"London-based design firm BERG created these two 3D maps of Manhattan, which look like a scene out of "Inception" (via Curbed NY)."
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Global news with a spatial perspective: Interesting, current supplemental materials for geography students and teachers. http://geographyeducation.org
Curated by
Seth Dixon
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Facebook intern Paul Butler has created a detailed map of the world by mapping connections between people using the social network living in different cities.
Seth Dixon's insight:
The disconnected portions of the this map tell us as much about the world we live in as the highly illuminated ones. Might this be a version of the "Black Marble" image that would reasonate more with today's teenagers? For the methods behind the creation of this map as well as a high resolution version of the map, see this post. Tags: social media, map, visualization. 
Louis Culotta's curator insight,
April 27, 11:39 AM
This is very cool...just like the internet map you posted. I have a seperate facebook page just to communicate back and forth to my friend nd his family in New Zealand in real time for free. 
Thomas C. Thompson's curator insight,
April 27, 8:25 PM
This is a picture of our world and the real way that we are connected in real time from Facebook. It's amazing! Share this everywhere! Delete the scoop?
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Video of a sandbox equipped with a Kinect 3D camera and a projector to project a real-time colored topographic map with contour lines onto the sand surface. ...
Seth Dixon's insight:
Many of our first experiments of creating landforms and designing a new world started in the sandbox. This video shows how that early childhood activity can make for an excellent classroom demonstration to shows how Earth's physical systems work. If you happen to have a digital topographic map to superimpose on the sandbox and a GPU-based water simulation, then you've got this fantastic video. Click here to learn more about this UC Davis project on the visualization of lake ecosystems.
Tags: water, physical, geomorphology, landforms, visualization.
David Ricci's comment,
April 22, 3:40 PM
I actually watched this video the first time we went to the computer lab in gauge just because it caught my eye. I think that this is a cool way to show different landforms and how some of the ecosystems processes work with and around them. I feel that this video encompasses geography as a whole. Seeing the way that the water falls around the mountain made in the video and where it ends up pooling is a good example of natural geography. When looking at the area the lake is now centered a viewer can see where a potential colony or group of people may live in this are. This all depends on closeness to resources such as water, arable land, and potential food supplies. All of this depends on the physical occurrences that you can see in this video. This video also helps to tie in the lesson in class about geomorphology. The creation of dremmels by glaciers, runoff from the mountains, and plate tectonics. These topics can be taught through a power point, but it really helps to see all of this created and the process it takes.
Brianna Simao's comment,
April 30, 10:28 PM
This is a cool way to show the different landforms and the potential use of the surrounding area. It shows us where people could migrate to and start a community and the resources it may have. It also shows the geomorphology of how the landforms were made. I agree with David when he says that these topics can be taught through a power point but to get a real understanding of how they are created and the process it takes, this is the best way to learn.
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"A visualization of migration flows"
Seth Dixon's insight:
This is a great way to visualize global migration patterns. Where are people migrating to Brazil coming from? What countries are Brazilians migrating to? Here are the answers to these types of questions for every country.
Tags: migration, population, statistics, visualization, unit 2 population.
Araceli Vilarrasa Cunillé's curator insight,
February 8, 4:14 AM
Es un grafic molt atractiu. Interessant per muntar treballs de grup, investigants païssos concrets
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A showcase of creative experiments programmed in JavaScript, HTML5, and WebGL
Seth Dixon's insight:
Pictured above is a still image of an interactive digital globe with population density data with colored bar graphs to symbolize the data. This is a great open-source platform for geographic data visualization. There are not many data layers currently, but possibly there will be more in the future (best viewed in Google Chrome).
Tags: population, demographics, unit 2 population, visualization, mapping.
IGO's curator insight,
January 30, 5:12 AM
"Pictured above is a still image of an interactive digital globe with population density data with colored bar graphs to symbolize the data. This is a great open-source platform for geographic data visualization. There are not many data layers currently, but possibly there will be more in the future (best viewed in Google Chrome)."
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Their expense has so far made them rare, but with prices coming down, these glowing, programmable spheres are set to become more common.
Seth Dixon's insight:
Due to the expense, only science centers and major museums can afford these digital globes that we see in futuristic movies. However, as with all new technologies, the price will drop as it is refined and made available for larger market, even if that time is still a ways off. If this were available in your classroom, it would be splashy, but how much added value would it bring? What kind of lessons could you teach with this?
Tom Perran's curator insight,
January 11, 6:21 PM
Very exciting development in classroom technology!
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Movie showing ground motion of four earthquakes propagating across a high density seismic array in Long Beach, California. Data was recorded by NodalSeismic,...
