Introduction to Geographic Information Systems Spring 2013 (INF 385T-28437)

Dr. David ArcturLecturer, Research Fellow

University of Texas at Austin

Lecture 10March 7, 2013

Term Projects

Outline: Term Projects Project motivation & ideas Visiting guest:

John King, Executive Director, CleanTX.org

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What brought you here? To the iSchool? To the LBJ School of Public Policy? To the McCombs School of Business? To the Jackson School of Geoscience?

What could you do now that will get you to your next career? (except work on capstone)

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Ideas: What if… How can… The world is awash in data !!

And getting more awashed every day… How can we better find what we need? How can we verify “truthiness”? How can we filter & even silence crap?

And how are we to agree on what’s crap??

How can we respond to threats & bullying?

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GIS Term Projects Should not be just about the data, but

about finding, transforming & using it to help others

What’s your story, who is it about, and what do they need?

How did GIS make that easier and more useful?

Caution: many stories, many choices… just pick one!

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What world is this?

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GoodPlanet.org, Living Planet Report 2006, p.16

National Ecological Footprints, 2003

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Goog

le E

arth

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What could you build from common geodata portals? How could they be improved for easier discovery & access?

GEOSS: http://earthobservations.org SearchOGC: http://www.searchogc.com/Search.aspx US Census 2010 TIGER/Line data:

http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/geo/shapefiles2010/main

NASA Global Change Master Directory (GCMD):http://gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov

NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC):http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/sets/browse

Or… (see Resources page at syllabus site)?INF385T(28437) – Spring 2013 – Lecture 10

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Could a TDL Research Wiki be used to encourage and educate in use of geospatial resources

across campus?http://www.tdl.org/wikis/

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Help local nonprofit org’s CleanTX.org Pecan Street Project, pecanstreet.org Hill Country Conservancy,

hillcountryconservancy.org Texas Freedom Network, tfn.org Others…?

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Hans Rosling: Stats that reshape

your worldview

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http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html (20 min)

http://www.gapminder.org/

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Gapminder desktop: 1800

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Gapminder desktop: 2013

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Dan Pink: What drives us…

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http://www.TheRSA.org/events/rsaanimate/animate/rsa-animate-drive (10 min)