Spatial sharing

Image above: Incredibly mesmerizing animated GIF is what the Internet looks like.

You are looking at, more or less, a portrait of the Internet over an average 24 hours in 2012. Higher usage is in yellows and reds; lower in greens and blues - as day and night passes across.

Related links
Geogaction
Spatialworlds website
Australian Geography Teachers' Association website
'Towards a National Geography Curriculum' project website
Humsteach blog
GeogSplace blog

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Email contact:  
manning@chariot.net.au

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Adelaide, Australia: S: 34º 55' E: 138º 36'


You think you have seen something 'speccie', what about ... ?



The sharing culture is alive and well in the world of geographers interested in the spatial and beyond. I continue to be amazed by the number of ‘things’ spatial which continue to turn up on the Internet on a daily basis. Every time I think I must have exhausted the treasure chest of maps, visualisations and geographically interesting ‘bits and pieces’, someone says, "have you seen ...". Sure enough it is a treasure that I have not seen and am rather excited to see. This sense of sharing (I will show you mine if ...) takes me back to the days of stamp collecting when we were young, when we swapped something treasured for something even better! It seems to be repeatedly happening to me as I pass on some great sites only to have other fantastic sites passed back in reciprocation. Like a chain letter, the people who harvest the site from me via my blogs and the GTASA website newsletter 'spam' (which I have harvested via colleagues, Google Groups, Twitter, Scoop.It and blogs), then pass them on to others and it continues until the community of geographers around the world have shared. Then it starts all over again tomorrow as another site is sent out into cyberspace to share. I thought in this posting I would put up some of the beaut sites that I have come across lately, that I know have had a life with others who have then used them in their teaching and passed them on to others. So here are some of my recent favourites.

 Great visualisations

* Incredibly mesmerizing animated GIF of what the Internet looks like

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.

* Global Pop pyramids

Interactive Visualization of the Population Pyramids of the World from 1950 to 2050.

* Demographic transition model in Prezi

Prezi in an online alternative to powerpoint for displaying notes and lecture materials (noted for it's ability to see the whole picture, zoom in and it's rotating animations).  Prezi is free for educators and the presentations you made can be kept private or made public.  This Prezi outlines the 4 stages of the Demographic Transition Model, with historical and spatial context

 ... and from the master of visualisations, Hans Rosling 

* Data visualisation with Hans Rosling

 * Hans Roslingon World Population

Interesting maps of ... for ... ?

* Finding a plane (and ships)

Amazing tracking site using spatial technologies.

* A study of Women’s rights using spatial technology

analyze the spatial and temporal patterns of the expansion of women's political rights.  This interactive map is excellent for seeing these few metrics, but a more expanded dataset with maps concerning gender (in)equality in the world and the status of women is WomanStats.  http://womanstats.org/

* Women statsmaps

The WomanStats Project is the most comprehensive compilation of information on the status of women in the world. The Project facilitates understanding the linkage between the situation of women and the security of nation-states. We comb the extant literature and conduct expert interviews to find qualitative and quantitative information on over 310 indicators of women's status in 174 countries. Our Database expands daily, and access to it is free of charge

* Turning Facebook into a map lesson

Most students have Facebook accounts...what is geographic distribution of their networks? What explains these patterns? Looking at personal life histories and geographies would be an easy way to make spatial analysis intensely personal and relevant.  They are on social media; they just need to be prodded to start using it for intellectual pursuits as well

Go to the Get Friend map app

 

* Systems of Government by country
 

* A surprising map of the countries that are most and least welcoming to foreigners    Can we see any patterns? Is there a correlation between unfriendliness to foreigners and nationalism.

* Mothers Day Dates around the world

 A map that show Mother's Day celebration dates around the world. The Mother's Day is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in May, though also celebrated in March in some countries, as a day to honour mothers and motherhood.