Fedstats’ Mapstats for Kids is a collection of interactive games created to teach concepts about maps and statistics. It is based on the national standards for geography, math, and statistics. The characters are called Globie (maps) and Stixie (statistics).

A show floor conversation with John Frandsen of Old Town Creative about their CMS Geoconcensus

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a 1,000 words.  Via The Telegraph UK

Image created by Electro Optic Systems out of Australia

A VerySpatial Podcast

Shownotes – Episode 262
July 24, 2010

Main Topic: Our conversation with Robert Cheetham of Azavea

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We spoke to Joel Campbell, president of ERDAS, about their perspective on what the cloud is and the new ERDAS Apollo on the Cloud.

Register for Webinar on July 27
Apollo on the Cloud demo site

It’s been in several news sources, but I think ArsTechnica does the best job of discussing the issue.  The short of it is that thousands of people are still without access to broadband in the US.  The most interesting thing for me is that, when you get down to it, this is all a geography question.  The initial report from 1999 basically listed a county as having access if a single person had access.  The new method says that 1% of the population in the county has to have access to count, which is still a fairly loose metric.  However, even that one change made the report conclude the US is failing compared to even a decade ago.  Not this concerns access, not subscription, which is a critique some on the FCC have made about the report.  In addition to the geographic change, the FCC bumped up the standards that are now considered “broadband” (a welcome and long needed change, in my opinion).  That also is not without controversy from critics.  What I find oddly lacking in the reports I’m reading about the FCCs conclusion is a comparative international component.  The fact of the matter is that when the US is compared with most other industrialized countries, access, speed, cost per megabit, and adoption are sorely lacking.  Perhaps that should be factored into evaluating the US’s success in broadband deployment (or perhaps it shouldn’t – please discuss in the comments if you’re itching to give an opinion!)

A VerySpatial Podcast

Shownotes – Episode 261
July 20, 2010

Main Topic: Our Live Show at the ESRI UC, featuring special guests Elvin Slavik, Stephanie Ayanian, Don Murray, and Dale Lutz

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One of the great educational booths at the esri conference was Chugach Children’s Forest in Alaska. I finally got a chance to check out their interactive website. Chugach Children’s Forest is a “symbolic designation for the entire Chugach National Forest: and “a ground-breaking new program that creates exciting opportunities for Alaska’s youth and communities to connect with Alaska’s magnificent public lands”. What I enjoyed the most and thought would make a great resource for teacher’s are the student films created by the Chugach Conservation Corps and other youth groups. National Geographic’s My Wonderful World blog has entries by student posts over three days field experience on their blog. My Wonderful World is a National Geographic campaign to expand geographic learning in school, at home, and in communities.

I just got a new camera for the UC and I took a boatload of pictures.  Like most people with too powerful a camera pared with tool lightweight a skillset (GIS people can relate to this), most of my product was junk.  However a few interesting pictures did make it through the trash heap into the realm of tolerable.  Check out my photo stream on Flickr to see the dozen or so that were worth salvaging!

Frank and Jesse kick it at the GeoLounge

Last reminder (on the blog) that our 5th anniversary live show will be Wednesday night (7/14) at 5:30 in Room 30E. We will have great guests, lots of gaffes, and a little Great Big Sea playing in the background. While we will be announcing the winners of our 5th anniversary contest, we will also have a drawing for door prizes for those folks who attend. Door prizes will include an iPod Shuffle, Amazon gift certificate, ThinkGeek gift certificate, a flash drive with our logo, and who knows what else (I don’t, cause I forgot what else Sue and Frank suggested).

Hope to see you there!