Featured Geographical Information System (GIS) Resources
Featured in this list of links are cultural mapping and GIS-based projects from around the world. If you are involved in a similar project and would like to be featured also, then please contact: nicholas.keys@alumni.uts.edu.au
"What is GIS?"
An introduction by commercial GIS software developer ESRI is a good place to start.
Wikipedia's Geographical Information Systems (GIS) listing offers a comprehensive overview.
Google Earth
Google Earth is a web-based mapping application that displays a combination of aerial photos that make up the Earth's surface in three dimensions. The site allows users to add their own data, in the form of place marks, tracks, polygons (bounded areas) and custom GIS files.
Google Maps
The two-dimensional version of Google Earth originally focussed on addresses and road networks, but has expanded to include street views of major cities, terrain views, markup and collaboration between users.
The Spatial Analysis Laboratories
Find out more about the use of spatial data in research at the The Spatial Analysis Laboratories of the School of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Wollongong.
The UK Housing and Neighbourhoods Monitor
See how web-based GIS is being developed and tested for use by the public in a project to enhance participation in environmental planning at website for the Public Participation GIS Research Group in the School of Environment & Development at the University of Manchester.
Mapping Darwin's Creative Industries
Creative Tropical City "Mapping Darwin's Creative Industries" is another ARC Linkages project, at the School for Social Policy Research at Charles Darwin University, which will also be using GIS to map visual information gathered from practitioners.
London Profiler
London Profiler is an example of the use of demographic maps displaying census data.
Rescue Geography
Rescue Geography is a collaborative research project based at the Universities of Manchester and Birmingham, which involves interviewing past residents of Birmingham's Eastside District about their time spent living there, prior to a planned redevelopment. It is a methodological trial that is combining walking interviews with GPS points, to see if place and ambient noise influence responses.
Mywalks@Northumbria
Mywalks@Northumbria is a project that encourages students and members of the public to record their everyday walks around Newcastle-Upon-Tyne online. The aim is to trigger participants to think about what surrounds them that they normally don't notice. Trails have links to multimedia for particular points along each trail.
ESRI
The industry standard in professional GIS software. Increasingly, rather than just providing a portal for information about their arcGIS software, the site provides links to simple mapping interfaces for novice users and webmapping APIs for web developers.
OSGeo
The governing body of a suite of reliable open source GIS software. A great place to find free GIS software and information for setting up and operating your own GIS.
Open Street Map
The open source equivalent to googlemaps, openstreetmap has been built by a volunteer army of GPS users to create a freely available webmap licensed under creative commons. Linked to the site is a wiki detailing every aspect of the project, from submitting your own GPS tracks to using the map in your own website. Best of all, if you markup the map, you own the rights to the data you produce.
Google Maps API Family
For those who are comfortable with coding Javascript, this page is the first stop for embedding a customisable googlemap into your website. Download the API (Application Programming Interface) and check the forum discussions for help on setting up your own map and adding common features such as place-markers and links.
Featured Map Mashup Resources:
Community Walk
Community Walk offers step by step instructions for quickly building a map and linking to external content.
Google Maps Mania
The Google Maps Mania Blogspot has regular updates in the world of map mashups and includes a great list of some of the best things to do with Google maps, ranging from the functional to the quirky.
City of Shared Stories
Shared Stories used a simple google map interface to link stories and poems about places to their locations.
Concrete Dialogues
Concrete Dialogues is a Perth-based story aggregator that uses a google maps interface, allowing the linking of stories to place.
South Central Bombs
South Central Bombs is an illustrated map of graffiti sites around South Central Los Angeles, California, USA.
Capitol of Punk
Capitol of Punk includes a map mashup offering a guide to a punk 'sense of place' in Washington DC, complete with offers of a text message tour.