Here’s an introduction video to community mapping which was used to attract volunteers to the Woodbridge Township Walkability Audit!
Walkability! Walkability Audit for Woodbridge Township Schools!
Woodbridge Township Walkability Audit Map
The Walkability Audit for Woodbridge Township schools on May 30th was a booming success! Made even more so by the full, hearty support of township leaders and scores of parents and their children. It was truly an event that not only brought community members out of their homes, but brought them together as a community. Even more amazing were the small grade school children who were volunteering and giving back to their community with enthusiasm! It really comes to show that volunteerism is not limited to any age! Data collected during the audit has been showcased through an interactive map that shows how each area was accessed in terms of proper crosswalks, sidewalks, and traffic regulations.
Check out a cool video of the audit!
The Girl in the Green Sweater: A Life in Holocaust’s Shadow
Interactive Mapping by Vertices has been adopting a more historical tone as of late. The project to map the survival of a Holocaust survior is a new addition to recent line of projects whose aim is to educate individuals on a past that seems to be fading away into oblivion.
The historical account by Krystyna Chige The Girl in the Green Sweater: A Life in Holocaust’s Shadow is at the core of the project. It is a telling narrative by a precocious child clinging onto a thread of hope, despite the most dismal, black conditions. Despite finding an unlikely haven in Lvov sewers, Chige forges friendship and survives to share her riveting, powerful story with the public. In order to spread her story, GIS is mapping her journey to get web-surfers into history in a new way!
IM HISTORIES!
Hello everyone! It’s been a while since I posted on this blog, but I’m back!
There is a new project I am looking forward to which aims at bridging the past with the present by getting our senior citizens to provide primary accounts of a community’s history (about the school, the neighborhood, the lifestyle, the people…)!
The project I’m spazzing about will focus on the history of West Windsor Plainsboro–my home town! Every town is rich with its own history, and its a pity how little community members know about where they live in or have lived in for 5-10+ years!
This project will hopefully reconnect the old voices with the new so that community members learn to value every-day things around them and become more appreciative of where they live in. (Plus, we’re using youtube videos~!)
This project is also an “IM”! and Interactive Mapping project!
To find out more, visit the website: www.imhistories.com
I’ll write more about it when the project is finished!
-joanneim
Keeping an online, interactive information book
Okay.
So the phonebook went online, as www.whitepages.com or www.yellowpages.com what else could possibly happen?
You could Mapplerize it! For an example, take a hospital that decides they want to go online with their phone/address/information book. Mappler lets them map the residence of staff members, surgeons, nurses with each data point containinga staff member’s phone number, and related information. It’s a clean way of orgainzing data, and since it is online, it can be accessed by whoevery you want it to be accessed by!
Maptastic! (Please don’t try to look this up, you won’t find it in the dictionary.)
It’s a Grind
Last Saturday, 12 high school students (10 from High School South and 2 from High School North) and 4 adults crammed into the It’s A Grind near Plainsboro Plaza. Except they weren’t having a coffee house for reading poetry, they were training to collect data in a Walkability Assessment for Plainsboro. Students learned terms like “curb cut”, “flush” and not only learned the elements of a perfect intersection, but also, became aquainted with the process of investigation.
-Susan & Joanne Im
Walkability!
In another chance to help out their community, WW-P students have launched a new project to improve Walkability and Bikability in their township, which would encourage an increase in conversions of transportation from gas guzzling automobiles to enviro-friendly bikes and sneakers. The “Walkability Assessment” will map various intersections around the community in need of improvements. Each data point will include final scores and rankings of each crossing and intersections and photographs of missing elements. This project not only brings the community to aid in environment-improving efforts, but also, the data collected from this assessment will greatly improve the township’s decision making when considering road repairs to be made. Initially begun by the West Windsor Bicycle & Pedestrian Alliance (view at: http://maps.gismap.us/wwbpa), South’s Green CmPs is pursuing this project with a data collection date of May 16, 2009 at 9 a.m. They are looking for volunteers to help them so mark your calendars! (Prior to the event, volunteers will be required to participate in a one-hour training session.)
For more information, visit their project web site at http://sites.google.com/site/greencommunitymapping2009/index.
Bernards County Incorporates Mappler into School Curriculum
In an innovative project, the Science and Social Studies department in Bernards Township banded together to monitor deer populations. With the heavy involvement of students, the project boasts more than a hundred data points and shows promise in educating others in the “impact of geography on a particular culture” (http://www.communitymap.net/deer/bernards/). Each data point may contain deer-related accidents, movement of dear families, hunting and food supply. Students are expected to learn more about the scientific process as well as technological tools available to them.
Using Mappler to Showcase Research
Nowadays, most things have gone online and high tech. With Mappler, dreary, research papers may now be presented with a twist! (okay, so maybe you can only do this if the paper in question is related to location…)
Mappler allows users to map a point online and input data for a certain location in a proffessional manner. Enviornmentalists may find Mappler a particularly useful tool for presenting data obtained from water sample analysis from various points along a river, or for tracking negative or positive changes in the environment of a specific area.
Because Mappler allows various individuals to contribute to one site, it also helps that a project started by one die-hard environmentalist can be carried on and supplemented by others miles away~! Rather than a schizophrenic collection of numerous papers dealing on the same project carried in different areas, Mappler allows individuals to create one final, organized presentaiton of their data!
For a wonderful example, check out: http://www.communitymap.net/chatham/
-Joanne I.
Celebrate New Jersey! Who said New Jersey wasn’t cool?
Celebrate New Jersey!
Last year, my sister and I helped out an organization (Celebrate New Jersey) that was hosting a competition for students to raise awareness about the Garden State.
Students from different areas submitted essays describing a key aspect of New Jersey, or a key individual in New Jersey history. Now—to the fun part! We mapped the aspect or individual the student wrote about as a single point in the map of New Jersey. Each point contained the photos of each student along with their essay. After mapping dozens of students’ works for hours, the final product was an organized, interactive showcase of all the applicants’ works which could be viewed by friends, families and other students!
To view the site, visit:
-Joanne I.
