Making data about our elected officials and their districts more accessible has been a prominent part the mission of our Cicero API product. We believe it’s important this data is available to the masses. That’s why we’re excited to be part of the launch of the new Google Maps Gallery, an easy way to view some of the most interesting and data rich maps on the internet. The Google Maps Gallery already has hundreds of maps from many different data providers, such as the United States Geological Survey, the World Bank Group, NASA and even our hometown favorite PolicyMap. Eventually, these maps will appear in Google search results which will make it even easier to discover this important content. Right now, they can easily be embedded on a website or visualized in Google Earth.

As part of Google Maps’ Public Data Program for the launch of the Map Gallery, Azavea was invited to share some of the data we’ve collected and generated for our Cicero API database. To take a look at all the maps Azavea has produced for the Google Maps Gallery, check out our publisher page.

In the past couple years, we’ve made an aggressive effort to collect as much social media information about elected officials as possible. So one of the datasets you can view today on the Google Maps Gallery is a map of all current U.S. House members and their twitter account.

In addition, we’ve collected political data for other countries. Check out our recently added congressional districts for Mexico.

Ultimately, the Google Maps Gallery is just one place for Azavea to share data and research with the community at large. You can also find it on our GitHub, through CartoDB and ArcGIS Online. For a full list, head over to the Azavea Commons.