Articles by
Deb Boyer

Urban Forestry Fun in Florida

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This past month, Carissa Brittain and I flew to Disney World for a few days.  Azavea team bonding event?  Early Thanksgiving vacation?  Nope, we were actually off to sunny Florida on business – specifically to attend the annual Partners in Community Forestry Conference, held this year (lucky for us!) at Walt Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort near Orlando.

Why would a GIS software development company attend a forestry conference?  For the last year and a half, we’ve actually been thinking a lot about trees – how to count them, where to plant them, how they impact the environment, and how to get communities enthusiastic about them.

It all started in 2010 when we won a USDA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grant to build OpenTreeMap, an open source software platform for collaborative, geography-enabled urban tree inventory.  This fall, we were fortunate to win a Phase II SBIR grant from the USDA to expand OpenTreeMap.  At about the same time, we also learned we had been awarded a Phase I grant to research and create new web-based tools for prioritizing tree planting locations and modeling tree growth and impact over time.

All this tree work made us want to learn more about the urban forestry community and the Partners in Community Forestry conference, organized by the Arbor Day Foundation, is one of the best places to meet “tree people” from across the country. With our partners from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and Strategic Nature, we gave a presentation at the conference on PhillyTreeMap.org (one of our implementations of OpenTreeMap) and our plans for future development of the site.  We also staffed a booth in the exhibit hall where we talked with attendees about OpenTreeMap.org and how it’s being used around the country.  We heard some great feedback about how we can improve the software and were very excited to learn about organizations interested in downloading the code and trying OpenTreeMap themselves.

We came back from the conference with many ideas for our future urban forestry efforts.  Over the next few months, we will be finishing our tree modeling and prioritization work and diving into the next phase of OpenTreeMap with specific focus on creating mobile and tablet versions, adding in more gaming and social networking elements, and building APIs for more efficient transfer of data in and out of the system.  Trees and software to help plant, grow and maintain them seems, dare I say, to have really taken root at Azavea.

To see OpenTreeMap in action, visit PhillyTreeMap.org, UrbanForestMap.org, and GreenprintMaps.org.

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A Close Finish Ends Phase 1 of the OpenDataRace

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In the October newsletter, we were excited to announce the beginning of the OpenDataRace, a contest that encouraged local groups and members of the public to become involved in advocating for the release of open data while also supporting non-profit organizations and their work to improve the Philadelphia region.  The contest built on the OpenDataPhilly.org site launched in April 2011.

Fifteen non-profits nominated over two dozen data sets that they felt should be made available to the public.  While we hoped people would visit the OpenDataRace contest page and vote for the data they wanted more widely available, we weren’t quite sure how much of a response we would get.  As PlanPhilly put it, that’s a “powerfully nerdy” type of contest.  Would anyone actually vote in a contest about data?

Turns out we didn’t need to worry.  Throughout October, over 2,400 new users registered on OpenDataPhilly and cast their votes for a particular data set.  The voting for first, second, and third places was particularly fierce as the top three vote-getters earned a small cash prize for the non-profits who nominated them.  Email pleas were sent, impassioned tweets and blog entries were posted, and in a close finish, three data sets emerged as the most desired data in the City of Philadelphia.

First Place: National Student Clearinghouse Data, nominated by The Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Second Place: Reported Bike Thefts, nominated by the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia

Third Place: Vacant Land Data, jointly nominated by Conservation Pennsylvania/Young Involved Philadelphia/Penn Future’s Next Great City

While the voting phase may be over, the OpenDataRace effort is just beginning.  The OpenDataPhilly team will now begin the process of advocating for the release of the data sets.  We also hope to organize hack-a-thons in February 2012 that will encourage software developers and others to take any newly released data and create amazing apps or data visualizations.

For a full list of the OpenDataRace voting results, visit OpenDataPhilly.org.

Thank you for joining us in the race for open data!

 

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Join the OpenDataRace and Support Open Data in Philadelphia

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When we launched OpenDataPhilly back in April, we hoped that providing a catalog of open datasets, applications, and APIs related to the Philadelphia region would encourage more transparent government and a more engaged citizenry. We are excited that the response to OpenDataPhilly has been incredibly positive, and we have continued to add new data sets and applications since the launch.

