Where in the world is.........

April 24, 2009 5:47 PM

Please pass on your favourite online mapping websites, with an emphasis on interactive applications.

I really love maps. I spend a lot of time using a variety of (mainly educational) online maps such as the WWF Wildfinder, NationMaster, Reuters AlertNet, Globalis and the very excellent Geoscience Australia Sentinel Bushfire tool and so on. Maps of War is also an excellent resource in a similar vein, although not as interactive as those previously listed.

Anyway, the internet being what it is, I am sure there are many more fantastic resources online that I have not yet come across and I would love to tap the collective mind of Metafiler users to help me expand my mapping horizons.

Post your recommendations, particularly with an emphasis on non-US maps (global or other regions would be most useful) as these will be used in a non-US school.

Thanks in advance!

posted by micklaw to computers & internet (4 comments total)

Interactive Demographic Map (US, sorry)
Gapminder World
NASA World Wind
Map games (educational?)
WorldMapper
Wikimapia

I really love maps.

I empathize, dude, I really do.
posted by desjardins at 6:32 PM on April 24

The UK's Ordnance Survey. Are they maps, or are they art?

Greenwood's Map of London, 1827.
posted by jet_silver at 9:50 PM on April 24

Have you seen gapminder? It's more charty than mappy, but it's very interactive, global, and extremely well done.
posted by Nice Donkey at 10:29 PM on April 24

Thanks for the tips everyone. desjardins' post reminded me of a couple of resources I used to use while I was teaching (Geography, natch).

Geosense - free city locator game where you play another person live online
Purpose Games - a range of community developed games where you locate a place, person etc.

Gapminder is great - there are some excellent TED resources based around this tool. See also this excellent post on a great Geo Ed blog.

The Ordnance Survey have also done so much for spatial technologies in education.
The GIS Zone is fantastic. Thanks for the reminder jet_silver.

Check them all out if this is your thing!
posted by micklaw at 5:10 AM on April 28