Seth Dixon's insight:
Seismic activity is to be expected in the Los Angeles region as the major hazard threat in the area. This area has a great number of sensors which now allows us to visualize seismic waves better than ever before. This video show 4 earthquakes (starting at 0:45, 2:20, 6:00, and 8:35). For more information on the science behind this clip, read the adptly named blog, The Trembling Earth.
Tags: visualization, disasters, physical, Los Angeles.
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Experts say Hurricane Sandy is wider and stronger than Hurricane Irene, which caused more than $15 billion in damage in 2011, and could rival the worst East Coast storm on record.
This is a quick visual comparison of remote sensing images that lets you slide to compare the superimposed images.
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The green dots on this map representing Starbucks locations which are obviously clustered in major metropolitan centers. Cross-referencing this Starbucks address location with population data, Davenport explains his mapping technique: "By counting the number of people who live within a given distance to each Starbucks, we can measure how well centered Frappuccinos are to the US citizenry. In other words: draw a 1-mile circle around every store, then add up the % of the population living within the circles. Repeat for 2, 3, 4....100 miles." The result of this data is a fabulous logrithmic S-curve which explains much about the American population distribution.
Tags: statistics, density, consumption, mapping, visualization, urban.
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Do you want some inspiration to create a visually stunning - yet fully optimized - data graphic? Well, let's go back about a 140 years... Handsome Atlas developed by Jonathan Soma of Brooklyn Brainery, provides a stunning new online interface to a large collection of beautiful data visualizations from the 19th century.
TR: Taking into account the age of these visualizations, one has to wonder if they intended them to be used by our generation in this way. I see potential for a "web 2.0" update of these charts to make them interactive . . .
Tags: infographic, historical, visualization, statistics.
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Tags: video, environment, visualization, climatechange, environment modify.
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Authoritative weekly newspaper focusing on international politics and business news and opinion.
Tags: Economic, currency, visualization.
gdecugis's comment,
September 6, 2012 3:06 PM
Remember when we used to talk about the 3rd-world debt being a problem? (Back when the term 3rd world was actually not politically incorrect...) Well, this map clearly shows, debt is a 1st-world problem now...
Awesome map Seth! Thanks for sharing.
Awesome map Seth! Thanks for sharing.
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Investigate for yourself the mechanisms of global trade
Seth Dixon's insight:
This more clearly shows the regional restructuring of the global economy than just about anything I've ever seen, especially manufacturing. The 8 largest and busiest ports in the world are all in East or Southeast Asia (and 11 of the top 13). A quick glance at the historical charts will show that most of these were relatively minor ports that have exploded in the last 20 years.
Tags: transportation, globalization, diffusion, East Asia, industry, economic.
Magnus Gustafsson's curator insight,
May 12, 3:36 PM
I think this is perfect for my geographystudents this week. Worth to use in a study of global tradestructures.
Charlotte Hoarau's curator insight,
May 20, 3:01 PM
Synchronized and permutable orthoimagery and interactive map visualisation
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The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race pushes participants to the brink on an unforgiving trek to the end of the world. And, as one writer who tracked the race by air discovers, that is exactly the point.
Seth Dixon's insight:
The Iditarod is as much about conquering the physical environment and harsh climates as any sporting event in the world. This article about this famous Alaskan race also has a unique geo-visualization component to it that is worth exploring--it has a map showing where the action takes place in the article and as the reader scrolls through the article, the map changes and it highlights the progression along the trail.
Tags: physical, weather and climate, sport, Arctic, visualization.
chris tobin's comment,
April 26, 6:18 PM
very good story describing the long and dangerous trek. Its pretty amazing. I appreciated the video commentary and pictures of scenery and animals of the areas.
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You are looking at, more or less, a portrait of the internet over an average 24 hours in 2012—higher usage in yellows and reds; lower in greens and blues—created by an anonymous researcher for the "Internet Census 2012" project.
Seth Dixon's insight:
This is a stunning animated graphic the represents internet usage. The temporal dynamics of map make it especially mesmerizing.
Zakary Pereira's comment,
April 30, 5:02 PM
Whoa. This is awesome. Never before had I seen internet usage across the globe before. I wasn’t too surprised by the map its showing. Obviously the United States and Europe would have the highest internet traffic of the world although I was quite surprised to see such massive internet activity in Central America, near Panama and Costa Rica. This data was collected illegally and it was interesting how they did it. It was a bot who hacked into Linux computers with no password (really…) or a default password (still really…) and then tracked their IPv4 address to see their activity. It was a non-threatening bot and they created a readme file on each computer that explained what it was doing however it was still an invasion of privacy and no matter how cool the map came out I cannot agree with their methods of obtaining this information. What interested me at first about this was activity in the Middle East. You can see a lot of activity in Turkey and around the Nile in Egypt, but other than that the rest of the region is fairly dim. It is unfortunate that is so because of how it could help people there, just look at the Arab Spring.
