Budget Mapping and Soil Nutrient Modeling"

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Yu Zhou (Geography), "Using Google Docs (aka Writely) as a Collaborative Writing Tool"