<http://www.socialexplorer.com/support/WhatIsSocialExplorer.pdf>
The service is free, and we hope it will be used by researchers, teachers and others. We have updated the software and hardware, and it now run from a server cluster. It does not require registration.
Go to the website, go to the maps page and check it out!!
Andrew A. Beveridge Professor of Sociology Queens College and Graduate Center CUNY Office: 718-997-2837 Home: 914-337-6237 Email: andy at troll.soc.qc.edu Suite 233 Powdermaker Hall 65-30 Kissena Blvd Flushing, NY 11367-1597 <http://www.socialexplorer.com>
What is Social Explorer? <http://www.socialexplorer.com>
Social Explorer provides demographic information in an easily understood format: data maps. We have created hundreds of interactive data maps of the United States. Using them you may:
. Visually analyze and understand the demography of the U.S. . Explore your own neighborhood . Learn about the people living around you or anywhere in the United States
Social Explorer allows anyone using the WEB to create thematic maps (data maps) using several hundred variables from the 2000 Census, plus a limited selection from earlier censuses. Soon data back to 1910, where available will be added for Census Tracts, and data back to 1790 for counties. These maps are interactive, and one can identify the streets in the area. There is a "find" tool to allow you to find specific locations, including addresses. You can pan and zoom, look at specific areas, change the variables you are mapping and the like.
Using Social Explorer one also can create reports for any area or areas you chose from a wide array of variables. These reports also give you the context of your selected area including the United States, the state or states, and the county or counties your for your area. The report is then downloadable to EXCEL or it can be printed along with a map that identifies the selected area. We welcome your input.
Social Explorer also makes it possible to create or view slideshows of the maps that you have created. This is especially useful to view change over time, or to zoom in to a given area from a larger area. Soon registered users will be able to store and reuse their own slide shows, and export them as animated GIFs to their own software.
There is also a version that will work on a computer workstation and is locally installable which we plan to distribute. Social Explorer is still in beta release, and we are working to improve it. Major support for Social Explorer was provided by the National Science Foundation and the New York Times.
What People Are Saying About Social Explorer
World Changing "...they've done a fantastically thorough job. You can zoom all the way from the national level to ... the street you live on, and see all sorts of different data, from income to industry to gender to ethnicity to means of commuting to family structure. Want a map showing percent of foreign-born nationals who immigrated in the last five years? It's there. Want a map showing percentage of self-employed males? It's there. Percentage of housing where rent is between $600 - $800 per month or where heat is provided by solar power? It's there. Populations of Estonian ancestry? It's there."
O'Reilly Radar "The Social Explorer gives a map interface to the 2000 census data. It's beautiful and really interesting. . . When you chart the changing density of blacks and whites in NYC, you get a feel for the sudden post-war boom in projects in Queens and Kings."
Ishbadiddle "Another neat mapping tool . . . is the interactive 2000 Census Map over at Social Explorer. . . Now sure, you can look at maps of boring things like ancestry, education, immigration, etc., and make your fancy reports and such. But the most interesting thing about the map: it's a National Gaydar System. That's right, you can find out just where the (self-reported) gays and lesbians are, at least the ones in couples.
The Fifth Column "And you don't even have to know GIS to play with it, which is a bonus for those of us who don't even know what GIS stands for other than it makes all kinds of information maps impossible to understand."
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