To encourage further access to data, the OpenDataPhilly team recently announced a new contest we are supporting in partnership with NPower PA, Technically Philly, the William Penn Foundation, and the City of Philadelphia. Called the OpenDataRace, the contest encourages local groups and the public to become involved in advocating for the release of open data while also supporting non-profit organizations and their work to improve the Philadelphia region.

In September, non-profit groups nominated Philadelphia-focused datasets that, if publicly available, would help support their organizational missions. The general public is now invited to vote for the dataset they would most like to see made publicly accessible. The three datasets that receive the most votes will earn cash prizes for the non-profits that nominated them and the OpenDataPhilly partners will lobby the City of Philadelphia for the release of the data. We also hope to organize hack-a-thons in January and February 2012 to encourage developers in the area to build applications using the newly released data.

How can you join the OpenDataRace? Visit the contest page on OpenDataPhilly, vote for a dataset, and spread the word about the contest. Do your part to help local non-profit organizations access data (and a little bit of cash) they need!

Voting will remain open until October 27.

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PhillyHistory.org Augmented Reality App Now Available for Android

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Visitors to Philadelphia now have an opportunity to view the city in a completely new way.  Ever wondered what Market Street looked like in the 1800s?  Curious as to how Broad Street has changed over time?   Finding the answers to those questions is a bit easier thanks to the newly released Augmented Reality by PhillyHistory.org application!

The opening screen of the application provides options for launching the images, viewing the credits for the project, or finding info on using the app via the help page.

The PhillyHistory.org AR app is now available for free download in the Android Market (simply search PhillyHistory.org).  Download the app to gain access to nearly 90,000 historic images from the PhillyHistory.org database via your smartphone.  Choose to view the whole collection or a select 500 images chosen by the PhillyHistory.org team.  These images have been more accurately “pinned” in space and use absolute rotation so that they appear overlayed on the current urban landscape.  After downloading, you can also read more about the project on the credits page or get additional info on the help page.

As we mentioned in the last Azavea Journal the AR project is funded by an NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant awarded to the Philadelphia Department of Records to research augmented reality technology.  While the initial grant stated that we would provide AR access to 500 images, we chose to make the whole collection (with the exceptions of maps and images without locations) available in the app.  We’ve also collaborated with the editors of the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia and Dr. Amy Hillier from the University of Pennsylvania to provide added contextual information for twenty of the images.  The result is a layered experience that provides access to a variety of historical images at locations around the city.

The PhillyHistory.org AR app is built on Layar, a mobile augmented reality platform developed by a company located  in the Netherlands.

Three icons indicate the different types of images available in the app.

If you do not already have Layar downloaded to your phone (a free download), the app will prompt you to download the platform.  While this platform gave us a great starting framework, we also conducted some significant research of our own in a variety of AR-related areas including building data services and placing 2D photos in 3D space.

We’ve been documenting our research on the Azavea Atlas and Azavea Labs blogs and will also be producing a white paper with more information on our development process and research findings.  You can sign up to receive that white paper at www.azavea.com/augmented-reality.

The Augmented Reality by PhillyHistory.org application is currently available in the Android Market at no cost with Apple iPhone access coming soon.  Let us know what you think!

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Mapping Philadelphia’s Trees at PhillyTreeMap.org

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On April 29, as part of Technically Philly’s Philly Tech Week, we will launch PhillyTreeMap.org, a wiki-style, web-based geography-enabled urban tree inventory application that enables the general public to collaborate with Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS), and other local groups in a joint effort to map, tend, and preserve Philly’s trees.

Philadelphia, like many American cities, has a wealth of urban street trees.  These hard-working trees line the streets of Philadelphia and help improve our neighborhoods by adding shade, bettering air quality, assisting with stormwater runoff, and generally improving the look and feel of our communities.  Despite their clear benefits, calculating the exact number of street trees has been a difficult and time-consuming process for many municipalities.  With limited resources and other necessary activities, how can a city find time to inventory every single tree?

We’re hoping to make the tree inventory process easier for the City of Philadelphia starting April 29.  As part of that day’s Green Tech Showcase at Philly Tech Week, we’ll be joining with our partners Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, PHS, and DVRPC to introduce PhillyTreeMap and encourage the people of Philadelphia to join the process of growing a green future together.