Kevin Cournoyer's comment,
May 1, 12:51 AM
I found this collection of data very interesting. It reveals a number of different things about the internet across the world and the intensity of its usage.
Most obviously, perhaps, you can see what areas of the world have the most internet usage, or at least access. The areas of highest use seem to certainly match up with what you would expect: high internet usage and access in first world countries in Europe and in the United States, lower internet usage and access in more impoverished areas such as Africa and the Middle East. The amount of internet usage can also be seen increasing and decreasing as the animation moves from right to left, indicating the twenty four hour cycle of a day and presumably decreased internet usage during the night and increased usage during the day. This animation provides fascinating and valuable information about the internet in a unique geographic context. Economic geography is apparent in the concentration of internet usage, while physical geography is evident in the correlation between what parts of the world are accessing the internet at higher rates and when, in contrast to other parts of the world.
Most obviously, perhaps, you can see what areas of the world have the most internet usage, or at least access. The areas of highest use seem to certainly match up with what you would expect: high internet usage and access in first world countries in Europe and in the United States, lower internet usage and access in more impoverished areas such as Africa and the Middle East. The amount of internet usage can also be seen increasing and decreasing as the animation moves from right to left, indicating the twenty four hour cycle of a day and presumably decreased internet usage during the night and increased usage during the day. This animation provides fascinating and valuable information about the internet in a unique geographic context. Economic geography is apparent in the concentration of internet usage, while physical geography is evident in the correlation between what parts of the world are accessing the internet at higher rates and when, in contrast to other parts of the world.
Thomas D's comment,
May 2, 11:32 AM
I find that this article of Internet usage is very interesting and somewhat helpful in understanding the development of countries. You can see from this that over a 24 hour period of time that the entire United States is lit up with a color. When over this 24 hour period there are places on the map that never once do you see a light or you only can see it for a small period of time. I think this goes to show how greatly our society depends on the Internet nowadays. That we basically use the internet or a computer for just about everything at all times of the day. That in some countries they are so underdeveloped that they barely have access to computers. According to this picture Africa is barely lit up and it’s mostly lit up in South Africa which is one of the growing countries in the world. I think this information although gathered illegally is very interesting to look at and see who uses the internet the most.
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App-ly Yourself to Tackle Today's Scientific Challenges
Seth Dixon's insight:
The United States Geologic Survey (USGS) scientists are encouraging app developers and earth scientists to design creative apps that will aid researchers in tackling the important questions. USGS datasets include biogeographical, vegetation and land cover change data. Submissions will be judged on their relevance to today’s scientific challenges, innovative use of the datasets, and overall ease of use of the application. Prizes will be awarded to the best overall app, the best student app, and the people’s choice. Do you have an idea?
Tags: physical, ecology, visualization, biogeography, edtech.
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Check out the twitter activity in realtime
Seth Dixon's insight:
What is the social media conversation like in different regions of the world? This realtime mapping tool lets user visualize the ever-shifting world of Twitter. In this screen shot, Europe and Africa are sleeping the Americas are buzzing with activity.
Heather Ramsey's curator insight,
February 5, 11:41 AM
This links to a page where tweets on Twitter are tracked in real time and displayed on a dot map.
Questions: What regions have the most tweets? Do you think there are differences between what people tweet about in one part of the world versus another? What can you infer about the areas where there are no tweets reported?
Ann-Laure Liéval's curator insight,
February 6, 12:59 PM
Globalisation and the Internet; The US superpower and its softpower
nzgeogeek's curator insight,
February 24, 6:50 AM
You need to open this page in Google Chrome. It will not work using Internet Explorer.
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Seth Dixon's insight:
You've seen the this image as a static map, as a video and as an adjusted cartogram here before. This link is especially intriguing because this same data has been added to Google Maps so a user can interactively explore this layer and compare it to daytime satellite imagery or a standard map (it can also be seen on an interactive globe on http://www.geteach.com/ ).
The first impulse of most students is to note when analyzing this image is to note that the map will show us where people live, where the cities are or some other comment that speaks to the magnitude of the population in the white areas. Let them analyze this for more time, and they'll notice that population isn't the whole story of this image. A place like India shines, but less brightly than the eastern part of the United States. I like to point out that South Korea appears to be an island (because North Korea is literally blacked out). Politics, development, affluence and population information are all embedded in this image. As with all maps, the more information you have about the place in question (in this case, Earth), the more meaningful information you can extract out of the map.
Tags: remote sensing, images, mapping, cartography, geospatial, edtech, geography education, unit 1 GeoPrinciples.
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Seth Dixon's insight:
This interactive dot distribution map of the United States 2010 census data has many great applications. The conversation can focus on the symbology of the map (for example, this could lead to a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of dot distribution maps) or notice how certain physical landforms are visible for either their high or low population density. One of the advantages of this map is that it uses census data at the block level. This means that the user can visualize distinct scale-dependent patterns. Sharp divisions (e.g.-urban vs. rural) might have less of a distinct edge as you zoom in.
