Open-Source Geography » Dissertation Ideas

A Review of (potentially) Geographic Titles from the Journal of Rural Health

Kevin — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:18:01 +0000

In keeping with my interests to specialize in the geographical implications of health and access to care, I have decided to focus on the rural aspects of these issues. As such, the academic journal I have chosen to review is the Journal of Rural Health. In the title of the journal introduces the concept of “rural”. In Geography as a discipline, this is a subset of our fundamental notions of “place” or “region.” Many articles are essays on the meaning of the “Rural” concept. That medical and public health researchers write them does not discount that they are doing the work of a Geographer.

The journal is balanced in terms of commentary/qualitative and quantitative methodologies, including GIS technologies. Most articles are about rural U.S. or Canadian health, but there are som international articles. Diseases representative in this journal include HIV/AIDS, diabetes, substance abuse, obesity, cancer, dementia and many others. Positive issues such as well-being or healthy pregnancy are a minority, but still represented. In addition, specific populations are considered, including the elderly, children, both minority and majority populations, economically disadvantaged, physically and mentally impaired, migrant-workers and others.

The research frames specific diseases and/or population segments into any of the following broad themes found in this journal:

Patient Behavior
- Insurance
- Access to Healthcare
  - Geographic
  - Financial
Supply of Medical Facilities and Physicians
Rural and Urban Health Care Comparisons
Physician Behavior
- Migration Patterns
- Physician Training
- Distribution
Policy Analysis
- Legislation Proposals
- Program management
- Effectiveness
Status and Evolution of Rural Hospitals
Attitudes towards treatment or specific diseases
Data and Methods
Technology and Best Practices
Essays about the meaning of RURAL

NOTE: For the review of this journal, I used the search terms “GIS”, “Spatial”, “Geography”, or “Geographic” to identify articles in this journal that have some identifiable geographic component. However, even with these search terms, many of the articles were not inherently geographical. I retained all articles that I found, and then reviewed the titles of 139 articles to detect the types of articles this journal tends to publish. Based on titles alone, I identified 21 articles where researchers behaved as if they were Geographers in their research. Many more have identifiable geographic components, but overall, Geographers have a role in this journal.

Semantic Geographics and Online Mapping Route Choice Self-Selection to Build A Database of Alternate Route Choices

Kevin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:43:29 +0000

Even though I made Wednesdays “no-blogging days” so that I can get some rest, the SP Gass at Low Tech Times has an interesting article called There’s No Substitute for Looking At A Real Map. Open Source Geography (dot org, FYI), soon to be moving to its own site, fully endorses this notion of looking at a Real Map.

I am interested in SP Gass’s view on the accuracy of the AAA TripTic. SP Gass is talking about reference maps and how one’s on paper are much more usable. Beyond portability of a paper map, paper allows one to come up with their own route. SP Gass knows what he means when he is choosing a route. But without expert knowledge or human behavior factored in as a determinant in the route choice algorithm, the computer can never approximate what means, his geographic semantics. Dr. Martin Raubal at University of California-Santa Barbara teaches a course in Geographic Semantics.

Anyway, flexibility in route choice using online mapping software would greatly improve the service. As a Geographic Information Scientist, by training, I would suggest to Google that they open their street network dataset to allow a local crowd to suggest alternate routes. Another option would be to generate a sample of automobiles and collect GPS points along their chosen routes, rather than the predictive routes.

I am still imaging the algorithm and/or data-structure required to enable a sample link on a chosen route be chosen to improve the predictive path. Especially considering that the data would need to be split into nodes and links. Not to mention, the process of formatting. Unless of course, you are generating an cloud-enabled database with a G-Phone Android Program in which these points are collected real-time.

Is this possible? It seems like it should be considering bluetooth tracking and cell-phone tracking would be a great medium for updating Google Maps.

Also, check out Google’s Newest Feature: GoogleWalking. Its still in Beta, but there is a smattering of commentary around the web.

Google Walking Maps by Daily Wireless

Google Maps Walks the Long Way Around by Google Maps Mania.

And this list of 100 Google Earth Mashups isn’t particularly about GoogleWalking, but it is still useful information for improving the semantic web rich with digitized human knowledge.

Visualization of Geographically Referenced Economic Data

Kevin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:50:06 +0000

So some GIS Specialist at Yale has figured out how to produce standardized areal units based on the geographic, latitude/longitude grid and how to produce it on a global scale. It is GIS of a sort. Definitely not an ESRI product, but could be converted.

