congratulations mcgraw-hill on your codie award

Maps.com is celebrating with Educational Publisher McGraw-Hill after they scooped a CODiE award for “Best K-12 Course or Learning Management Solution”

“Networks: A social studies learning system” is a complete Social Studies resource incorporating print and digital solutions. The system is designed to bring abstract concepts to life through hands-on, interactive activities such as interactive maps and games, graphic organizers and engaging multimedia.

US History – Grades 6-8: McGraw-Hill Networks

The publisher included comprehensive teacher resources, worksheets, training videos, lesson plans and assessment tools.

Over 600 maps were produced for the project by Maps.com Cartographers, while the company’s programming team developed a presentation platform for the digital content that included  timeline animations, voice narration and editing tools for a truly interactive classroom experience.

“The success of this project was the result of a huge effort by the McGraw-Hill team and we congratulate them on this significant recognition.” Revealed Bennett Moe, who coordinated the digital and cartographic elements delivered by Maps.com. “We are proud to have played a key role in such a high profile and challenging project and delivered exactly what was required.”

The CODiE awards are annually presented by the Software and Information Industry Association – the principal trade association for the software and digital content industries. Initial reviews are carried out by tech-savvy educators, with a shortlist of 128 finalists reviewed by a panel of SIIA members.

Maps.com has more than 20 years of experience in the mapping industry and serves a variety of markets including education and news media. They have an in house development team producing  location based applications including online store locators and smart phone apps and ebooks. Maps.com is also home to the world’s biggest map and map related online retail store which receives almost 1 million visitors each month.

Related articles

• McGraw-Hill School Education’s Proven Digital Solutions Selected as Finalists for 2012 CODiE Awards (prnewswire.com)
• McGraw-Hill Networks press release - http://mheducation.com/releases/20120508.shtml

Maps.com products for sale on your website

As you may or may not know, Maps.com is not only the home of some wonderful cartographers, programmers, designers and all-around smashing type people, it is also the location of the world’s largest map store at www.maps.com.

We have literally tens of thousands of titles viewed by millions each year looking for everything from guidebooks for their vacation to giant wall maps, to delivery maps for their restaurant and surf maps for their latest wild excursion. We also provided exclusive access to some of the worlds most talented, independent cartographers through our publisher program.

Maps on Everything at Maps.com

We are contacted frequently by bloggers and sites whose content has a link to maps in some way shape or form, and for this we refer you to our affiliate program. The affiliate program is incredibly successful, having run for over a decade and proving incredibly successful for hundreds of website owners. We provide lots of ads and updates and plenty of incentives for your visitors to click through and make that purchase.

There is a great new blog about our affiliate program from Snow Consulting. Subscribe to see regular updates on new products and discounts that you can really move.

Latest ESRI FanMap – Stanley Cup Hockey

Following on from our Bracketology post (there’s just something about sport on maps that our Carto team just CANT RESIST) – Jim Herries from ESRI contacted us with their latest FanMap offering.

Its a Stanley Cup Hockey map  that enables you to vote on the outcome of all of the upcoming games, and then shows you what fans across the country are predicting/rooting for. Type in your Zip code to see how your area is voting.

The map makes no accommodation for ‘who will win the first violent clash against the plexi-glass’ but I am assured by real hockey fans that this is lots of fun.

Stanley Cup Hockey: ESRI

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Maps.com Teaches Cartography to Local Elementary School Students

By Eric Wilder, Cartographer, Maps.com.

It's Science Night

Last week marked an exciting time for Maps.com, as it was the culmination of the critically acclaimed Monte Vista Elementary School Science Night.

For many K-6 graders in Santa Barbara, Science Night is one of the most anticipated days of the year; Monte Vista Elementary School hosts dozens of local scientists from a wide variety of disciplines who enthusiastically share their profession with young minds of tomorrow. The evening gives students the opportunity to touch a human brain, hold a python, experience static electricity, and as of 2012, learn about MAPS!!!

As a past student of Monte Vista who vividly remembers the thrills of Science Night, I was ecstatic to see things come full circle and return 15 years later as a cartographer. Teamed up with my partner in crime, Maps 101Customer Account Specialist, Terry (also a proud Monte Vista graduate!), we prepared a presentation that we hoped would engage students and get them interested in maps.