Why bother with a tree inventory?  Having an up-to-date inventory enables organizations to better maintain these important trees and plan future planting and renewal efforts.  To get started with the process, we’ve loaded the database with existing inventories from PHS, the City, and the Township of Lower Merion and created a series of checks to eliminate duplicate entries.  Each tree is associated with a particular location and may include information such as species, diameter, a photograph of the tree, and yearly eco impact numbers.

PhillyTreeMap.org will be available on April 29

To contribute to the inventory, users can create a free account and then edit existing tree details, upload an image of the tree, or add a new tree to the system.  They can also get help to identify the species of a tree using the handy tree key available on the site.  All changes are available to the general public although a group of trained administrators will review the site for inaccurate or inappropriate changes.  The database will accept additions for trees within the larger thirteen county/three state region surrounding Philadelphia, the same region as the recently announced Plant One Million campaign.

Collaboration is an important part of PhillyTreeMap. The website is built on open source code contributed by the Urban Forest Map project in San Francisco, a group with whom Azavea will continue to work in the future. We hope that the combination of members of the public, non-profit groups, and local government and businesses will result in a dynamic and exciting project that leads to a more complete tree inventory for our nation.

Azavea developed PhillyTreeMap using funding received from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture as part of the Small Business Innovation Research Program (Grant Number 2010-33610-20937).  PhillyTreeMap serves as the prototype of a larger OpenTreeMap project for which we’re currently pursuing further grants in order to implement additional features that may be of use to other municipalities nationwide.

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Augmented Reality: PhillyHistory.org Meets the 21st Century

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ARPhoto

An artist’s interpretation of the PhillyHistory.org augmented reality application.

As we announced recently in the Azavea Atlas blog, we’re currently hard at work investigating mobile augmented reality and its use with historical photographs.  The Philadelphia Department of Records recently won an NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant to research augmented reality (AR) technology and create a smartphone prototype that will enable users, via their smartphones, to view historic photographs from PhillyHistory.org as overlays on the current landscape.  If the research proved successful, users would be able to point their smartphones, using the camera view, at a building or other location and see historic images of that same location.  The photos would be accompanied by descriptive information from PhillyHistory.org with additional explanatory text provided by local historians.  This combination of technology and history could be a powerful tool for showing the lengthy and interesting history of Philadelphia.

Erik_Osheim_Test_PH-AR

Software developer Erik Osheim gives us a peek into the initial design for the application.

But how to make it happen? Intended to fund research into innovative uses of technology in the humanities, a Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant was a great way for the Department of Records to experiment with augmented reality.  Would AR be a useful method for showing the history of Philadelphia and enabling users to see the connections between the past and the present?  Is AR technology advanced enough to make this type of application possible?  Can the historic images really be represented as overlays (i.e. 3-D objects pinned in space)?  Would the screen size of a mobile device be too small to properly display an image and text?  Are smartphone networks fast enough to load all this information?  Would the phone be able to pinpoint a user’s location accurately enough to load images of that location even in a crowded urban setting where GPS coordinates can be incorrect?  Would this work? If we build it, will anyone actually use it?

The grant gave the Department of Records and Azavea a chance to discover the answers to these and other questions while making use of the wealth of resources available on PhillyHistory.org.  The website currently features over 93,000 historic images and maps from five Philadelphia organizations, giving us plenty of materials to use in the project.  We’re excited to be working with the Department of Records on this project and are learning much about iPhones, Android phones,  Layar, gyroscopes, and everything else involved with mobile augmented reality technology.  Our research findings will be published in a whitepaper to be available for free download later this spring.

Experimenting with the prototype application

While the grant only called for research into a prototype, we believe that we will be able to release an application for public use.  The completed Augmented Reality by PhillyHistory.org application will be available at no cost for both iPhone and phones running the Android platform.

While the application is still in development, we’re hoping to have it ready for release in the next couple months.  Until then, visit Azavea Labs to read more about the development process or Azavea Atlas to learn about other augmented reality projects in museums around the world.

