American-Iranian Journalist

Things are looking up

It seems that President Obama has decided to drop Bush's precondition that the Iranians stop processing nuclear fuel before negotiations can begin. This is an important step towards a more stable Middle East. But, I think that any negotiations before Ahmadinejad is gone from office would only strengthen the hardliners position. If Obama negotiates with Iran while the hardliners are still in control it may be taken as a victory for the hardliners and their policies and give them an advantage in the upcoming elections. On the other hand, if negotiations take place with Ahmadinejad still in power there might be a reason for Iranians to be less wary of U.S. imperialism and would not feel the need to elect such aggressive leaders again. If that were to happen the reformers would be in a better position. In any case, it is good to know that the situation is improving and that there most likely will be negotiations in the near future.

Even more on maps

My last two posts were about a map website that allows users to publish their data on thematic
maps. The website was www.up2maps.net. I would like to throw in a few more details on this
interesting web tool. This site was created by Mapgenia, a company headquartered in Barcelona, Spain. Mapgenia believes that software products like this map website will become the main trend in the software industry. They refer to what they call SaaS or "Software as a Service", which basically means that all software in the future will be subscribed to in by the users and accessed through their web browsers, thereby eliminating the physical production and distribution of the software. You can already see this trend in action through a variety of software companies but Mapgenia believes it is only a matter of time before all physical software disappears.

The map website version currently available is a beta version so the company is still adding features and capabilities to it. There are a couple of different ways to add your data to the your map. First, you can simply fill in the values for the various Continents/States/Provinces. Second, if you already have your data in an excel sheet with the proper labels you can simply upload it and the map will be filled out for you. If you need specific directions on doing that there is a tutorial on the website with step-by-step instructions. The other way of filling out your map is through colors. By selecting and labeling the various colors you can paint your map to represent your data. For instance, countries with population growth rates above 1.00 are red, below 1.00 yellow, and those with a negative growth rate green, the combinations are endless depending on your data and how you decide to categorize it.

Another interesting feature is that you are able to combine maps and the various reports to create a super map. If you have created a map, you just need to find another map on the same scale (such as global, continental, by state etc...) you can then choose the option of merging a report from another map onto your map. This is a great way to quickly and easily add a lot of information onto your map. Just be sure to check the sources of the other map to make sure your data is accurate. I should also mention that you can create an unlimited number of reports for each map you create. The different reports will be included on the sidebar and to swithch back and forth between them all you have to do is click. The only thing stopping you from only ever making one map is the fact that once you choose the scale of the map to make a report for, you cannot make other reports on different scales. For example, if you start making a global scale map, all the reports on this map must be on the global scale, you cannot switch to continental or state level scales to add reports at those levels.

Other interesting features include being able to format the font and style of the various labels on the map. It also gives you the option to choose different symbols for your territory weight values such as $,%, €, depending on the type of value you want to add to the areas. There is also a treemap which allows you to view your data in another visual configuration once your done filling it out. You can switch back and forth between the treemap and the normal map easily and quickly.

There seems to be quite a few maps already created although I am not sure exaclty how popular the site is. But new maps are appearing quite frequently so I think that there has to be a moderately large number of people using it. The last upgrade added by Mapgenia was in March 2009 and before that it was about 4-5 times a month, so they seem to be pretty active in developing content for it. For students and others needing to create or find reports on global, state, and provincial statitics this is a pretty handy tool to have. I would highly reccomend using it at least once, if only to explore the interesting and informative maps other users have already created.

More on maps

I wanted to write a bit more on www.up2maps.net and talk a bit more about how you can use the different features to create a very detailed and informative map. I got an idea for a future map project which would cover nuclear weapons and nonproliferation. My map would have a couple of different layers. First, there would be the global view with all the states divided up and colored coded nicely to different categories depending on whether they 1.(the red states) currently have nuclear weapons, 2.(the orange states) do not have nuclear weapons but are suspected of attemtping to acquire nuclear weapons, or 3.(the green states) do not have nuclear weapons and are not suspected of attempting to acquire them. There would also be a few additional dimensions to the global view of my map with another categorization of states based on whether they are a member of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty or not. There would also be a categorization of states who have nuclear energy reactors, those developing nuclear energy reactors, and those without nuclear energy reactors.