Global Appeal

Despite the fact that the cartography exhibit was placed right next to the reptile exhibit – tough competition to say the least – it is safe to say that the kiddos were enthralled to learn about maps. Crowded around the big maps we brought with us, Monte Vista students were quickly able to spot their school’s location on a map, identify ways that the Santa Barbara area has changed in the past century using our Santa Barbara Antique Wall Map, find their California mission on our Maps 101 missions map, and discover the uses of imagery in mapmaking. You would be shocked to learn how many first, second, and third grade students have used Google Maps before!!

No, THIS is longitude, Mr.

Seeing that I once had a cartographer visit my classroom in fifth grade, we at Maps.com understand the value of introducing the science of cartography to our society’s next generation of geographers. After a very fun evening complete with prize giveaways and contests, it is without doubt that the future looks bright for the cartographers of tomorrow!

Related articles

• Cartography Can Be Fun (travelbetweenthepages.com)
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That’s great, but how do I get it home from the Library?

The Earth Platinum world atlas is about to start shipping this February, and UPS drivers around the world are quaking in their boots, booking vacation time and frantically planning their ‘sick’ excuses.

That’s because it opens to 6′ x 9′ and weighs 120kg – over 260lbs (34lbs heavier than the author of this post at time of writing) and according to publicity materials at its world premier at Frankfurt in 2010 “Never has the envelope been pushed this far”. Quite literally if you are planning to get it shipped via priority mail.

The project was inspired by the Klencke Atlas, which we wrote about back in May 2010 when it was included in a collection of unusual maps on display at the British Library. It was presented to King Charles II in 1660 and nothing like it has been produced since.

Platinum includes the work of more than 100 international cartographers as well as stunning photography and is hand bound. According to Millenium House it is set to become “a prized reference and a focal point of the world’s major libraries and repositories.”  Of course with health and safety laws being what they are in most public buildings, it will need a dedicated member of staff to turn the pages, and only after a risk assessment has been completed. I have already placed a loan request at my local library but I’m not sure how long I will have to wait.

Average sized man stands by giant atlas.

I considered ordering a copy even after I saw the US $100,000 price tag, but when I saw the price of appropriately sized coffee tables in Ikea I realized this was completely out of my comfort zone.

However, if you are looking to splash the cash on the map geek in your life, you can join the waiting list here – make sure you have your Amex Triple Gold Card to hand for faster service.

Mittengate: When neighboring states fall out over lines on a map.

Wisconsin and Michigan are said to be taking steps to secure their borders today as the ‘Mitten Wars’ bring relations between the neighboring states to an all time low.

If total superiority in NFL Football wasnt enough, the state of Wisconsin has taken the agressive step of declaring itself ‘The Mitten State’ for a new winter campaign. This is based on Wisconsin’s borders resembling a left-handed mitten when plotted on a map.

This caused uproar in neighboring Michigan which has long regarded itself as the primary Mitten state seeing as its outline as resembles a pair of mittens, one pointing vertically up and one meeting it at fingertips horizontally. Or any other way you wish to interpret it.

After calling an emergency ‘Super Committee’ together here at Maps.com to review and agree official policy, we wondered if Michigan didn’t appear to be more like a Sasquatch looking up at a basking shark with an open mouth, whilst Wisconsin more closely resembled a hastily stuffed purse. However, when passing both maps through our geocoding analyzer using the ‘best fit’ algorithm (developed by our in-house programmers for use in such boundary disputes) we decided that there was no dispute after all.

Despite the outrage expressed by some parties in Michigan, the data clearly shows that Wisconsin has a single mitten, for which it can be proud, and that Michigan ‘The state’ actually applauds the notion. (See algorithmic graphical outputs below).

If you can offer further analysis please do not hesitate to comment in the box provided, or at least take our poll.

Michigan: Polite applause

Wisconsin: First Class Mitten

Related articles

• Mittengate: Wisconsin, Michigan Do Battle Over Mittens (patspapers.com)
• Mitten State: Michigan Nickname Used In Wisconsin Tourism Campaign (huffingtonpost.com)
• Michigan to Wisconsin: Don’t steal our mitten (cbsnews.com)

Maps.com makes its Good Morning America debut!

