* tmc * in patientia vestra habetis animam vestram * tmc *

Dear Reader,

The ASIAN STUDIES WWW MONITOR
(including all its subsidiary (and/or sister) pages on "coombs.anu.edu.au" server) has permanently ceased its publishing operations on Friday 21st January 2011.

All of the online resources reported here have been thoroughly checked at the time of their listing. However, it is possible that, with the with the passage of time, many of the originally reported materials might have been removed from the Internet, or changed their online address, or varied the scope and quality of their contents.

Fortunately, in several cases it is possible to access many of the older versions of the resources listed in the MONITOR. This can be easily done via the free services of the "The Internet Archive" http://web.archive.org/, a remarkable brainchild of Brewster Kahle, San Francisco, CA.

- with warm regards -

Editor, Dr T. Matthew Ciolek.

Canberra, 21 January 2011.


21 September 2006

Worldmapper [equal area cartograms for approx. 200 global variables]

http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/

5star
20 Sep 2006

The Social and Spatial Inequalities Research Group (SASI), Geography Department, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

Supplied note:
"What if there were maps that showed information about countries in terms other than land mass? 'Worldmapper' [at the URL below] does just that. It has cartograms, or specialized maps, that re-size countries according to variables like population, GDP, number of passenger cars, etc. Thus, China is larger than the United States on a map that shows exports of toys, but smaller on one that shows toy imports. There are 194 of these maps, with more being added all the time, and they give a fascinating visual representation of country rankings in everything from alcohol & cigarette imports, to meat exports, to container ports, to mopeds & motorcycles, to tourist destinations. - fita."

Self-description:
"Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest. [...]

Cartograms - The maps presented on this website are equal area cartograms, otherwise known as density-equalising maps. The cartogram re-sizes each territory according to the variable being mapped. [...]

Colours and regions - The colours used on the maps group the territories into 12 geographical regions, and allow for an easier visual comparison between the maps than would otherwise be possible. The shading of each territory within a region is consistent throughout all of the maps. You can view a labelled territory map with the territories labelled, and also a labelled regions map . [...]

Data files - When you choose a map to view, there are links at the bottom to download a data file giving the values used for all 200 territories, a graph (usually a cumulative frequency one) of the data, and a top 10 or 20 table (and the original data used, and its source). There is also a data sources page giving details of the websites [A. United Nations Environment Programme; B. World Bank; C. United Nations Development Programme; D. Central Intelligence Agency; E. World Health Organisation; F. Angus Maddison's data; G. United Nations Population Division; H. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; I. United Nations Fund for Children (UNICEF) Innocenti Research Centre; J. Other sources - ed.] where much of the data has been obtained from."

Site contents:
[in Sep 2006 there were 194 maps covering the following range of caterories and themes:] * Basic (Land Area ,Total Population, Total Births, Births Attended, Total Children, Total Elderly, Population Year 1, Population Year 1500, Population Year 1900, Population Year 1960, Population Year 2050, Population Year 2300); * Movement; * Transport; * Food; * Goods; * Manufacturers; * Services; * Resources; * Fuel; * Production; * Work; * Income; * Wealth; * Poverty; * Housing; * Education; * Health; * Disease; * Disaster; * Death; * Destruction; * Violence; * Pollution; * Depletion; * Communication; * Exploitation; * Action.

URL http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/

Internet Archive (web.archive.org)
[the site was not archived at the time of this abstract - ed.]

Link reported by:
FITA's (Federation of International Trade Associations) Really Useful Sites Newsletter (newsletter--at--fita.org)

* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]:
Study
* Publisher [academic - business - govt. - library/museum - NGO - other]:
Academic
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]:
Essential
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000
- under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: over 3000 [in fact over 5000]

Please note that the above details were correct on the day of their publication. To suggest an update, please email the site's editor at tmciolek@ciolek.com