I use Google Maps all the time. Housingmaps.com, which mashes Google Maps up with Craigslist listings, has found my last two apartments for me. The GPS built into my Helio Ocean has saved me from getting lost countless times in the short time I've owned it.
If mapping software can do all of this for me, imagine what it can do for nonprofits with causes slightly more noble than geo-tagging my Flickr photos. That's what we aim to find out at this month's NetSquared DC Meetup, Mapping for Nonprofits. Details after the jump.
Not everyone realizes that the backbones of the sites I listed above are Geographic Information Systems. I almost completed a GIS citation in college, but my efforts were thwarted by the University of Maryland's decision not to offer any of the final courses my entire senior year. I didn't get the citation, but the prerequisite courses did leave me with an extensive vocabulary with which to describe rivers (did you know billabong is Australian for an oxbow lake?).
Anyway, GIS can help nonprofits do some neat, useful things. Relief organizations can act on data uploaded by the masses in times of emergency, such as in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In calmer times, data can be overlayed onto maps to target donors and discover complex patterns.
If you're still reading, you should join us at NetSquared next week to hear more. We meet monthly at the Affinity Lab in Adams Morgan. Come for good times with great people (and free snacks and drinks, thanks to our sponsor Care2).
This month we're fortunate to have three expert speakers, Dr. Timothy Foresman, Dan Zimble and Robert Cheetham.
Dr. Forseman pursued a career dedicated to devising strategies and contributing to improved systems to better cope with environmental threats facing humans and the planet. Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Forseman is also president of Global Water, and author of, "The Last Little Polar Bear."Dan is a member of the Washington D.C. Technology Center team at Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), the world's leading software provider of geographic information systems (GIS). Dan's passion is in advocating for sustainable approaches to ecosystem management through the application of GIS.
Robert is the founder of Avencia, a software development firm that specializes in creating web-based GIS systems. Avencia is a Philadelphia-based firm that works with non-profits and other organizations to build software tools that use geographic data to research, analyze and make better decisions.
See you Tuesday!
