NeoGeography in New Orleans

Tulane School of Architecture, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Andrew Turner (High Earth Orbit) is a neogeographer, a thoroughly modern mapmaker. His products include Mapufacture, recently acquired by Fortius One, and PocketMaps, paper maps of dynamic data. He is the Chief Technological Officer for the GeoCommons which integrates public data into publicly accessible and modifiable map formats. Maps for the rest of us.

I had the pleasure of working with Andrew on the NetSquared mashup challenge in May. Together with Alan Gutierrez, we presented on the active and ongoing process of Citizen Monitoring of the Recovery. See Squanderedheritage. We discussed ways that extraordinary citizens had responded to this profound need for information as their neighborhoods were actively altered in the aftermath of the storm. Documenting the city and its myriad conditions. Then uploading those images to flickr and picasa. Accessing public information and creating google maps of demolitions. Trying to link the photos and the maps to tell our stories.

My Regional Modernism class was inspired by this activity to create our own maps of modernist sites. This facilitated the documentation of these buildings which are vanishing from the urban fabric at rapid pace. The work continues. Thanks to a NetSquared grant, we are able to bring Andrew Turner to New Orleans for these special events. He is eager to meet up and help us determine the right tools for our mapping needs. Two events are scheduled this week. Free and open to the public.

Net2NO meetup #3:
NeoGeography and the Geospatial Web experience
Tuesday 11.11.08
6 pm
in the back room@ the Bridge Lounge
1201 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA
please rsvp here

and

Practical NeoGeography: Integrating GIS in the classroom and the field
Wednesday 11.12.08
noon
Tulane School of Architecture Richardson Memorial 204
The St. Charles Avenue streetcar stops in front of Tulane. The Richardson Memorial Building is the second rusticated stone building back from the front circle.