Other GST Worth Mentioning

(This page is adapted from Dr. Hammond’s page at https://confluence.cc.lehigh.edu/display/~tch207/Other+geospatial+tools)

To this point, we’ve looked at the core of geospatial (GPS units, dynamic globes such as Google Earth, and GIS) plus something else that’s spatial…and sometimes GEOspatial (augmented reality).

Obviously, we have more geospatial tools, or geospatial-enabled technologies, that we could discuss. Here are just a few that I think are worthwhile.

Flickr.com world map: https://www.flickr.com/map

VisEyes (aka ‘VisualEyes’) project from the SHANTI group at the University of Virginia: http://www.viseyes.org/visualeyes/. (The legacy site, which seems to have more background info, can be found at http://www.viseyes.org/viseyes.htm)

  • I’m going to highlight some of the projects; you can also watch a short video giving an overview of the VisualEyes project and a demo of some of the projects — including Texas Slavery and Jefferson’s Travels — here: http://viseyes.org/demo.htm
  • Jefferson’s Travels: http://viseyes.org/show/?base=jt …There are three layers to this. The top one shows Jefferson’s movement March-May in 1786. The second tab is my favorite–it shows Jefferson’s correspondence from March through August. (The third tab is not as fun, but: it shows Jefferson’s library: click to see book titles, scans of selected pages, etc.)
  • Texas Slavery Project: http://viseyes.org/show/?base=tsp …Similar concept to the Jefferson displays, but over a longer time period (1837-1845) and using polygons, not points or paths. If you run through the animation with various layers on, you can see the spread of slavery over time, and also the pattern of small slaveholding (less than 10 persons enslaved) rather than large (greater than 50).
  • Mapscholar: http://www.viseyes.org/mapscholar/

GapMinder.org: OK, so this isn’t as geospatial as it could be, but it IS geospatially-organized data PLUS it’s an awesome data source.

QGIS: QGIS: is a professional open source GIS application. I have not tried this but it gets great reviews.