Maps.com products featured this morning on Good Morning America. The Secret Steals and Deals segment featured ‘Favorite things’ as suggested by News Anchors from the show. After growing up in Los Angeles, and graduating from our local university UCSB, Josh Elliott selected Maps and Globes as some of his favorite things.

It was a great reminder to the viewing audience that as much as we rely on GPS, Bing Maps and Google for our directions, there really is no substitute for something that you can touch and feel, and use your own eyes for zooming in and out!

Thank you so much to Tory Johnson, who spends much of her time helping small businesses and individuals in the workplace, and who pulled it all together for us!

http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/0_4g51ca5k/uiconf_id/5590821

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No Sudan movements from map-makers as the South celebrates.

Image via Wikipedia

The people of South Sudan celebrated this week as they became Africa’s 54th nation. But cartographers around the world are in no rush to redraw.

Both Google Maps and Bing Maps are still awaiting confirmed geo data for the new border, which has not yet been officially agreed. As confirmed by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, the exact location of the border will be determined along with military re-deployments and agreements on natural resources. A 12 mile buffer zone to reduce outbreaks of violence is expected to be part of the final agreement, with Ethiopian troops playing a key peace-keeping role. The conflict in the region is estimated to have cost over 1.5 million lives in decades of violence.

A number of ‘unofficial maps’ have been developed, including this one from London’s Guardian Newspaper, and South Sudan’s own Foreign Ministry has been issuing maps for use by its embassies and foreign diplomatic missions, however they are yet to finally agree the borders or receive official recognition from the United Nations. This should occur in a meeting Thursday, and will follow the EU, United States and Russia’s recognition of the state whose independence was finally declared last Saturday, July 10th.

Juba will be the new capital where many challenges such as extreme poverty will be faced. This is also where the nations wealth of oil reserves will be strategically  managed from.

Google reported that they were awaiting the most accurate data before they would update their Google Maps and Google Earth products with the new nation, until then they have been encouraging locals to produce their own maps in community mapping events.

South Sudan already has its own national soccer team which played its first match against a Kenyan club team on saturday, however currently the world governing body FIFA does not recognize the new nation and matches will remain, like the cartography,  ’unofficial’.

Republic of South Sudan, via the Mission of the Government of South Sudan.

Related articles

• South Sudan Is Born (newser.com)
• South Sudanese sing and map their way to independence (google-latlong.blogspot.com)
• South Sudan: A new nation rises (boston.com)
• South Sudan celebrates first day as independent nation (independent.co.uk)
• Next for South Sudan: Building an Economy (newser.com)

the slightly rounded flat dished earth theory

The last complete evidence that the earth is flat will find a new home in the Library of Congress after its true value was realized  by its owner in Salem, Oregon.

Owner Don Homuth has donated the map, which was given to him by a teacher when he was at school in South Dakota. This is the only known complete copy of the map which was drawn by Orlando Ferguson shortly before the turn of the 20th Century.

The map shows how the earth is flat and stationery, but accounts for visual evidence of the planets curvature and movement with its humped shape at the center of a large dish. Ferguson also published an accompanying book which promised to ‘knock out the globe theory’ and enable the reader to ‘predict eclipses’ – for only 25c (1893 money). It includes a number of biblical references and reminds the user that “400 passages in the bible condemn the globe theory and the flying earth and none sustain it”.

The Library will take delivery of the map later this month. Expect a flood of cut price globes once the map goes on display and the theory begins to catch on again.

Flat Stationery Earth Map via the history blog

beware the map police

The crackdown that we suggested would take place on unlicensed mapping in China has begun in earnest. Or Beijing, if you want to be pedantic.

Possible Punishment for offenders? Linschoten, 1599.

Following the launch of Mapworld by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, the Chinese government said that all providers of online Mapping, including Google, would require a state issued license by July 1st. Reminders of the imminent deadline are now being issued by the bureau’s press office.

Many unauthorized sites and applications which use geolocation are powered with free Google Maps, whereas those approved providers purchase government supplied mapping. According to the bureau this protects the consumer and also prevents sensitive local information from being released.

In all, 46 sites have been ordered to change their mapping provider to get government approval or face as yet unknown punishment. Those contacted include the Chinese social media site Jiepang, who have already applied for a license and sent employees to take part in government ‘training’.

Related articles

• Google photos for businesses (gooplex.wordpress.com)
• Google Is in Talks With China to Keep Maps Online (pcworld.com)