The International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) has launched the International Year of the Reef  campaign  to raise awareness about the importance of coral reefs and the threats to these reefs. Their website provides a lot of information about coral reefs, including some basics about corals, as well as a pretty rich list of resources to help you learn more about coral reefs.

"Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest. There are now nearly 600 maps". The maps are cartograms. A cartogram is a map where the land area reflects some other theme (population, CO2 emissions etc). These maps are pretty basics, but also allows you to view certain concepts easily.  Take a  look through the  Map Categories to get an idea of what themes are mapped. All maps also have associated datafiles in excell format.

"The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is pursuing an aggressive schedule to provide users with electronic access to any Landsat scene held in the USGS-managed national archive of global scenes dating back to Landsat 1, which was launched in 1972, by February 2009. Currently, newly acquired Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data covering North America and Africa is already distributed by the USGS over the Internet at no charge, with plans for the full archive of historic Landsat 7 ETM+ data to be available for selection and downloading by the end of September 2008. Data from Landsat 1-5 will become available by February 2009.

Looking for Free data to download that goes beyond the basics? Then this is the place for you. The Free GIS Data & Imagery GeoBlog is the place for you. I think the tips on where to find imagery are the best.

The 15th Annual South Florida GIS Expo in Palm Beach County is a great opportunity to learn more about GIS and also provides an opportunity to present. This event is FREE, and its always a good time. Check out the flyer and register at www.gisexpo.org.

Yesterday's SEFLIN Future of Libraries Conference was great. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet with regional librarians and exchange ideas. I had the pleasure of presenting and sharing my experiences with GIS. I think that even though libraries may not provide GIS services, just knowing that its out there and knowing what it can be used for is important.

Check out the presentation.

From our friends at Harvard, this website's purpose is to serve as a geospatial data portal that will provide easy and free access to data concerning the earthquake that struck Sichuan, China on May 12 2008.

Britain has signed an agreement to make data produced by government agencies more freely available. "The commitment to make public sector information free, or charge no more than the marginal cost of maintaining and distributing the extra copy, appears in the Seoul declaration for the future of the internet economy, signed in the South Korean capital last week. The UK was one of nearly 40 countries to endorse the declaration, drawn up by the OECD club of developed nations."

As you may already know, it is typically very difficult to find international data, specifically from government agencies within a partifular foreign nation. This increased access to data will help many researchers in a large number of fields obtain data easily and freely (or for a minimal fee). I think we in this country take our access to data from government agencies for granted (I know, I know there is still plenty we DON'T have acc ... Read More »

IPUMS-International has added 32 new sets. The data release includes 9 new countries -- Austria, Canada, Egypt, Ghana, Iraq, Malaysia, Netherlands, Panama, and United Kingdom -- as well as additional samples for China, Colombia, Mexico, United States, and Venezuela. The data series now contains 263 million person records from 111 censuses in 35 countries. Learn more about the data released.