Outside the Neatline Blog has a new look!

We are happy to announce that the Outside the Neatline blog has a new look! The newly relaunched Outside the Neatline blog features more options for sharing posts (including Google +, Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail), offers a new mobile optimized version of the blog, and pages are loading even faster than in the previous design.

Check out the new design and let us know what you think!

Need to know where stuff is? AggData to the rescue!

I stumbled upon AggData today accidentally while looking at some neat-o-maps of Starbucks Vs Dunkin Donuts locations by Numbers Run.  I was looking for the data source used and followed it to a pretty slick home page.

At the AggData home page you can find location data for just about any business or public facility.  Some data is free, some isn’t.  The data you have to pay for comes at a modest price and would honestly be worth it if your crunched for time.

An example of the fields provided in their CSV files follows:

  • Location Number
  • Location Name
  • Location Type
  • Address
  • City
  • State
  • Zip Code
  • Phone Number
  • Latitude
  • Longitude

Westchester County GIS Newsletter – 2011 Spring Edition

Westchester County’s GIS Newsletter – 2011 Spring Edition is now available online.

The newsletter can be downloaded from the county’s GIS homepage at http://giswww.westchestergov.com.

This edition includes articles on topics such as:

  • Public Water Distribution System Mapping
  • Adaptive Deer Management Program in County Parks
  • Vehicle Tracking System Migration
  • Local Government User Group Meeting

July 6-7, 2011 – NOAA Coastal Inundation Mapping Training to be offered in Groton, CT

We are pleased to announce that a NOAA Coastal Services Center (CSC) geospatial training short course on Coastal Inundation Mapping will be taught in southeastern CT this summer.

Matt Pendleton and Billy Brooks, trainers from the NOAA Coastal Services Center, will be teaching CSC’s regular 2-day “Coastal Inundation Mapping” course on July 6 and 7 at the University of Connecticut/Avery Point campus. This hands-on course will provide an introduction to coastal inundation issues and coastal inundation mapping techniques. The course is a combination of lectures and exercises that allow attendees to gain a better understanding of the following topics:

  • Types of coastal inundation
  • Coastal inundation production
  • Elevation data
  • Integration of elevation data
  • Creation of inundation maps
  • New visualization techniques
  • Adapting to coastal risks

Please see http://www.csc.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/training/inundationmap.html for a complete course description. Please note that a working knowledge of ArcGIS is required (version 9.3 will be used for this course).

The course will be offered at NO COST (although there will be a $30 advance fee to cover refreshments and lunches) and enrollment is limited to a max of 24 people. People eligible to attend should work for a not-for-profit organization; municipal, regional, state or federal government; or academia and should have an interest or responsibility in coastal resource management or planning. See attachment for more information.

If you or others are interested in registering for this course, please contact Cary Chadwick at 860-345-5216 or cary.chadwick@uconn.edu. Please note that registration requires an advance payment of $30 to cover the cost of refreshments and lunches. Checks can be made out to the University of Connecticut and mailed to the address below:

Middlesex County Extension Center
1066 Saybrook Road, PO Box 70
Haddam, CT 06441-0070
Attn: Cary Chadwick

This course offering is made possible by the support of the University of Connecticut/Avery Point and the Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) at the University of Connecticut.

Geospatial Collaboration: New Common Ground Conference May 6-7, 2011

The Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis, together with metaLAB@Harvard, is cosponsoring the 2011 spring conference on *Geospatial Collaboration: New Common Ground*. This two-day conference is open to all. It brings web-mapping experts from across the country to share their knowledge and experience, and to envision what lies ahead in the dazzling field of mapping on the Internet. Speakers will introduce ideas, systems, tools, and visions, and present case studies and discuss challenges. Some will offer live demos and hands-on training. This conference provides a forum for geospatial technologists, developers, academics and end users to engage in dialog and help shape the future of geospatial technology.

Date: May 6-7, 2011

Time: 8:30am – 5:30pm

Location: Tsai Auditorium, CGIS South Building, Concourse Level, S010

Address: 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA 02138 For registration and further information, please visit http://gis.harvard.edu/conference

Technology Survey for Undergraduates @ UConn

Are you a tech-friendly undergraduate? If so, we are conducting a survey to find out what technologies you use and prefer. Taking the short survey could net you a $50 gift certificate to the Co-op!

Note: Participants must be 18 years or older and currently enrolled at the University of Connecticut as an undergraduate to participate in this survey.

March 24, 2011 – A Talk about OpenStreetMap.org with Founder, Steve Coast

A Talk about OpenStreetMap.org with Founder, Steve Coast
Thursday March 24th, 2011, 6-8pm
Yale Law School, Room 127
Steve Coast is the Founder of OpenStreetMap, a free editable map of the world, and Principal Architect at Microsoft’s Bing Mobile. GIS users at Yale and elsewhere will be familiar with OpenStreetMap.org as a “go to” source for the most complete geographic data for both developed and underdeveloped parts of the globe.
During the response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, OpenStreetMap.org and CrisisCommons.org volunteers used available satellite imagery to map the roads, buildings and refugee camps of Port-au-Prince in just two days, building “the most complete digital map of Haiti’s roads.” The resulting data and maps have been used by organizations providing relief aid, such as the World Bank, the European Commission Joint Research Centre, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UNOSAT and others.
At Midnight, Tuesday, March 15th, 2011, the OpenStreetMap user base numbered 371,657, with over 2.2 billion GPS points uploaded.
Steve’s talk will focus on his work with OpenStreetMap.org and his interest in emerging methods of geographically organizing data and search capabilities.
Q&A session to follow.
For more info on Steve Coast, see: http://www.stevecoast.com/
For more info on OpenStreetMap, see: http://www.openstreetmap.org
For more info on CrisisCommons, see: http://crisiscommons.org
Co-sponsored by Yale Law School & The Yale Information Society Project
to download a copy of this announcement in Word Doc format, CLICK HERE.
Sorry for any duplication of this posting if you have seen this from email lists or other sources.