PolicyMap News

Although the rust belt continues to lead the country in cities with high unemployment, when looking at larger metropolitan areas, the south and southwest lead the country. The CBSA with the highest unemployment rate is the El Centro, California Metropolitan Statistical Area, at 28.7%, three times the current national average. However, this statistic is potentially deceiving – as this article in The Economist explains, the El Centro area was indeed hit hard by the housing bust, but the unemployment numbers are inflated by the number of residents who work in Mexico, and green-card-carrying Mexicans that work in Imperial County.

Metro Areas with the Highest Unemployment Rates in August 2009

	County, State, MSA Type	Unemployment Rate in August 2009 (Preliminary)
	El Centro, CA, Metropolitan Statistical Area	28.7%
	Yuma, AZ, Metropolitan Statistical Area	26.1%
	Chester, SC, Micropolitan Statistical Area	21.3%
	Selma, AL, Micropolitan Statistical Area	21.3%
	Union, SC, Micropolitan Statistical Area	20.8%
	Bennettsville, SC, Micropolitan Statistical Area	20.4%
	Valley, AL, Micropolitan Statistical Area	18.9%
	West Point, MS, Micropolitan Statistical Area	18.4%
	Brownsville, TN, Micropolitan Statistical Area	18.3%
	Lancaster, SC, Micropolitan Statistical Area	18.2%

Do you want to learn more about this dataset or other features on PolicyMap? Join our free weekly trainings (Click Here) or send your questions to pmap@policymap.com.

Seth at Computerworld has noticed Apple’s purchase of Placebase, the former mapping service company that GigaOm was praising last year. Of course, this begs the question: Will Apple be rolling their own maps?

As Gizmodo says, Apple uses the technology they buy (Coverflow, for example). We were unfamiliar with the service, but GigaOm describes some sweet features like PushPin, which provided developers with an API that could layer commercial information, crime data, etc. on a map. For a nice example of PushPin at work, check out PolicyMap.

Now for the baseless assumptions. Google maps appear in a number of Apple products, like the iPhone, iPhoto and iWeb. Perhaps Apple plans to stuff their own solutions into those slots. Or perhaps they’re after a certain technology from Placebase and not the whole enchilada.

Note that the purchase went down back in July. Seth has also discovered that PlaceBase’s founder and former CEO, Jaron Waldman, is now a part of Apple’s "Geo Team," which sounds like theJustice League but with Al Gore in charge.

Click here to read this article by Dave Caolo on TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) on Thursday, October 1st, 2009.

The recent acquisition of a small mapping service by Apple in July left observers speculating about different things, from Apple trying to replace Google Maps on the iPhone to the once-friendly companies moving to fierce competition.

In July, Apple acquired Los Angeles-based Placebasee, which is a small deal. Placebase offers an API which allows developers to create customized features and functions not available on Google Maps.

Placebase technology has been used in a well-known product PolicyMap. Using PolicyMap you can explore geographic information through maps, tables and reports. Many organizations including The Washington Post and Wachovia are using PolicyMap.

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Written on October 01, 2009 by Darrell Etherington

Google and Apple’s very public, very messy ongoing lover’s spat is obviously not doing either company many favors in the media. Apple looks to be taking steps to ensure that should it need to, it can go without the do-everything leading Internet search provider.

To that end, it’s finally been confirmed this week by ComputerWorld that Apple did indeed acquire Google Maps competitor Placebase in July of this year. Former Placebase CEO Jaron Waldman is now part of the “Geo Team” at Apple, which suggests that the company was acquired so that Cupertino could work on its own, in-house Google Maps alternative.

Our own sister site GigaOM ran a profile of Placebase back in May 2008. It detailed the way in which Placebase’s PushPin product was able to stay afloat and compete with Google Maps, which offered its services completely free of charge. Placebase offered white label solutions for a price.

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Ever since it came out that Apple purchased a mapping service three months ago, there has been increasing speculation about whether or not Apple will replace Google Maps on the iPhone with their own maps and whether the relationship between Apple and Google is deteriorating.

The new application PolicyMap was the product of Los Angeles based Placebase, which Apple acquired in July. The PolicyMap application can be customised and has certain features that the current Google Maps does not so in a way it would some sense to use that instead.

Or, is Apple making sure they have a back up strategy for maps should they and Google ultimately go their separate ways?

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Apple quietly acquired a mapping firm called Placebase in early July. Watchers say that Apple needs its own mapping service in order to reduce its dependency on Google Maps, but there’s more to it than meets the eye.

The credit for this one goes to Seth Weintraub, a Computerworld blogger who discovered the following tweet by Fred Lalonde dated back to July 7:

Apple bought PlaceBase – all hush hush. Pushpin site taken offline. Hyperlocal iPhone?

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At this week’s PA Chapter of the American Planning Association’s Annual Conference, we presented our approach of using GIS to target funds through HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP).  Ira Goldstein, Director of Policy and Information Services, discussed his work with communities across the country in NSP activities.  Elizabeth Nash, of PolicyMap, demonstrated how to use PolicyMap’s Analytics tool to identify neighborhoods for directing NSP funds to achieve additional policy objectives.

Here is our presentation:

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Maggie McCullough is staffing the PolicyMap booth (#28) at the National Conference of State Housing Finance Agencies conference in San Antonio this week. 11 Housing Finance Agencies now subscribe to PolicyMap and we are always excited to hear about how they are using the application and the kinds of data they need for their work. Want to share what your are doing with PolicyMap or what else you need it do? Let us know by sending your feedback to info@policymap.com.

For the lovers of the iPhone, it’s like daddy and mommy are getting a divorce. If that wasn’t the case–if Apple and Google weren’t calling it quits–why would Apple buy a mapping company?

Steve, tell us it isn’t so!

The tight integration between the iPhone and Google, especially its mapping products, is a big part of why people love their iPhones. Hearing the Apple has bought its own mapping company, Placebase, is unsettling.

The deal, which supposedly happened in July, added talent to a supposed “Geo” unit inside Apple. Nothing wrong with that, but before Apple starts messing with Google Maps on iPhones, it needs to think very seriously about the consequences.

If a new Apple mapping product is to replace Google Maps, it needs to be done by offering customers a choice of mapping providers. If Apple is good enough, people will switch and eventually the rest can be moved over by force, if necessary. But, only after Apple Maps does everything that Google Maps does–and then some.

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