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Spatial Information with GeoCommons.com
June 6, 2007

I have always been fascinated by maps, so I have enjoyed following all of the mashups and extensions that have developed from online mapping applications. One of the latest, and one with great potential for use in your library, are the geodata tools at GeoCommons.com. As a far warning, the site does take some time to figure out, but if you are looking for some high level spataial datasets, this is a great place to get started without a larger investment in GIS (geographic information systems) software. [Side note: For my masters in instructional technology, I took a course on using GIS in schools and loved it. This is some VERY cool software to get involved with, and there is/was a desperate need for GIS workers.]

So how does GeoCommons work? The site provides two main tools: maps and geographic datasets. The maps are the much sexier way to look at the geographic data as they are nicely placed as an overlay on a Google Maps satellite map. Here, for instance, is a sample map that shows the locations of superfund sites. The second tool allows you to explore the data in its raw format - like this dataset about carbon footprints for nations through history. Datasets can be manipulated somewhat through an online interface, but can also be exported in a CSV format that will open with a spreadsheet as well as a KML file for Google Earth. I did have some trouble working with datasets using IE7, but it worked a bit better with Firefox.  

More information is available on the basic help page for GeoCommons. I explored this enough to see that it was pretty cool and certainly a great information resource for libraries, but not enough to really address how to use it. If this is your thing, however, or you have a teacher that uses geodata, this looks like an excellent new tool.

Posted by Chris Harris on June 6, 2007 | Comments (0)