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PhillyHistory.org Adds Historic Images from the Free Library of Philadelphia

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freelibrary_logo
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PhillyHistory.org, the Philadelphia Department of Records’ historic photo and map website powered by our Sajara product, now features two new groups of images from the collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia.

The Historical Images of Philadelphia collection includes over 170 photos taken throughout the city during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With images of everything from Memorial Hall to the hand and torch of the Statue of Liberty, the Centennial Exhibition collection contains 1,600 beautiful photographs documenting America’s celebration of 100 years of history and progress.

FreeLibraryCentennial

Since the geographic search option on PhillyHistory.org is such a popular feature, we wanted to geocode the Free Library images as well. This proved to not be so straightforward for the Centennial images. The exhibition was located in Fairmount Park, an area that has changed dramatically since 1876. To find the coordinates of the original locations of the Centennial buildings, we needed to georeference an historic map of the Centennial grounds. By overlaying the historic map with a current street map in ESRI’s ArcGIS and finding a few buildings and intersections that still existed to serve as anchor points, we were able to create a new image that showed the locations of the historic buildings. We then found the coordinates for specific buildings and used them to geocode photos of those buildings, making the images searchable by location.

Including collections from multiple organizations in the system is something that we’ve always hoped to be able to do. When PhillyHistory.org first debuted, it contained a few thousand images from the collection of the Philadelphia City Archives. Over the next couple years, the Philadelphia Water Department contributed 1,500 historic images, the Department of Records provided 4,800 property maps, and the Free Library added nearly 200 historic maps dating from the 1850s and 1860s. The addition of the Free Library images provides PhillyHistory.org users with even greater access to the historical resources of the city.

Of course, including the collections of various organizations in a single database is not as easy as signing an agreement and uploading some images. Institutions have different needs ranging from collection size to collection management processes to available metadata. We built Sajara, our geographic digital collection management system, to accommodate these different needs by a series of features that enable watermarks, metadata and activation of features (like commenting, photo print sales, licensing, etc.) to be configured on a collection-by-collection basis.  Web-access prevents the necessity of installing software at different offices, and a system of roles and levels of access ensures that while multiple organizations may have their data in the same database, they have the ability to manage only their own collections.

The result is a database that enables several organizations to pool their resources and increase public access to their collections. Rather than switching from website to website, users can visit PhillyHistory.org to view amazing images and maps from three separate organizations. And we are now working with additional institutions to add their images in the future.

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Sajara Adds Public Commenting Feature

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sajara_bigWhen we first began developing Sajara to power PhillyHistory.org, we thought that people would be pretty excited to search through thousands of previously inaccessible photos of Philadelphia.

“Pretty excited” turned out to be an understatement. People loved that they could use Sajara’s geographic search feature to locate historic photos of their neighborhoods. We began receiving wonderful comments and stories from PhillyHistory.org users.

We loved hearing the stories but unfortunately did not have an easy way for users to share their comments with the larger PhillyHistory community. We decided to remedy the problem by adding a new feature to Sajara – a public commenting panel.

New Sajara commenting feature in use on PhillyHistory.org

New Sajara commenting panel in use on PhillyHistory.org

Enabled on a collection basis, commenting provides a way for the public to share information or opinions about an image with other users via a comment page on the detail view for each photo.  After creating an account with PhillyHistory.org, users can leave comments about the image, respond to comments left by other users, or report abusive comments.  A user’s comment is associated with their user name, and each user name is linked to a public profile for that user.  While a user’s comments are shown by default on their user page, the user can also choose to display their favorite photos, bookmarked searches, and personal information such as a biography or website.  In addition, a user can also sign up to receive other users’ future comments via an RSS feed.

Actually implementing the commenting system turned out to be somewhat complicated.  There are a few different ways to organize comments, including a flat list that shows comments in the order they were entered and a nested tree that shows all the relationships between comments and responses to comments.  Getting it right means understanding your audience.  Our approach with the Sajara software organizes comments into single-tier threads so that users can see simple conversations but not get lost sorting through which ones relate to others.

Sajara commenting feature in the sample Japanese Garden website

Sajara commenting feature in the Japanese Gardens of the World sample application of the Sajara software

Commenting systems require quite a lot of ongoing management as well.  Some comments will need reviewing for various reasons, which, on a high volume site, can be an overwhelming task.  Included in the Sajara commenting system are a set of tools that allow the site’s administrators to easily review and handle all the site’s comments.

