White House Mobile Strategy Might be a Game Changer

May 23, 2012 By News Staff - Government Technology

"The White House unveiled a new mobile initiative on Wednesday, May 23, that’s intended to reshape how government agencies utilize mobile platforms in serving the public.

To kick-start the initiative, federal CIO Steven VanRoekel and federal CTO Todd Park released a report on mobile strategy titled Digital Goverment: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People, a “12-month road map” to assist agencies meet goals for a more mobile government."

...

"Make Data More Open

The Office of Management and Budget will be formulating a governmentwide policy pertaining to Web API (application programming interfaces). Systems will have to be architected to support access to high-value open data and metadata tags, the report said.

“For decades, we’ve been locking government data up in paper files or nonsearchable PDF documents and things like that,” VanRoekel said.

Launch a Shared Platform

As a method for reducing duplication and cutting costs, VanRoekel is calling on government agencies to take a “governmentwide approach” to IT solutions. Applications or other solutions that have been deployed inside a government agency should be used across other agencies as well, giving multiple agencies access to features they may have otherwise not had access to before, and in addition, allowing the private sector access to those features when appropriate."


Read the full article http://www.govtech.com/e-government/White-House-Mobile-Strategy-Might-be-a-Game-Changer-.html

What do you think? Funny, Useful, Derogatory?

As a GIS professional what do you think about the maps presented below? Are they funny, helpful, useful, derogatory? Share your opinion with us in the CFGIS LinkedIn group or CFGIS Blog (cfgis.blogspot.com).

560 - A World Map of Heavy Metal Density  - By Frank Jacobs, Big Think

Cartography has the curious capacity to bypass a map-reader’s critical function when conveying information, and never more so than when a map is plain and simple. Two examples treated earlier on this blog spring to mind - also because they’re quite funny: the Jesusland map (#3), and the New Simplified Map of London (#199). 

Some maps are beautiful because of their rich complexity. Others capture our attention because they are so starkly simple.  

Jesusland is based on electoral data, the Simplified Map on a more subjective idea of wealth distribution. But both communicate a sentiment rather than merely solid data. The map shown here is less editorial, but the information it presents is equally stark. 

This map reflects the number of heavy metal bands per 100,000 inhabitants for each country in the world. It codes the result on a color temperature scale, with blue indicating low occurrence, and red high occurrence [1]. The data for this map is taken from the extensive Encyclopaedia Metallum, an online archive of metal music that lists bands per country, and provides some background by listing their subgenre (Progressive Death Metal, Symphonic Gothic Metal, Groove Metal, etc). Click Here to View Full Story

NOAA makes available Tornado Outbreak Data

Last April, one of the worst tornado outbreaks occurred across the state of Alabama. NOAA has made available several datasets and an interactive map showing the path and intensity of the tornadoes which caused so much damage last year. Below is a link to the NOAA page where you can download the data, view the interactive map, and learn more about how NOAA is providing future disaster data and information.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/bmx/?n=event_04272011gis

Happy April 1st

Happy April 1st Central Florida GIS community!!! In what has become the pranksters day we wanted to see if anyone would be willing to share any of the the fun stories that they have seen or done.

Also as geographers, if you haven't had the chance to see the new Google quest mode for Google maps be sure to take a look.

Social Media sites help aid agencies and families after a disaster

We have been talking for quite some time about how we are living in the social age, with the ability to connect via twitter, Facebook, or Google from anywhere in the world and as GIS professionals we have been finding more and more ways of getting useful information into the hands of our users when they need it most.

Certain social media outlets are combining the power of GIS and creating an invaluable aid tool in the face of disasters for both agencies trying to assist and families who have been effected.

This article from News Channel 5 in West Palm Beach highlights how GIS is being used during disasters to reunite families and provide aid agencies with the most up to date information available and while it does point out some of the difficulties being faced by using GIS and social media the overall approach seems very positive.

Click here for story

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CFGIS March 2, 2012 Ignite Videos

At this past users group we had two brave presenters and a video ignite ignite. Hope you enjoy them!!!

In addition to the usual Ignite presentation, CFGIS also featured an ignite presentation given at a TED event all about how to give an ignite presentation.





Tim Kitchen presented on Where in the World is the EM Team.



Claudia Paskauskas told us about the importance of not hitting that snooze button

Then and Now: The 2011 Japan tsunami

The devastation caused by the tsunami which struck Japan last year serves as a reminder of the power that nature can release. It has been a year since the disaster and NBC has put together a series of before and after pictures from many of the sites impacted by the tsunami. The images which slide depict the location during the flooding of the tsunami and of what the area looks like today. Despite a large amount of cleanup which is still occurring to remove all of the debris many of the areas are beginning the stages of recovery.

Click here to view images and story. Image from cnn.com