February 22, 2010

The University of Pennsylvania Library now has a subscription to PolicyMap!

Posted under: PolicyMap Messages — Tags: , , , by Maggie M. @ 10:50 am

If you are a current student, faculty member or staff of the University with the credentials to access the Library’s licensed electronic resources, you can now access PolicyMap through the Library’s system. Accessing the site through the library gives you automatic access to all of the data and functionality available through PolicyMap. Create maps and tables, generate reports and conduct analysis that you can pull directly into your University work. Your use of the site through the library is governed by Terms of Use that can be found on the main PolicyMap page within the library system or you can read them here.

If you would like more information about licenses available to libraries, just give us a call or send an email at info@policymap.com or 866-923-MAPS.

The PolicyMap Team

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January 27, 2010

January Updates

Posted under: Monthly Updates — Tags: , , , , , , , by Phil V. @ 12:33 pm
PolicyMap Banner.jpg

PolicyMap is a CNET Webware Winner! | January 2010

Visit our Blog

"This is pretty cool. PolicyMap is a new site by The Reinvestment Fund (TRF), a national not-for-profit organization that finances neighborhood revitalization.

It’s a Google Maps mashup on steroids." – Joel Burslem of Future of Real Estate of Marketing

New for January on PolicyMap! PolicyMap rolls out new features and datasets this month and next. See what is new for January and what to expect in February.

Features and Tools

The Widget: Already we’ve improved our widget – the iframe code that allows you to quickly and easily embed interactive maps on your own website – by giving your visitors the ability to search for a location. This new Search feature allows your visitors to take the map to an address, census tract, zip code, city or county, congressional district, school district, MSA or other local political district quickly – and then overlay data onto the map. Our free widget – the national unemployment map – now comes with this search feature. The code to embed on your website is here and can be found, along with more information, on our blog.

<iframe src="http://www.policymap.com/widget.jsp?userid=892&wid=4&height=500&i=9841103&btd=4&nomenus=true&search=true" width="100%" height="635px" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" vspace="0" hspace="0" name="PolicyMap"></iframe>

As soon as new data is available, we update it for www.policymap.com and for all subscribers’ widgets.

"Smart" Polygons: A number of subscribers send us data related to a particular community, not just an address. These can be investments a foundation is making in a neighborhood or areas being targeted for intervention through the NSP. We load these areas in as "polygons" so the area being served is outlined and clickable (just like an address) revealing what the subscriber is undertaking in that community. These polygons are now "smart," meaning a subscriber can generate a report for that area simply by clicking See Report in the info bubble.

Smart Polygons
SmartPolygons.jpg

Library Licenses: We are about to sign on our first University Library as a subscriber to PolicyMap! This subscription gives all authorized library users unlimited access to PolicyMap for their school and research work. If you know of library that might be interested, just have them contact us at pmap@policymap.com.
Recent data updates include:

Home Sale Statistics: PolicyMap now contains home sale statistics through June 2009 (Qtr 2). This home sale data allows you to drill down into neighborhoods across the country and see how many homes sold and the median sales price for every quarter starting in 2007. Annual home sale data is also available as far back as 2000.

This data is only available to subscribers and can be found under the Real Estate Analysis tab on the Add Data Layer menu.

Monthly Unemployment from the BLS: Check out the latest October and November 2009 employment, unemployment, and labor force data for states, counties, metropolitan areas, and many cities, by place of residence. This data is updated monthly on PolicyMap and is available back through the year 2000.

Users can find this data for free under the Jobs and Economy tab in the Add Data Layer menu.

Coming in February!

You’ll find new ways to create custom regions, gain the ability to see multiple custom regions on a map at the same time (or compare those areas in a single chart), save points that interest you in Analytics and see national numbers in both the tables and maps.

New:  Non-contiguous custom regions Non-Contiguos Custom Region.jpg


New:  Custom Region by Radius Custom Region by Radius.jpg

You’ll also see some new and interesting data in PolicyMap including single-family and multi-family building permits (updated monthly), drive times to work, population per square mile, religious affiliations and presidential voting patterns.
These are features we’ve built and datasets we’ve loaded because of the feedback we receive from you, our users, so please keep the comments coming! We’ve done an increasing number of webinars for funders or trade associations who want to share PolicyMap with grantees or members and we are happy to do them. Contact us at info@policymap.com or 866-923-6277. Be in touch.
Forward this message to a friend | www.policymap.com

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November 24, 2009

Visit PolicyMap at the ALA Midwinter Conference in Boston – Jan 15-19, 2010

Posted under: PolicyMap Messages — Tags: , , , by Phil V. @ 2:23 pm

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PolicyMap at the ALA Midwinter ConferenceJoin us in Boston on Jan 15th – 19th 2010 for the American Library Association Midwinter Conference.  We’ll be there to promote the new Library Site License offered from PolicyMap, giving universities and schools the ability to offer an innovative mapping technology and . As a PolicyMap user in academia, this kind of license can provide your whole school unlimited access to the PolicyMap application for research, papers and presentations directly through your library!

Learn more about how students and universities derive value from PolicyMap, contact us if you’d like to talk more about a license for your university or visit us at booth 1029 in the Boston Convention Center.

“I’ve found that PolicyMap is a very effective tool in transforming students from research consumers to research producers. In the past, my introductory research class students became discouraged before they could produce results. When I asked students to use PolicyMap to tell me some distinctive qualities of their own neighborhood, they were on the site and producing maps and analyses very quickly.”- Mark Stern, Professor of Social Welfare and History Co-Director, Urban Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania

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