The public commenting feature is currently available on PhillyHistory.org and Japanese Gardens of the World, the Sajara sample application, and is an optional feature for future Sajara implementations.

Big Map search in the new version of Sajara

Big Map search window in the new version of Sajara

Oh! … and by the way, have you seen the new ‘Big Map’ search window we implemented in PhillyHistory.org (also a new option in Sajara)?  The map view search page features a nearly full screen map with thumbnails of the images displayed along the bottom of the screen.  Flags on the map correspond with each thumbnail, indicating where the photo was taken.  All the original search filters (address, keyword, topics, dates, and more) are still available at the top of the map under the ‘Search By’ menu.

Check both new features out and let us know what you think!

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New Map View Search Available on Sajara

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sajara_logoThroughout its development, Sajara has focused on enabling users to search for digital assets based on geographic criteria such as address, intersection, and neighborhood or by navigating around a map. While our standard search page with its many thumbnails remains a  powerful window to retrieve digital assets, we recently decided to create a new search page that expanded the map to full-screen size and put an even greater emphasis on Sajara’s geographic search capabilities.

Sajara_Map_Search

The new Sajara geographic search page is available in Japanese Gardens of the World, a sample application that demonstrates Sajara's capabilities.

In order to try out our idea for another geographic-based search page, we turned to Japanese Gardens of the World, our sample application powered by Sajara. To create the map, we utilized the same technology that drives our thumbnail search page, OpenLayers and ExtJS. These upgrades offered us increases in loading speed and better compatibility with new browser versions.

While the map-based search page focuses more on geographically displaying the results of a search, it still contains all the original search functionality. A drop-down ‘Search By’ menu contains fields allowing users to search by address, keyword, topics, collections, time period, and a variety of advanced search options. In order to help users keep track of their search criteria, we also implemented a new search feature called ‘Active Filters’, which provides a quick reminder of the selected criteria.

'Fisheye' thumbnail view of photographs found on the current map view.

'Fisheye' thumbnail view of photographs in the current map view.

The results of a search are displayed as a row of thumbnails across the bottom of the map with flags on the thumbnails corresponding to flags on the map. The thumbnails expand as you mouse over them. We used some simple math and javascript to implement this fish-eye effect, allowing users to quickly view basic data about an asset without requiring them to load a new page. A larger, more detailed page with additional information and photographs of the garden is available by clicking on the thumbnail.

The map-based search provides users with another option for searching through and browsing assets in their digital collection, but the thumbnail search is also still available as a way to view search results. Using the ‘Search’ menu, users can select whether they would like to search the database using the map or thumbnail view.  They can also switch between the two pages thanks to the ‘Map/Thumbnail’ button in the upper right corner of the page.

Make sure you visit our Japanese Gardens of the World sample application and let us know what you think!

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Azavea Newsletter Puzzle: Philadelphia Public LandStat Application

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Map generated in the LandStat application

We’re excited to help make Philadelphia land records information available through the newly public LandStat application. Want to learn more about LandStat? Head to http://www.phillylandstat.com to check out the database and find the answers to this month’s puzzle.

On the welcome page click ‘Mapping and Analysis’ (click on ‘Register’ only if you want to save your work). In Step 1: ‘Select a Geographic Area,’ select ‘All Ward’ from the menu. In Step 2: ‘Create a Project,’ select ‘Property Type’ in the drop down menu under ‘Select a Category.’ A list of available indicators will appear. Select ‘Parcels, Residential, Count’ and click ‘Add.’ Then select ‘Parcels, Commercial, Count’ and click ‘Add.’ In Step 3: ‘Name the Project,’ give your project a name and click ‘Save’ to view the results. The resulting information can be viewed in five ways: map, table, statistics, scatter, or rank.

1. Click ‘Map’ to view the number of residential parcels displayed by city ward. In the mapping features on the left, click on ‘Search’ and enter 340 N. 12th Street (Azavea’s office address) into the box and click ‘Find.’ Then click on the ‘Map Breaks and Colors’ menu located in the same column. What is the range of residential parcels for the ward in which Azavea is located? Hint: It is the smallest range.

