PolicyMap News

PolicyMap 2.0 – Analytics: The new Analytics feature is now available to subscribers! This revolutionary neighborhood search tool will allow you to find neighborhoods that match up to 3 criteria on a map and generate a list of resulting places. Use the tool to answer an endless number of questions such as:

“Where are neighborhoods with low educational attainment rates and low household incomes, but close to mass transit?”

“Where are high poverty areas in close proximity to a mass transit stop and in good school districts?”

“Where are older homes in low vacancy areas that might be most in need of weatherization assistance?”

and more!

This feature is a major breakthrough and one we think policymakers and professionals will find invaluable. For those of you involved in deciding where and how to spend unprecedented stimulus dollars or how to allocate limited resources, you now can easily search for, find and then target neighborhoods where intervention could matter most.

Watch a video demo of PolicyMap’s newest feature: Analytics

UPDATE: Voting in the 2009 Webware 100 Awards is now closed! PolicyMap was voted on as a finalist in the Location-based services category.

Last days to vote for PolicyMap for CNET’s “Webware 100 Awards.” We have a shot if you vote TODAY (it just takes a click and no registration required).

CNET, nationally known for its reviews of tech products, evaluated more than 5,000 sites to pick the 100 they believe are the best Web 2.0 applications for 2009. PolicyMap is a finalist for the best GPS and Location-Based Services category!

Please vote now! Just click on the button below to submit your vote (it won’t ask for identifying info). PolicyMap is not yet a year old but has a shot if you vote and you share this with friends, post this to Facebook, Twitter about it, or blog about it.

Winners will be announced in May. We’ll keep you posted!

The PolicyMap Team

The Federal Government is hosting an online conversation starting Monday, April 27^th to hear from the public, consumers, grantees and vendors about how technology can and should be used to make recovery efforts transparent.

“What ideas, tools, and approaches can make Recovery.gov a place where all citizens can transparently monitor the expenditure and use of recovery funds?”

We’re planning to log-on as we believe online mapping is essential to making the public aware of where, how and for what purpose stimulus dollars are being spent in our states, cities and neighborhoods — next door or down the street.

If you are interested in joining the conversation, check out the Recovery website at www.recovery.gov for more information as it becomes available. Or read more here

We’re taking a stab at mapping the stimulus transportation investments in the MidAtlantic states and will have something up on PolicyMap for you to check out in the coming weeks.  We’ll keep you posted.

Maggie McCullough, Director of PolicyMap

UPDATE: Voting in the 2009 Webware 100 Awards is now closed! PolicyMap was voted on as a finalist in the Location-based services category.

Competition begins now for CNET’s “Webware 100 Awards” and PolicyMap needs your vote!

CNET, nationally known for its reviews of tech products, evaluated more than 5,000 sites to pick the 300 they believed are the best Web 2.0 applications for 2009. PolicyMap is one of the finalists and has been nominated for the best GPS and Location-Based Services category! And we aren’t even a year old.

User voting for the “Webware 100″ starts now! Just click on the button below to submit your vote. Help us get out the vote by sharing this with your friends, posting this to Facebook, Twittering about it, or blogging about it.

Winners will be announced in May.

We’ll keep you posted!
The PolicyMap Team

A PolicyMap trial gives you unprecedented access to over 10,000 indicators related to housing, education, mortgage originations, energy, demographics, jobs and more. PolicyMap is fast, efficient and captures data in visually powerful ways through custom maps, tables and reports. Here are some datasets you’ll be able to access and key tools you’ll gain as a subscriber:

• Boxwood Means home sale data from 2009 with historic data back to 2007
• Demographic estimates and projections from Claritas for 2009 and 2014
• Primary and secondary school performance data for schools and school districts from GreatSchools for 2004 through 2009
• Public Transit Rails Lines from Urban Mapping
• Nonprofit locations from the Urban Institute
• Data rich reports for any city, zip code, district, custom region or radius
• Custom regions or boundaries you draw for maps or reporting
• Custom cut points for data ranges on the maps

If you previously have gone through a trial and would like a second look, please contact us at info@policymap.com. Previous or existing subscriber that would like more information about PolicyMap, please contact Phil Vu at phil.vu@policymap.com or 215-574-5896.