The site is called G-CON, Geographically Based Economic Data. Note the release of their data for you use and visualization. Creating a grid in ArcGIS to thier specifications is a relatively simple process. They also provide fully detailed documentation.

Building a Globalized Geographic Information Infrastructure.

Kevin — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:28:19 +0000

I sometimes forget that ESRI is not the only thought leader in the world of Geographic Information Systems. The curators over at Open Source GIS , Ubuntu Users and that whole linux-based crowd of innovators have a lot to say on the matter of Geographic Thought. And to all the subsidiary mapping companies that Google wisely acquired, thank you for Google Earth and all your map-based mashable services!

Here is the European Vision in a 6 minute YouTube video worthy of the World’s Fair 2012. It has value as an introduction to the GIS section and the Globalization section of my up-coming lecture series about Geography for Virginia International University.

This visionary piece describes an interconnected European Supranationalistic State that rests on a Geographic Data Infrastructure. Those Europeans and their traditions of turning pure science as a means for controlling space while economizing their energy needs.

Critique of “Keyword: Evil – Google’s Addiction to Cheap Energy”

Kevin M — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 06:14:07 +0000

Harper’s Bazaar’s publication of Ginger Strand’s, “Keyword: Evil – Google’s Addiction to Cheap Energy,” refers to the electricity-hungry Internet and uses Google’s new data center on the Dalles, OR as its primary example. With some variation in energy management practices, “addiction to cheap energy” would be an applicable term for any of the Industry Giants employing server farms.

Critique #1: The thesis of her argument is that Google is evil for cutting energy costs and explains with a series of interesting statistics. Its a good read, you should check it out. I am going to bring it as required reading for my Geography class. I believe that renewable energy sources, as a mode of economic sustanence, should be exploited and harvested like our other dirtier energy sources. I see this story as indicative of Google as an energy leader. leading the way. What does that say about the American Energy System if if has actually become more cost-effective to heavily invest in an alternative energy infrastructure rather than rely on existing electrical grid indefinitely?

Critique #2: There was a brief mention of how much energy was created, but a key piece seemed missing. That is, by unintended implication, it makes those of us who are loyal Google users, evil as well. Collectively, it is our clicks that generate the significant amount of energy usage. I see no evil in cutting your costs while demonstrating the economic feasibility of alternative energy sources.

Critique #3: The Blueprints depicting Google’s Data Center…are the proof that the Web is no ethereal store of ideas.

While I believe the Internet as a commerce of ideas is solid, it is still dependent on Energy as any other heavy Industry. Strand desccribes it as a “a new heavy industry, a glutton….” Consider for a moment, Treehugger’s story that the average avatar in Second Life uses as much energy as the average person in Brazil. Perhaps “gluttons” is apt, but there is little doubt that these Giants provide a service unique to human history. Having energy needs does not contradict the service they provide and believe that these companies form the current infrastructure of the Commerce of Ideas.

Google is a propenent of renewable energy projects from a purely capitalist position, to cut future costs. If the economics of renewable energy works for them, why call them evil for participating in such a revolution?

Ideas for Internet Infrastructure Analysis for Economic Geographers and Industrial Location Specialists

Kevin M — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 07:57:05 +0000

In Geography is Dead, Warwick E. Murray’s revisits the economic geography theory that Globalization is the end of Geography. Using Amazon as an example, he claimed brick-and-mortar book sales losses would collapse the bookstore industry. We know they adapted and survived and his thesis is deftly countered by Kevin Morgan’s “Exaggerated Death of Geography.”

As a PhD applicant actively seeking Graduate Funding, any one of these topics is a viable PhD dissertation topic. There are observable geographic patterns of Internet Activity that can be measured and statistically modelled within commonly understood models of Industrial Location.

Mutually Beneficial Economic Development as Optimization Variable in Industrial Location: A Google, Government and Energy Management Case Study
Patterns of Starbuck Store Closure: A Correlation with the Commercial and Residential Development Market.
Geographic Patterns of Crowdsourced Loans: A Prosper.com Case Study (for Academic purposes, Prosper offers a download of its entire dataset).
The Economics the Pioneer Fringe: An Empirical Revisit to Isaiah Bowman
Pre-Revolutionary Land Use Patterns and Concepts of Ownership
Open-Source Micro-Franchising: A Distributed Distribution Method for Incubating Crowdsourced Content
The Geography of Long Tail Economics-(Perhaps this one actually is killing the record store).