2. Click on the ‘Statistics’ tab to view a variety of statistics related to residential and commercial parcels in your project. You can now compare the two indicators you chose for your project: select ‘Parcels, Commercial, Count, 2008′ from the ‘Indicator 2′ drop-down menu. What is the minimum number of commercial parcels in any ward?

3. Click on the ‘Table’ tab to view the number of residential and commercial parcels in each ward. In Ward 15, what is the number of commercial parcels and the number of residential parcels?

Again, be the first to send in all 3 correct answers and receive a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble! Send your answers to info@azavea.com

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Azavea Newsletter Puzzle: Play with Election Data Like You Were Working for an Elections Commission

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KIF Local Sample Data by Council District

With the launch of a new Kaleidocade Local Sample, Azavea is excited to make available local election data in a user-friendly web interface.

Want to learn more about Philadelphia’s elections but just don’t have the time to visit city hall? Head to http://sample.azavea.com/KIFLocal/ to check out the new database and find the answers to this month’s puzzle. Be the first to send in all 3 correct answers and receive a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble! Send your answers to info@azavea.com

On the home page, create an account or click ‘Anonymous Login’. On the start page, click ‘Mapping and Analysis’. In Step 1: ‘Select a Geographic Area’, select ‘All Wards’ from the menu. In Step 2: ‘Create an Indicator Collection’, select ‘Philadelphia Mayoral Elections’ under ‘Select a Category’. A list of available indicators will appear. Select ‘D-Michael Nutter, Vote Count, 2007 General Election’ and click ‘Add’. Then select ‘R- Al Taubenberger, Vote Count, 2007 General Election’ and click ‘Add’. In Step 3: ‘Name the Indicator Collection’, give your collection a name and click ‘Save’ to view the results.

1. The resulting information can be viewed in four ways: map, table, statistics, rank. Click ‘Table’ to view the number of votes each candidate received in each ward. In Ward 21, how many votes did Mr. Nutter and Mr. Taubenberger each receive?

2. Click on the ‘Rank’ tab at the top of the window to view the top and bottom ranked locations, meaning the wards in which each candidate received the most and fewest votes. In which ward did Mr. Nutter receive the fewest votes? Hint: He received 922 votes in that ward.

3. Click on the ‘Statistics’ tab now to view a variety of statistics related to the votes each candidate received. Select ‘R- Al Taubenberger, Vote Count, 2007 General Election’ from the ‘Indicator 1′ drop-down menu. What is the maximum number of votes that Mr. Taubenberger received in any one ward?

Again, be the first to send in all 3 correct answers and receive a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble! Send your answers to info@azavea.com

 

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Azavea Newsletter Puzzle: Explore Muralfarm.org

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One of Philadelphia’s many murals (and a clue to one of the puzzle questions’ answers).

We are excited to announce the launch of Muralfarm.org, a new web-based database that enables users to search through and view information about murals produced by the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. Muralfarm.org is powered by Sajara, Azavea’s geographic digital asset management software.

Want to learn more about Philadelphia’s many murals but just don’t have the time to take the fabulous bus tours? Head to www.muralfarm.org to check out the new database and find the answers to this month’s puzzle. Send your answers to info@azavea.com. Be the first to send in all 3 correct answers and receive a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble! An adventure AND a reward, life couldn’t get much better!

1. A large, two-part mural is located at the intersection of Aspen Street and N. 39th Street. Use the address search function on Muralfarm.org to locate the mural. What is the title of the mural?

The ‘Magic Wall’ mural. Do you know where it is located?

2. Several artists were involved in the creation of this mural including Students from the University of Pennsylvania, Angela Crafton, and Donald Gensler. Click on Angela Crafton’s name to view other murals she has created. One of her murals is entitled “Magic Wall.” At what address is this mural located?

3. Click the ‘Search this address’ button located below the address to find other nearby murals. The closest mural to “Magic Wall” is a mural entitled “A Window of Stories.” What is the ‘Theme’ assigned to this mural?