Watch the Video

By Linsey Davis

WASHINGTON — The number of American workers drawing state unemployment benefits hit another record high this month. If you’re one of them, you’re probably wondering what you need to do to track down a job.

Location, location, location – that mantra doesn’t just apply to real estate. Turns out the recession can discriminate based on where you live.

California, Florida, and Nevada — are all feeling the pinch of foreclosures. The financial sector is taking its toll on New York and Chicago. While the auto industry has positioned the Great Lakes states smack dab in between a rock and a hard place due to slumping manufacturing jobs.

“Sectors that are still hiring are again: government, education and health,” said Jeremy Nowak, CEO, Reinvestment Fund and Policy Map.com.

University towns top the rankings of best places to live during a downturn.

“State college PA, healthy town, right? Penn State University is the main employer there , it’s not going away anywhere, any time soon. Think about college towns that are also state capitals, right? Madison, Wisconsin; Austin, Texas,” said Nowak.

Government towns also tend to be relatively stable. Even when budgets are slashed, cities don’t tend to go out of business.

“I would say Washington, DC, obviously, federal government, but also suburbs, right outside of Washington, DC,” said Nowak.

While the rest of country is in significant decline, Texas is described as being flat.

“Good education and medical sector and also energy sector that still relatively healthy,” said Nowak.

But should you pack up the U-haul for a job?

“The household has to make a decision, based on their own self-interest, and what they think the best opportunity is, for them,” said Nowak.

In that case, Arlington, Virginia, Washington DC, and Durham, North Carolina may all be good places to call home at least in a recession.

This article by Lindsey Davis aired on 94 ABC News affiliates on friday March 19th, 2009.

PolicyMap is a new website that allows visitors to search for federally-funded organizations in their area. It also allows people to get basic statistics, such as demographic, educational, and economic information. The interactive map allows you to easily focus in on areas of interest. Use the tabs at the top to choose what type of information you want to see.

Also note: when you are looking at the statistical map, the source of the data (i.e., United States Census Bureau) is listed on the left-hand side of the screen.

Click here to read this article by the Grafton Library which appeared on Your Dose of MSG on March 16, 2009.

We show how you can start, run and grow your business for, you guessed it, free.

By Lindsay Holloway

Web design software: free
Online marketing campaign: free
Long-Distance calling: free
Running your small business for next to nothing: priceless.

Over the decades–heck, even centuries–philosophers, politicians, tycoons and other leaders have insisted that you can’t get something for nothing: “There’s no such thing as a free ride,” or “Nothing in life is free.” Well-known economist Milton Friedman once said, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Even Entrepreneur columnist Robert Kiyosaki’s rich dad told him the same thing.

But in our evolving Web 2.0 world and with Google leading the way, the rules have changed: You can get something for nothing–and for entrepreneurs, that something can have a significant impact on their businesses. Today, the web is full of free tools to help entrepreneurs start, run and grow their businesses for next to nothing. It’ll just cost you some time and an internet connection.

Gary Vaynerchuk, co-founder of Wine Library, has been taking advantage of free business tools for nearly three years to grow his 11-year-old wine retail business. Using a combination of web-based tools, such as social networking, blogging and video, he’s taken his company to annual sales of $50 million. His success with these tools has even landed him two book deals and regular speaking engagements across the country. “Building brand equity and connecting with your consumers through these social tools has a global impact on your business and your brand,” says Vaynerchuk, 33, who launched Wine Library with his father, Sasha, 65.Springfield, New Jersey-based Wine Library uses Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to notify its “friends” about daily specials, something it used to do solely through e-mail. Its Facebook presence includes a custom app called Ask Gary, where people can ask questions about wine. And the company keeps a regular video blog, Wine Library TV. “Viral aspects of your message explode once you use these tools,” says Vaynerchuk. “When I think about how much brand equity I have with Wine Library TV and how quickly it happened for [so little cost], the fact that I spent millions of dollars building the brand prior to using these tools makes me want to throw up.”

[READ MORE]

Click Here to read the full article.
This article by Lindsay Holloway appeared in Entrepreneur Magazine on January 2009.