UPDATE: This map now includes Canadian census data as well as the United States.
Tags: cartography, technology, mapping, visualization, population, density.
Sam Capron's curator insight,
February 6, 10:22 PM
It is interesting in this map that you can see the growing megalopolis on the eastern coast, as well as the blending of rural and urban locations.
Charlie Koppelson's curator insight,
February 7, 2:40 PM
This map is very useful in examining the distribution of people and geography in North America. It's easy to see that our once rural based country is completely dominated by cities, most of which are near the coast. It's fun to play around with as you can see where mountain ranges are as well as other topographic changes just by the concentrations of people, or lack there of.
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This map is a fantastic geovisualization that maps the spatial patterns of languages used on the social media platform Twitter. This map was in part inspired by a Twitter map of Europe. While most cities would be expected to be linguistically homogenous, but London's cosmopolitan nature and large pockets of immigrants influence the distribution greatly.
Tags: social media, language, neighborhood, visualization, cartography.
Betty Denise's comment,
November 7, 2012 1:13 PM
Thank you – again – for your tremendous partnership
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This data visualization project is a great way to demonstrate the geographic expansion of the United States. This is much more interactive than the typical time lapse video since you can scroll through the maps and explore each map through the interactive features.
Tags: historical, USA, visualization, mapping.
's comment, November 5, 2012 11:20 AM
This is a great. Definitely a great tool for students in various different levels of school that can show you the evolution of the United States over a period of time. Very cool, very useful.
Matt Mallinson's comment,
November 5, 2012 11:24 AM
I really like the display of these changes in our country throughout the years. It's a great way of showing centuries of change into something easy to understand. This would help young students in a social studies class for sure.
Lisa Fonseca's comment,
November 6, 2012 10:35 PM
i LOVE THIS! I can see this being such a valuable tool to use in a classroom. Students get the visual and written representation. Having the visual changes that took place in the United States is a better way to present to the students instead of them just reading a book. Will definitely save this article for future reference.
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It was just over two centuries ago that the global population was 1 billion — in 1804. But better medicine and improved agriculture resulted in higher life expectancy for children, dramatically increasing the world population, especially in the West.
This is an excellent video for population and demographic units, but also for showing regional and spatial patterns within the global dataset (since terms like 'overpopulation' and 'carrying capacity' inherently have different meanings in distinct places and when analyzed at various scales). It is also a fantastic way to visualize population data and explain the ideas that are foundational for the Demographic Transition Model.
Tags: population, scale, visualization, Demographics, models, unit 2 population, sustainability, regions, spatial.
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Amazing work from wikipedia, summarizing the evolution of the US formation, originally here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_evolution_of_the_United_States
Tags: USA, historical, visualization.
's comment, September 17, 2012 10:19 AM
This is very interesting because I had no idea that the United States had gone under such transformation. Even within certain borders, there is much change in respect to who the area belongs to. You definitely have to watch it a few times to get the full affect though.
Lindsey Robinson's comment,
September 17, 2012 10:21 AM
Although the moving image makes it hard to actually pinpoint the U.S expansion at specific dates, I don't think that is the point of the map. The point of the map is to show how many times territories have changed, etc. I really like the map.. I have never seen anything like it.
Jesse Gauthier's comment,
September 17, 2012 10:42 AM
The United States has changed drastically through the years with state borders, but I noticed that the regions' labels of the country are still similar today. For example, the southwest is much more divided today but still classified as a region with plenty of Spanish culture.
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This is a clip from the TV show West Wing (Season 2-Episode 16) where cartography plays a key role in the plot. In this episode the fictitious (but still on Facebook) group named "the Organization of Cartographers for Social Justice" is campaigning to have the President officially endorse the Gall-Peters Projection in schools and denounce the Mercator projection. The argument being that children will grow up thinking some places are not as important because they are minimized by the map projection. While a bit comical, the cartographic debate is quite informative even if it was designed to appear as though the issue was trivial.
Questions to Ponder: Why do map projections matter? Is one global map projection inherently better than the rest?
Tags: Mapping, geospatial, video, visualization.
Lydia Blevins's comment,
September 13, 2012 6:17 AM
I think it is very important that we start using more accurate maps. In school, the maps we use are so different from how the world actually is. I agree that children will grow up thinking some places are less important because they are minimized by the map projection.
Greg Atkinson's comment,
October 10, 2012 12:31 PM
Great clip. I use it in my WRG class as a comedic introduction to the power of projection.
Mary Patrick Schoettinger's curator insight,
December 18, 2012 3:01 PM
This absolutely the best video clip for SS teachers EVER!
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des cartes..