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.

To the candidate, I would like to say that it is fantastic that the GIS Team you assembled are applying the technology in some very interesting ways. I wonder if the other campaigns are running their GIS teams as effectively. I offer the floor to the techno-critics over at the Low Tech Times for their position on the role of technology in presidential campaigns.

Give up? Barack Obama is taking a crowdsourced, collaborative approach to his GIS Operations. Will Obama be the first Open-Source President? As an academic advisor, I would suggest to any student working on the campaign to treat this like a laboratory of ideas worthy of doctoral dissertations. But remember, there will also be a lot of boring old production cartography. Either way, the Obama Campaign has embraced an important technology and an interesting method of crowdsourcing.

Also, the Low-Tech Times has asked that you not use the GIS as a  campaign SPAM-building effort.

Anyway, below are my notes from my sample lecture about Boundary-Making Processes in Washington DC, as well as a statement of my teaching philosophy.

Teaching Philosophy

• Conversational
• I am No Smarter Than You, I have Only Read More about Geography
• A Student’s Work Has Value Beyond The Classroom
• The Student Should be able to teach a concept
• Assignments should be Personally Relevant
• Authentic Assessment Strategy
  • Class Participation: Successfully Conversant
  • Homework: Engage the concepts
  • Final Project: Editorial Standards
  • Final Examination: Open Book, Research Based
  • Self-Assessment
  • Washington DC Example: Boundary-Making
    • Map: What is the first thing you notice about the DC Boundary
      • Yes, its square
      • Notch Cut out where Arlington lies

      How many things in nature are diamond? Even diamonds are not diamond shaped in nature. Since it is not a natural phenomenon, how did the DC boundary become shaped like a diamond

      The History is that it was designed by Pierre L’Enfant and Benjamin Banneker appointed by George Washington in 1791

      What I want you to take away from this discussion of the Washington DC Boundary and boundary-making in general, is an understanding that the phenomena we cover in Human Geography are not random.

      • A Pool of Human Decisions
        • Individual decision made over Time by a large group: Not Random, but Evolutionary
        • International Level
          • Treaty
          • War
      • Natural Boundaries
        • It was still a decision!

      In this course, we will cover

      • The Types of Questions Geographers Ask
      • The Tools Geographers Use to Answer these Questions

      Lesson Plan

      • Class Discussion: Theorize the boundary of a nation
      • Assignment: Pick a Nation and research how its boundary was formed.

Washington DC Boundary Example

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).

When reflecting upon my career since earning my Master of Science in the Geographic and Cartographic Sciences from George Mason University’s Department of Geography in 1998, there is a commonality in the diverse positions I have held. That is, my favorite role in each position has been one who explains things. Whether it be how to make a map, how to interpret the results of statistical analysis, how to explain a methodology or merely explaining the technical capabilities and limitation of a new technology, in many ways I have always been a teacher. The teaching position at Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) has formalized that role.

With this in mind, I am applying to the Instructional Technology program at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education at the doctoral level. This program fits with my interests and would enable my goals for a career in education.

I am particularly interested in teaching current and future educators the importance of Geography and the technologies that enable geographic inquiry. My strategy is to teach Geography alongside Geographic Information Science (GIS) as an Instructional Technology. Coupled with accessible data via GoogleEarth and open-source content such as Wikipedia, academic Geography lends itself to capitalizing on the principles of Instructional Technology.

Additionally, primary and secondary Teacher education in Geography is a growing need in Virginia. Of all my PVCC students, well over half were establishing teaching credentials. According to them, some programs require at least nine credit hours of Geography. However, there is little access to Geography coursework in Central Virginia. To address this problem, I propose the development of a sequence of online courses.

I am also interested in online tools and thier use in the classroom. Student developed content should have value beyond the requirements for class. In my class, a student’s work is reviewed by the entire class and is accessible to the entire world. They are required they follow a simple editorial process. Credit for each post is awarded on a pass/fail basis, but students can submit the same post as many times as needed to get it right. This encourages students to improve their writing skills or face the consequences of a re-write or no credit. In addition, they can receive credit for submitting content to Wikipedia. This reinforcing the idea that they should view themselves not as students, but as contributors.

In summary, I am entrepreneurial, have many ideas and love teaching. My passion for learning would quickly remediate my lack of formal education coursework. I am also excited in learning formal evaluation techniques for assessing whether students are learning from my teaching strategies and the educational value of my ideas.