Once the global portion is completed I would start to focus on individual states and I would have a few different layers to add to each individual state map. Including the locations of all known nuclear weapons storage factilities and all nuclear reactors and the locations of suspected nuclear sites.

There are a number of different websites that can be accessed to get all of the data needed to complete a map report I will list a few here that have a lot of information on various topics.

1. CIA World Factbook
2. IAEA website (for those interested in nuclear related issues)
3. The United Nations (they have many maps of their own to glean data from)
4. U.S. Census website

There are many different ways to use up2maps.net to create map reports for your own use, for presentations, or to share with others. These maps might be useful to people in the fields of International Relations, Foreign Policy, Global Business, and many more. I hope this post gave you an idea of the projects that are possible using this website.

Global Incident Map

I was searching for a really cool map website that allows you to create your own maps and input your own reports for various locations on it. I found one http://www.up2maps.net, but before I get to that, I found another mapsite that is equally interesting. It's called the Global Incident Map. This global map displays all acts of terrorism and other suspicious events. The map displays different symbols for different types of events such as kidnappings, bombings, chemical/biological, atomic, and pretty much any other type of terrorist attack that exists. When you click on an incident symbol it will give you the information/press report on that event. You can view this map for free, but unfortunately in order to be able to click on the symbols and get the information on the attack you have to pay for it. Not only that but the free version is only updated every 24-48 hours. For instant real-time updates you have to pay $10/month or $99/year. Still the free map has its uses because once you see which country an event has occurred in, you can easily search the web yourself for the story on it. This site not only has terrorism maps, but it also has other maps, which include a Presidential Threat Map, Gang Activity Map, Forest Fires Map, HAZMAT Situations Map, and an Amber-Alert Map. These maps are all updated in real-time and they are free. These maps are all pretty interesting to look at and I hope the website will expand its map selection even more in the future.

The Terrorism Map is useful because you can easily see the areas of the globe that are currently experiencing the most turmoil. The acts of terrorism indicate political unrest that can boil over into full-blown war if it is not present already. The map can remind us that along with the benefits of globalization (finance, trade, communication etc...) come the hazards (global terrorism, disease, pollution etc...). Terrorists can now operate on a global scale and project their message into the global community via technology. The media can now instantly report on an act of terrorism in Iraq and it influences the opinions and actions of people in the U.S.. This serves as a reminder that we are now living in a time that has never existed before for mankind. There are new challenges that must be faced and the international community must work together towards managing the effects of globalization.

The other website I found http://www.up2maps.net, has some really cool features on it. First of all, it is a public website which you can join for free. I began my exploration by checking out maps that other users made. Let me just say that there are a host of maps which all contain various reports on a large variety of topics. I am going to list a few here that I found to be interesting. The first one is a map of World Internet Users for 2009. The next, is a List of Countries by Number of Total Troops for 2006. Finally, the Population Growth Rate for 2008. All of these maps contain links to the websites where their data is taken from or information on their sources. All of the maps are very good quality and fun to look at because it's very easy to color code the different countries and measure their attributes on different scales. For example, take a look at the World Internet Users map. It is so easy to see what is known in IR as the centre-periphery formation, just look at the green developed countries and the red underdeveloped countries. Once again these maps highlight the challenges that this new era of globalization brings. Just how are countries supposed to work together when many of them are poor and lacking modern technologies? Just how are the poor states going to follow the policies of international organizations that are clearly biased in favor of the rich states? Well, I don't know. But, if you wanted to learn more about the world, this map website would be an excellent research tool to have. If there is a pressing topic that you would like to make a report on such as differences in public education spending by country you could easily use this website to do so.