The FCC and FortiusOne partnered to create IssueMap, an online mapping site that allows citizens to quickly map data by simply inputting tabular data. While the site doesn’t directly correlate to any FCC directives, it does illustrate the government’s wish to be able to quickly and simply visualize and add context to data through a simple, intuitive, and fast Web interface.
This effort was spurred by the Open Government Directive, a memo signed by President Obama in January of 2009, that encouraged more transparency, participation and collaboration through open government. The directive created a surge of freely available tabular government data, but not many easy means to process, analyze and visualize this data. The new IssueMap online mapping site fills that need with a view toward making these tools accessible to non-technical users.
Here’s a quick video that demonstrates how simple this is.
