Visualize what the media are saying with Media Cloud
Media Cloud is a system that lets you see the flow of the media. The Internet is fundamentally altering the way that news is produced and distributed, but there are few comprehensive approaches to understanding the nature of these changes. Media Cloud automatically builds an archive of news stories and blog posts from the web, applies language processing, and gives you ways to analyze and visualize the data. The system is still in early development, but we invite you to explore our current data and suggest research ideas. This is an open-source project, and we will be releasing all of the code soon.
Media Cloud is a project of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard. Read more about the project or give it a spin here.
Watch Walmart take over America
Not brand new, but fascinating: Flowing Data has a time-lapse map showing the growth of Walmart since the 1960s.
Find criminals in your neighborhood
Search an address anywhere in the U.S. and Criminal Searches Neighborhood Watch will map where the criminals live in that neighborhood. Information is taken from public records and includes everything from traffic offenses to violent crimes. I’m not sure how comprehensive the records are, based on a search of my own neighborhood, but it’s an interesting map/crime mashup.
Not just skyscrapers
Emporis (which some researchers may remember as skyscrapers.com) is a huge worldwide database of buildings. Includes height, location, photos, maps, architect and owner information, etc., on existing buildings and projects under construction. Search by city, building name, company name, etc.
Mapping newspaper layoffs
Paper Cuts at graphicdesignr maps newspaper layoffs. Via Depth Reporting.
Google maps
A couple of cool gadgets on Google Maps: Explore this area shows you photos and videos of an area. And street view shows you street level photos of a place, like on this map of Miami. All the streets outlined in blue are available in street view.
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