Open-Source Geography: Revolutionizing Learning by Crowdsourcing a Textbook

Kevin M — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:01:12 +0000

I am currently applying for Geography Adjunct Teaching positions in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area. For more information about my teaching philosophy, please my recent blogpost about building an effective student-professor relationship.

Open-Source Geography is a new concept in education in which a class of students write their own Geography textbook. This idea is in accordance with my belief that a student’s work has value beyond the classroom and uses a blog as an Instructional Technology. Consider for the following reasons:

A student’s learning should be based around the topics interesting to them
The role of the professor is to guide the students through their learning process and to fill in concepts the students may have missed
In opening homework and exams to the public, the student is reminded that this is for public consumption thus subject to editorial control

COMPONENT 1: Homework Blog

Each student will be required to submit their homework to a publicly accessible blog. Their homework will consist of a set number of blogposts:

1. Set number of keywords per week

Concept Keywords: Students are required to read the text
Bibliographic Keywords: Student are required to familiarize themselves with how to use a bibliography, tracking down the actual publication online and reviewing the document

2. In-depth discussion of a one of their keywords

3, In-depth discussion of one of the authors/publications they found in their bibliographic search

4. Submission of a current news story demonstrating one of the concepts

COMPONENT 2: No standard textbook

Student have their choice of a USED Cultural and/or Human Geography textbooks. Since the domain of Geography is a very wide domain, but the concepts contained are all relatively similar. To prevent students from learning from out-dated examples found in most textbooks, they will be required to illustrate their understanding of the concepts by applying them to current stories from the news.

COMPONENT 3: Crowdsource Topics of their Textbook. Each student is required to submit a set number of keywords from the textbook. This program then counts the number of keywords for the entire class.

Learning Model

Student: Each student reviews the text and picks the concepts he/she finds important
Class: The class is provided with a list of most frequent concepts
Instructor: The instructor focuses the lectures around most frequent concepts submitted by the class

The form below is an image, but demonstrates the proof of the primary concept.

COMPONENT 4: Student Submitted Exam Questions: When students are required to write their own exam questions, they are required to have a full understanding of the concepts.

COMPONENT 5: Open Source Exams: Requiring students memorize a list of facts does not enable them to demonstrate their true understanding of the concepts. An open-source exam requires them to synthesize the concepts they were exposed to by the class and by the Instructor.

COMPONENT 6: Final Projects: Student will be required to prepare and present a final project to the class. These will function as examples for the open-source textbook, thus providing current examples and subject to strict editorial standards.

COMPONENT 6: Edit the Open Source Textbook in Wikipedia or some other open format.

What I need: Used Geography Texts! If you have any old used Human or Cultural Geography texts you no longer need or that the bookstore would not buy-back, consider donating them to the Open-Source Geography Project. Please send them to PO Box 17128, Arlington, VA 22216.

Where is Margarittaville? Parrothead Songs in Google Earth

Kevin M — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:17:28 +0000

Thanks to Jim for his analysis and for letting me use his findings for this post. If you would like to perform your own analysis on the location of Margarittaville, click this link to open to Google Earth file. If you do not have GoogleEarth, download it here.

One of the things I really enjoyed about teaching was students with good ideas and the passion to pursue them. Along came Jim, a former student and current friend, who came up with the best Geography projects I saw during my short tenure. I think what made this project special was innovative use of technology, in this case GoogleEarth, coupled with his personal passion.

ACADEMIC ADVICE: Research papers don’t have to boring. Pick a topic thats interesting and execute your research with passion and innovation. Consider Jim as your case study. Jim is a self-described ParrotHead; a Jimmy Buffet fan. As a fan of Buffet’s entire catalog, he began to note the geographical nature of the lyrics and titles of the songs. So, for his project, he gathered latitudes and longitudes for each mention of a place in a Jimmy Buffet song. In doing so, though he was not able to pinpoint the exact location of MargarittaVille, he was able to identify the general area. Even though this was something of personal interest to him, he pursued the topic like an academic. Below are some results:

Update: Frank at the Google Earth Blog sent a few comments.

It’s certainly a cool concept. I am a bit of a Buffet fan myself. Although the list of placemarks is lengthy – I think he should open up the collection for input from other Parrotheads. For example, “Volcano” is all about Montserrat – and he didn’t placemark it. And, “Three Mile Island” is specifically mentioned in that song – and it isn’t marked. It would be neat to post the collection at the Google Earth Community and see if folks would add to it. Another thing that could be done is to add audio clips, or even video clips to placemark descriptions.