Posts Tagged ‘mapping sites’

Best Cartographic Websites: Map Hawk

by Jeff on September 17, 2008 at 9:13AM

Map Hawk: Watching How the Media Communicates with Maps is a very interesting and timely (with the upcoming elections) new blog started by Joe Francica 3 months ago. You may recognize Joe’s name; he is the Editor-in-Chief of Direction Magazine, the All Points Blog and all other Directions Media publications.

Through Map Hawk, Joe offers his opinion on how successfully various media outlets are using maps, mapping technology and location based data to communicate with readers. In some cases he congratulates, like in this post on the WSJ’s Hurricane Ike storm surge  maps. In others, he highlights ineffective or even misleading applications. Take his post on Inc. Magazine’s Impossible (To Read) Top 500 Map as and example.

Other interesting recent posts have covered the need to plan election strategy and show race coverage by ZIP Code; a review of the maps provided by the media for the Georgian conflict this summer; and a critic of PBS and USA Today’s coverage of the Arctic mapping mission announced by NOAA.

So next time you see a map on the evening news, in your favorite newspaper or online, check out Map Hawk to comment on it!

Best Cartographic Websites: Strange Maps

by Jeff on August 22, 2008 at 10:54AM

For those of you who just can’t get enough maps, the Strange Maps blog is a great site to bookmark. This interesting blog shows you a highly unusual map and provides commentary on it. Recent posts have covered maps showing how generic names for soft drinks vary by U.S. region, the 2004 Olympic medal breakdown by country, coverage areas for the genetic groups in Europe, and a tiny island kingdom just outside of Denmark called Elleore, which was created by Danish school teachers during World War II.

Several informative paragraphs about each map are provided and a devoted international readership offers engaging feedback and recommendations for new posts. If you are interested in strange yet creative uses of cartographic skills, this is the blog to read!