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New Mapping Service and Data Warehouse Serves New York Metropolitan Region By Benjamin Miller President CommunityCartography, Inc. Because most of the information streams that power our information society have a geographic component, the ability to visualize on a map how those streams flow together can help almost any organization function more effectively and productively. A geographic information system (GIS) that links various kinds of data to geographic features such as street addresses, tax lots, census tracts, or legislative districts, can aid in analyzing problems, evaluating options, and communicating solutions. This is true whether the issue is social services, housing, education, public safety, or economic development -- and whether the function is to plan, implement, administer, or monitor. Why CommunityCartography? While Fortune 500 companies routinely use geographic information systems to select sites, target markets, or manage real estate, most community organizations that could benefit from geographic analyses of their own neighborhoods do not have access to the hardware, software, personnel, or data GIS requires. CommunityCartography was created to meet this need -- to provide Community Boards, elected officials, government agencies, nonprofits, academic institutions, and others with affordable mapping services. CommunityCartography has created a warehouse of regularly updated, ready-to-use data on topics ranging from the capacities of community facilities to locations of potholes. Democratic Data No matter what information an organization might need, chances are the data exists somewhere. But that doesn't mean that finding or using this data is easy. First it must be located; weeks can be spent tracking down, ordering, and acquiring the needed files. Then the data has to be put into a computer. The data that arrives from New York City agencies is likely to arrive as a ten-inch reel of mainframe tape in EBCDIC packed-decimal format. Even a group's own data may exist only on paper, or may be stored in an electronic format, such as text, that isn't ready to be mapped. CommunityCartography takes such data, formats it so it's ready for use on a PC, links it to a map so it can be integrated with other data sets, and keeps it up-to-date. "À la Carte, Prix Fixe, or Custom Catering" For those who have their own GIS capabilities, CommunityCartography provides the data they need in order to catch their own fish. For many organizations, it may be more cost-effective to have someone else put the maps directly on their plates. CommunityCartography also offers a subscription service specifically for Community Boards, which provides year-round services on an as-needed basis; subscription packages designed for other types of organizations are being developed. And for those who want their functions catered, CommunityCartography can serve interactive maps to an organization's clients on that organization's own Web site. Contact CommunityCartography, Inc. by telephone at (877) MakeMap or e-mail info@ComCarto.com. See them on the Web at http://www.ComCarto.com. Free Interactive Maps of New York City As a public service, a map of every tax lot in New York City is now available free to anyone with a Web browser. By visiting http://www.ComCarto.com you can see and identify any of the 930,000+ tax lots in the city. The site also shows you Community Boards, School Districts, as well as City Council, State Assembly, State Senate, and Congressional districts, providing names, addresses and phone numbers for each. |
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