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Azavea Newsletter Puzzle

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Image courtesy of ‘Nina‘ via Flickr.com

Throughout the year, we’ve enjoyed sharing news about the projects, staff members, travels, partnerships, and dozens of other things that make Azavea an exciting place. To give you one more chance to review 2008 in the life of Azavea, this month’s puzzle requires a quick trip through the past year’s newsletters in search of a holiday greeting. That’s right – we’re breaking out the word puzzle! Find the missing words to fill in the below sentence. All archived newsletters are available at http://www.azavea.com/Library.aspx.

___(1)___, gatherings with___(2)___ and ___(3)___, ___(4)___ and ___(5)___cake? It must be the holidays! Azavea wishes everyone a wonderful holiday season and happy new year!

1. According to the intro paragraph of the May/June 2008 newsletter, what type of storm did Azavea staff encounter in Denver in the middle of May?

2. According to the title of the first article in the January/February 2008 newsletter, what type of tree does ‘The Root’ help you map?

3. According to the biography for Sean McGinnis (Project Manager) in the March/April 2008 newsletter, for whom does Sean enjoy cooking?

4. According to the intro paragraph of the September/October 2008 newsletter, what did we try to mitigate by occupying ourselves with some great election-related work?

5. In the July/August 2008 newsletter, there is a small quote to the left of the article entitled “Why Make a Wild Guess…” According to that quote , it’s exciting to see how “our staff research bears ______.”

Send your answers to info@azavea.com. Be the first to send in all 5 correct answers and receive a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble!

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Azavea Newsletter Puzzle: Elections, Schmelections – Let’s Play a Game!

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You may have noticed that there happens to be an election going on. Here at Azavea we’re always paying attention to elections across the country and around the world to keep our Cicero Elected Official Lookup as up to date as possible. In honor of the upcoming presidential election and our new election data available on Cicero, this month’s puzzle gets a little political.

1. The second debate between the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates was held on October 7, 2008 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Using the Cicero Live Demo and the address for Belmont University (1900 Belmont Blvd Nashville, Tennessee), find the name of the Congressman who represents the Nashville area in the U.S. House of Representatives. Hint: He is a Democrat and represents District 5.

2. The President of the United States resides in the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC. The District of Columbia has one (non-voting) representative who sits in the US House of Representatives. Using Cicero Live and the address for the White House (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington DC), find the name of that Congresswoman. Hint: She is a Republican whose district type is ‘National Lower’.

3. US Presidents often meet with foreign leaders at home and abroad. In May 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia visited the United States. If the new US President wanted to reciprocate with a similar gesture, he would probably travel to the Parliament House in Australia to meet with the Prime Minister. Using Cicero Live and the address of the Parliament House (Parliament Drive in the city of Canberra in the province of Australian Capital Territory in the country of Australia (AS)), find the name of the Member of Parliament who represents Canberra. Hint: She is a member of the Australian Labor Party.

Send your answers to info@azavea.com. Be the first to send in all three correct answers and receive a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble! The winner will be announced in our next newsletter.

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Puzzle: Explore MetroPhilaMapper’s Indicators and Learn About the Region

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Sample map from MetroPhilaMapper, powered by KaleidocadeTM.

Temple University’s MetroPhilaMapper, powered by KaleidocadeTM, provides the public with a powerful tool for learning about and analyzing regional demographic and quality-of-living data. This month’s puzzle will take you on an exploration of the application. Be the first to send in all three correct answers and receive a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble!

Open the MetroPhilaMapper application. Either log in annonymously or register for a free account. Click on the ‘Make a Map’ button. Select ‘All Municipalities’ from the drop down menu. In the ‘Category’ drop down menu select ‘Arts & Culture/ Federal and State Funding for Arts and Culture, 2004′. Click on the ‘Add’ button to add this choice to your ‘Project’. Then name your project and click the ‘Save’ button to proceed.

1. MetroPhilaMapper enables users to view results in five ways: map, table, statistics, scatter, rank. Click on the ‘Table’ icon to view the amount of funding various municipalities received in 2004. How much funding did Philadelphia receive? Hint: Use the arrows in the ‘Federal and State Funding’ column to sort the results into descending value.

