A quick heads-up to readers interested in all things GIS: Eric Schultheis has posted a new, detailed GIS tutorial for identifying where low-income homeowners reside, to better target foreclosure related services. The tutorial uses the well regarded DataPlace web-based GIS platform, in combo with instructions on using the GISTools freeware to extract the data for use with DataPlace. Just the latest in a long series of posts at the LSNC’s Race Equity Project site to help advocates take advantage of GIS and other resources to better understand race issues. Good stuff.

You know GIS mapping has gone totally mainstream, out of the hands of desktop geeks into the keystrokes of the web savvy hoi polloi, when the New York Times gives front-page prominence to the story: With Tools on Web, Amateurs Reshape Mapmaking. Mapping hipsters apparently now call it the GeoWeb. We’re all part of it now. Actually, the advocacy community has long already been a part of the web-based mapping revolution, courtesy of leading innovators like California’s Neighborhood Knowledge California (NKCA) and even more prominent national players like DataPlace. Map on, people!

Just a quick heads up about a DataPlace online “expert chat” scheduled for Tuesday of next week, July 31: Using DataPlace to Make Your Case. We’re great fans of DataPlace, which provides a national platform for exploring, exploiting and visualizing Census and other data — including your own, via upload. This may be especially helpful for exec types who are still on the fence about committing institutional time and resources to the whole GIS mapping and statistical data thing they keep hearing about. This is a good starting point for learning more.

And since we’re on the topic of GIS, consider hooking into the feed at or at least an occasional visit to one of LSNC’s special project sister sites, the Race Equity Project. (Folks attending the NLADA Substantive Law Conference in San Jose had the opportunity last week to meet and learn from a stellar cast of advocates (led by Bill Kennedy of LSNC) who created a wholly new track on race equity issues in legal services practice. There are regular postings on use of GIS as an advocacy tool, with examples of how LSNC and others are using GIS and statistical data to get the job done. Plus, tips and reviews on mapping options, generally. For example, take a look at Swivel me timbers . . . arrrrgh, with a concise review of the new mapping features integrated into the Swivel platform? There, aren’t you happy you know that?

DataPlace, one of our favorite web-based GIS mapping and data analytical sites—with a national scope to boot—raised the bar today with the beta debut of DataPlace Groups. This is one very major, expansive collaborative feature-set upgrade to the DataPlace interface. You need to register (for free) to tap into it, but it offers the type of collaborative tools that are becoming more common with web-based applications. Managing and collaborating on a map or data project within DataPlace groups is not as simple and intuitive and user friendly as say, Basecamp, but then Basecamp does not even begin to attempt anything as complex as DataPlace does. So, there is more of a learning curve but you can now do a whole lot more with others on mapping and data projects. Very, very impressive stuff.

Those familiar with LSNC.net know that we regularly post links to interesting (if not necessarily related to poverty) examples of how GIS mapping is used to visualize data. Another recent example we ran across is the HIT Dashboard Map, which is likely of little interest for the specific data it maps (Health IT activity and initiatives) but of considerable curiosity because of how it maps that information. Apparently built with Adobe (née Macromedia) Flashmaps, it offers an interesting and entertaining example of how a highly interactive map, with data filtering, can be built or exemplified. Just click on or hover over stuff and you’ll see what we mean. Very cool stuff.

And since we’re on the topic of GIS mapping, generally, consider visiting (or revisiting, if you haven’t been there for a while) the really extraordinary DataPlace. The site is inherently essential because of its origins in supporting the development of “freely workable” public data in the areas of low-income economic and housing analysis. That’s been a long-time given. But DataPlace has dramatically improved its user-side flexibility and ease of use, no small task given the daunting scale of data it offers to manipulate and visualize for you. Most notably, they have finally launched in beta tools for uploading your own data for mapping and other data analytics. (To gain access to the upload feature, you have to use the free registration to create a user account.) DataPlace is a subset of KnowledgePlex, which has been offering monthly web demo overviews of what DataPlace can do for you, called Expert Chats. Highly recommended.