2. MetroPhilaMapper provides information on the Greater Philadelphia region. Now, click on the ‘Map’ tab. Click the arrows next to ‘Search’ (first link in the map legend area on the left of the map) to access the address search function. Enter “Downingtown, PA” into the search box and click ‘Find’. What is the range of funding that Downingtown received in 2004? Hint: The colors on the map correspond to the map legend visible under the ‘Search’ function.

3. Since the range of any indicator can be quite large, MetroPhilaMapper provides some additional statistics. Click on the ‘Statistics’ tab. What is the mean for ‘Federal and State Funding for Arts and Culture, 2004′?

Send your answers to info@azavea.com. Be the first to send in all three correct answers and receive a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble! The winner will be announced in our next newsletter.

The winning caption from the last newsletter’s PhillyHistory.org mystery photo puzzle was sent in by Nikki Cross, City Planner for Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Winning Entry: “Philadelphia scientists test an early protype of an underwater breathing apparatus. Their big secret? A common garden hose.”

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Puzzle: PhillyHistory – Explore Historic Maps of Philadelphia

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Azavea is excited to introduce a brand new search page for Sajara and the addition of 5,000 maps to PhillyHistory.org. In honor of the new maps (and just because we love all things geographical), get your map and street finding skills ready for this month’s puzzle!

1. PhillyHistory.org features a volume of the historical Hexamer & Locher maps courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia and the digital scanning center at the Philadelphia Athenaeum. Head to www.phillyhistory.org and search for the intersection of 4th Street and Market Street. Find the Hexamer & Locher Plate 11A map from 1860.

What is the name of the street that used to connect 4th Street and 5th Street just south of Market Street? Hint: It’s also a synonym for a businessperson.

2. Although that street existed in 1860, records show that its name changed. Head to the DOR Historic Streets Index and search for the name of the street. The section of this street from 4th Street to 5th Street just south of Market Street had a name change recorded in 1897.

What was the new name of the street? Hint: It still exists in that location under that name.

3. Since 1895, a landmark Philadelphia building has sat in this same area from 4th to 5th Street just south of Market. On PhillyHistory.org, enter the intersection of 4th Street and the street you found in #2 to find a photo of this building on the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the name of the building located at the intersection? Hint: A food court is now located in this building.

Be the first to send an email with all three correct answers to info@azavea.com and we will send you a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble!

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Puzzle: Cicero Live

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It’s a clue! Cicero maps of our representative voting districts.

Try Cicero Live!

1. Azavea is located at 340 N. 12th Street in Philadelphia, PA. Using Cicero, find the United States Democratic Senator who represents the area where Azavea is located. What is the name of that Senator?

2. Using the link included on the same Cicero results page, go to the website for the Senator from Question 1. On the frontpage of that website, find the address for the Senator’s office in Pittsburgh. What is that address?

3.Using the address from Question 2, go to Cicero and find the name of the Congressman representing District 14. What is the Congressman’s telephone number?

Extra Credit: Dave, the lead software developer for Cicero, works at Azavea’s office in Burlington, Vermont. Test your research skills and find an address located in Burlington. Plug that number into Cicero and find the name of any elected official who represents the City of Burlington. What is the name of that elected official?

Be the first to send an email with all three correct answers to info@azavea.com and we will send you a $20 gift card to Barnes & Noble!

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A Historic Puzzle!

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A famous female aviator who later mysteriously disappeared in the Pacific Ocean was photographed upon her arrival at the Philadelphia airport.

1. Do a “Keyword” search on PhillyHistory using the name of the aviator to find the photograph of her in Philadelphia (hint: her first name was Amelia). What year was she photographed at the Philadelphia airport?

2. In the year this aviator arrived in Philadelphia, travel by airplane was still a unique and exciting experience. Philadelphians used the subway as one form of transportation to make their way around the city. Do a “Keyword” search using the word “subway” and a “Time Period” search using the answer from question #1 to find a photograph of where some of the subway cars were stored. What was the name of the subway yard? Hint: It’s still in use as a transportation center today.

3. After setting many aviation records, the female pilot disappeared during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. What year did she disappear? Using PhillyHistory, find a photograph from that year and tell us why it is your favorite.

Be the first to send an email with all three correct answers to info@azavea.com and we will send you a $20 gift card to Barnes & Noble!

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